I saw this article as well on Facebook, and of course, I too had a look. It is shocking to see this happen, yet not...

For me, I immediately thought "The next cycle is starting..."

Here is why...

In the little town in Minnesota, on the border of Canada, where I grew up in, a similar phenomenon took place years ago...

I noticed it from afar because I was mainly overseas...

When I was in high school there. businesses were all over town but concentrated on Main Street (as in all little towns hehe)...

After 10 years being away, what I noticed was they had opened a mall at the edge of town, and the Main Street was a ghost town...

More years later, the fancy stores and the mall was largely also abandoned, and the Main Street has a few signs of life (more than at the mall, which is not very nice when there are almost no stores there)...

Things change...

For the likes of us (our e-commerce stores) and for other affiliate marketers, this is a good trend...Our business volume should continue to increase over the coming years...

We are in the right place at the right time were my final thoughts...

Cheers!
Dave : )

And yet a mall not far from me is set to double in size:
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/mall-cribbs-causeway-set-double-5270

But I agree, the overall trend is definitely away from malls towards online shopping. I buy most things online these days. I ordered a new electric toothbrush from ebay a few days ago. Much cheaper than driving to the next town to buy it for more money in a shop.

Unfortunately brick and mortar locations are becoming more of a place to see and compare products before ordering them online is some markers.
I use my local mall for the occasional movie and a place to work with a cup of coffee and the free WiFi. If has become a social place for senior citizens in the morning, the business lunch crowd in the afternoon and young adults later in the day.

One door closes, another opens. One mall closes, a new website is created. Progress, I guess; but I will miss going to a physical mall occasionally when they're gone.

I appreciate walking along the street, where there are still store fronts, and looking into all of them. I also appreciate the fact that I, and anyone else, of course, can go online and get literally anything we are looking for.

So, good and bad and here's to the tombstone that not only says: RIP Retail, but also: Alas, poor Yorick, we knew you well.

Great info and article Arief .. yes malls as we know them are dead .. Cheers, William.

Yes, I think that retail as we know it is dying. When Warren Buffet recently sold off most of his shares in Walmart (representing about 900 million dollars), many took that as the death knell for traditional retail. With online sales growing rapidly-- and Amazon worth more than Walmart now-- scenes like the ones in the article will only become more common.

I think malls will be the hardest-hit. Individual stores may fare better. I also imagine that stores where shopping is more of an "experience" will continue to do well-- stores with beauty consultants who also provide courses in make-up, for example, or stores with custom-made clothes.

I know of a number of malls in my area are congregating points for seniors, who gather there for social reasons, or sometimes will spend a day there to avoid the heat during the hottest summer days. I have also seen groups of women use the malls as a safe location for power-walking. The loss of these locations will affect them, certainly.

I think it's quite sad. Most of my working career has been retail, and more than a decade was in a mall. I miss the atmosphere at times. Still, as a society, one of our primary concerns is convenience, and shopping online is certainly that. It is wonderful for us, but I think that it could also lead to a continued decline in basic human interaction for many people, which is quite unfortunate, and in the case of the seniors I mentioned above, might even prove dangerous.

Wow, it is really desolate looking in these malls! Personally, I never really liked the large malls especially, because they destroyed all the trees and left the outside parking lots this awful, reflective concrete. I personally did most of my shopping in small boutiques, or through catalogs. Now, I mainly do it online, so yes, this will benefit affiliate marketers a lot.

Thanks for the post.

Yes. Some walking dead movies are actually set in shopping centers

I agree retail is getting more challenging, and online shopping almost the definite trend for the future for most product categories. What online retail can improve on is their logistics and how fast/cost efficient they can get the goods/services to the customers' doorsteps.

In Singapore, some shopping malls have became so quiet/deserted even over the weekends.