Are Malls Going Extinct?

Imagine this:

You are with your mom and you both decide to go to the mall just to get out of the house. You hit all your usual stores with one left, ThinkGeek. As you walk in, someone tells you that everything is 75% off. You end up getting 2 shirts, an enamel pin, and a nanoblock set for $21.39. The receipt you get says you saved $59.95. If you had bought everything at full price, your total would have been $81.34. Why the big sale? Because that particular ThinkGeek is closing.

For malls like the Bloomington College Mall, this is not out of the ordinary. ThinkGeek is just one of the many stores forced to close.

The answer to why malls are becoming a lot less populated is simple: online shopping. Between 2011 and 2012, brick and mortar stores only grew by 0.1% nationwide. 

With online shopping becoming more popular, malls all across America are shutting down; some are calling this the “Retail Apocalypse”.

As convenience draws more people to the online shopping realm, malls seem to be becoming a thing of the past. While the future of brick and mortar stores may be dim, there does still seem to be plenty for younger people to do. Looking at the evidence though, this does appear to be the end of an era.