journal features

farewell shopping malls

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2016.04.28

I learned today that traffic at shopping malls has fallen by 50% since 2008. Good riddance! Who wants to spend time traipsing around looking for something that might or might not be in stock when everyone and their brother will sell you something and have it shipped in a couple of days. For instance, it's time to buy a new "noseless" seat for my bike. Why would I not buy such a thing online! It's like looking for my size 16EE shoes, or clothes to fit my 6'5" frame: malls just aren't interested unless they can sell a vast quantity at minimum effort. The only thing I buy that way is groceries, and I don't go to a mall for that.

Another interesting wrinkle: at least one of the Canadian banks is considering having their retail "partners" use their branches as pick up spots for shipped goods. I think that makes a *lot* of sense, given that the banks already have to build secure sites, and are otherwise becoming lower-traffic sites themselves, these days.

rand()m quote

On the endless saga of Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto; "It shouldn't have had to come to this. I'm so tired of getting up every morning and wondering, 'What will it be today?' I'm so tired of giving the benefit of the doubt again and again, only to be let down again and again.... Somewhere a responsible adult has to appear, draw a bright moral line, tell the truth and say unequivocally what won't be tolerated. Somebody has to do the right thing."

—Denzil Minnan-Wong