Wal Mart is a place you have to go, not enjoy going to. 20 years ago, teenagers loved the mall - but they were anchored not just by the kids who wanted to be there, but by the adults who needed to go there. The age of big-box-budget stores and delivery services for everything killed malls which had previously killed main streets. Toy sto…
Wal Mart is a place you have to go, not enjoy going to. 20 years ago, teenagers loved the mall - but they were anchored not just by the kids who wanted to be there, but by the adults who needed to go there. The age of big-box-budget stores and delivery services for everything killed malls which had previously killed main streets. Toy stores? Book stores? Hobby stores? Comic stores? Arcades? I'm sure you can find some, but it's so much easier to get all of that delivered to you, and it's much harder to get out of your neighborhood and go anywhere because of massive arterials. Main streets bounced back for bars and restaurants, and to some extent they are more convenient to go to when you want to go out than going to the mall. The best malls are the ones that connect to main streets.
So I don't think it's sameness that bothers us. I think it's a sense of inviting-ness. People don't stop downtown for a bite - they go out of their way to go there. People dont stop into Costco, they make it a trip. But main streets are something you can both sorta stop by in your neighborhood, and are a place you go out of your way to go to. That's my hypothesis for small town looks - they're inviting in a way that no other retail is, even if they mostly just give you bars and restaurants.
Wal Mart is a place you have to go, not enjoy going to. 20 years ago, teenagers loved the mall - but they were anchored not just by the kids who wanted to be there, but by the adults who needed to go there. The age of big-box-budget stores and delivery services for everything killed malls which had previously killed main streets. Toy stores? Book stores? Hobby stores? Comic stores? Arcades? I'm sure you can find some, but it's so much easier to get all of that delivered to you, and it's much harder to get out of your neighborhood and go anywhere because of massive arterials. Main streets bounced back for bars and restaurants, and to some extent they are more convenient to go to when you want to go out than going to the mall. The best malls are the ones that connect to main streets.
So I don't think it's sameness that bothers us. I think it's a sense of inviting-ness. People don't stop downtown for a bite - they go out of their way to go there. People dont stop into Costco, they make it a trip. But main streets are something you can both sorta stop by in your neighborhood, and are a place you go out of your way to go to. That's my hypothesis for small town looks - they're inviting in a way that no other retail is, even if they mostly just give you bars and restaurants.