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The traditional concept of the mall is fading away.
Once an epicenter of the suburban lifestyle, the shopping mall's purpose and importance have slowly been transforming. Specialty retail bankruptcies made shopping centers a less diverse and interesting experience. Anchor department stores filing Chapter 11s, though, has lead to destabilizing and upending entire shopping complexes.
"The overextension of many mall tenants and their need to rightsize was noticeable long before the pandemic," Placer.ai analysts wrote in a "Redefining the Mall" white paper. "That, along with a seemingly one-size-fits-all mall style that was copied and pasted across the country, led to the realization that the reach of the classic anchor department store was limited and that new types of tenants must enter into the mix to augment that role."