Is The Mall Dead?
An article by Tony Dokoupil, IN Newsweek Web Exclusive,
There’s something growing in the New Jersey Meadowlands, the marsh just nine miles west of Manhattan. Instead, what’s emerging is a man-made behemoth, the largest and most expensive mall ever built in the United States. Originally planned to open this month, Xanadu is now scheduled for completion next summer. Lawsuits and construction delays have nearly doubled the mall’s cost to $2.3 billion. When it’s finished, the half-mile „retailtainment” center will be a Vegas-meets-Disneyland pleasure dome with the country’s tallest Ferris wheel and first indoor artificial ski slope. There will also be a two free-fall skydiving jumps, indoor surfing, a mini-city for kids, a digital media river on the ceiling—and, oh, some 200 shops.
The scale and scope of the project would be breathtaking in its own right. But what makes Xanadu extraordinary is the fact that it is emerging just as the American mall—the most essential American institution—is in its dying throes, if not already dead. Web sites like Deadmalls.com feature photos of hundreds of now-abandoned sites. But what were once just worrying signs appear to have finally flat-lined. Last year was the first in half a century that a new indoor mall didn’t open somewhere in the country—a steep decline since the mid-1990s when they rose at a rate of 140 a year. Today, nearly a fifth of the country’s largest 2,000 regional malls are failing, and a record 150,000 retail outlets will close this year. Xanadu has named just nine tenants for its 200 spaces.
„The mall at the end of town is dead. Amen,” says Bill Talen, a.k.a. Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, a secular movement dedicated to exorcising consumerism from everyday life. The reverend’s tactics may be unusual—he’s been known to leap on shop counters in order to „exorcise” cash registers—but his message of modest spending is increasingly mainstream. This month’s Buy Nothing Day (it’s the day after Thanksgiving) is expecting to attract millions of participants.
Just as people are flying from malls, the Salvation Army has seen sales jump 15 percent at some locations, while The Freecycle Network, a clearing house for second-hand goods has grown from 40 people to around 6 million since its founding in 2003. Each day, the group says, it keeps 500 tons of stuff out of landfills and in use. Another second-hand movement, known as The Compact, where members commit to buying nothing new for an entire year (underwear excluded), has grown from 10 friends to 10,000 members since 2004.
Experts point to a „great transition” in the needs and expectations of average Americans, particularly those under the age of 30. The same people who might well have become mall rats just a few years ago are learning to make do with less and find peace in the process.
Stuart Ewen, a City University of New York media professor sees the 20th century as a „100-year barbeque” of resource-burning in an otherwise largely unbroken history of sustainable living. „The word consumption used to be a pejorative, meaning death, destruction and waste,” he says—now „more and more people are aware of that.” John McCain and Barack Obama both talked frankly during their presidential campaigns about the need for Americans to dial back their spending habits, borrow less and save more.
Developers, too, are adjusting to the times. They’re trying to win back reluctant shoppers with „life-style centers,” retail hubs that boast residential apartments and parks to blend shopping seamlessly into everyday living. Such structures are going up faster than ever, with 37 new lifestyle centers going up last year.
Finish the sentences based on the information in the article.
- Xanadu is the biggest…
- Xanadu’s construction costs rose significantly due to…
- There are nearly 400 malls in the country that…
- Bill Talen is the head of a movement which is…
- Obama and McCain warned Americans to…
- Life-style centers include…
- More and more people find peace in…
- Consumption used to mean…