Disadvantages of Shopping at the Mall

Shopping at the mall seems to be less and less inviting. Since its creation, many malls have seen better days and many of these are on the decline. Shopping at the mall is not without its disadvantages.

Malls provide a variety of stores in one location with access from inside an enclosed building. A few stores, usually anchor stores, provide access both inside and out. These anchor stores are larger department stores that draw the people to the mall. Anchor stores are placed as far apart from each other as possible to encourage traffic from one to the other. Shopping at a mall is lengthy, time consuming and tiring. Thus the phrase “shop till you drop” is literal.

Travel to the mall, sitting in traffic, and rising gas prices all lead to a bad beginning of your trip to the mall. Parking can be another problem at the mall. The large parking lot wraps around the mall with only a few select entrances. Finding a parking spot at the mall can be stressful and possibly lead to conflict. Once parked, walking from the car to the entrance can require quite a bit of walking out in the weather unless your mall has a parking garage. Even so, you may still have quite a walk.

Fewer tenants and less traffic to the mall are also causes of mall decline. Other causes are Mallrats. These are unsupervised teenagers that hang around together in groups and tend to be unruly. These teens intimidate mall shoppers driving away paying customers. Many malls have become abandoned and later destroyed. Some localities have even banned future building of malls. Many disadvantages of shopping at malls have been listed and the future of malls is in the air.