Reinvent or go the way of the dodo.

Malls…What a dilemma they’re in.  Like libraries,  their raison d’etre has been evaporating ever since Al Gore invented the internet.. 😏

Last night, my husband and I went to dinner at one of the area’s outdoor malls. We knew there would be pretty lights and saw advertisements that “snow falls” at 6, 7 and 8pm.

(We’re in Florida folks, snow is always a draw.)

Anyway, this mall is going through a MAJOR reinvention. Gone is the Williams and Sonoma, the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. Left in their spots are vacant store fronts-lots of them..and yet the open spaces are being completely redone, restructured, repaved and re-engineered; they even changed their name.  I texted my old friend some of the pictures I took and we both puzzled over how this place could ever be successful again.  Mall survival is tough enough these days, but this one is sandwiched between a very popular high-end mall and an equally popular outlet mall.. so what to do?

Well, here’s what’s coming for this place:

Office spaces, smaller and fewer stores, new restaurants with outdoor dining (including plenty of healthy options) bars, apartments and outdoor “landscapes” designed to be enjoyed by families, tourists and folks on their lunch breaks. The new owners literally said they will “no longer be a mall.”

Wow.

There’s a part of me that will miss the old set up, but I get it- reinvent or go under. This mall is a reflection of so many of us who are faced with the same decision: reinvent or..

or else.

 

**The dodo is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo’s closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire, the two forming the subfamily Raphinae of the family of pigeons and doves.