Christopher Tully

The mall has been a go to for many as the holidays are just over the horizon. With the pandemic still looming, shoppers may have to rethink this tradition. Even beyond the holidays, the future for malls appears uncertain as many cannot continue to stay open against the pandemic.  

Although Black Friday has driven consumers to shopping malls as the biggest shopping day of the year in years past, Cyber Monday has become more and more convenient and relevant for many shoppers in recent years. In an interview with Ed Brennan, Ying Huang, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Massachusetts stated, “We’ve seen sales increasing on Cyber Monday in recent years, and I would expect that number to go up even further this year.” She going on to say, “Cyber Monday will be big, but it will be more of a cyber holiday season overall.” With the pandemic keeping people from wanting to gather in groups, this year more than ever people will want to turn to online shopping rather than head out to long lines sat the mall. This will be no help to the already depleting mall traffic.  

The majority of malls bought within the past ten years that have since gone out of business. Fox Business reports that about 50-60 percent of closures of businesses through the pandemic will be of malls. It has also been said that a places such as Starbucks would be moving their mall locations to buildings suitable for drive through. CNBC has reported that within the next 5 years 25% of malls will close down entirely.  

So be sure to get your time in at your local mall. The convenience of having all stores in one place or even just a place to hang out may be on the brink of extinction.