Shopping Malls Mad @ Online Shopping

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I got it all wrong. I used to be part of the band that blamed the internet for putting stores out of business. A sign outside a bath shop made me think otherwise. Shop online, pick up at store. This is nothing new. Stores have placing these signs outside for some time now.

That store sign set me thinking in another direction. The internet might be actually good for merchants, but bad news for the property development company that owns the mall. Shop online, pick up at store. Maybe online sales rake in more profits than walk-in customers. In fact walk-ins do not graduate to sales because we are forever ‘just looking.’ We also run away from people we live with and use the mall as a public park, without trees and the duck pond.

If online sales are booming, merchants don’t need the physical presence of a store. What do they do? They don’t renew the lease. The mall loses the rent. They pack up the remaining clothes, shoes, bath salts whatever, rent a warehouse somewhere and continue with their business.

Where does that leave shopping malls? Find another use for empty store space. But what?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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