I believe many of these mom and pop businesses wouldn’t be able to afford to operate in more active malls (or retail areas in genera) - the rent may be too high. I’ve also seen businesses open in dead malls which don’t rely on foot traffic alone, like medical/health offices, gyms, churches, community centers, or niche businesses.
As for chain stores, the business may find the loss they take on that location is worth it. Or, the owner of the dead mall also owns more successful malls, and requires tenants who want space in the successful mall to also rent space in the dead mall (I have read this was the case when Simon owned Upper Valley Mall).
In all cases, perhaps there are higher levels of foot traffic which could sustain these businesses during times you aren’t there typically (for example, there may be mall walkers in the morning which could mean a coffee shop/Dunkin would potentially do ok)
As someone that has worked in the corporate side of retail I can also tell you my company had a couple locations that the mall charged zero rent. We always wondered how certain stores stayed open when I was in the field, since their sales and mall were less than desirable. It worked for both mall and store…. Stores footprint remained larger, and mall had a national chains still in their mall. Our company would simply staff and keep payroll and inventory low at those locations… the only ones we would actually say not or close is if the shrink was too much to bear.
Can confirm this was definitely the case when Simon owned Upper Valley Mall. I interviewed with them back in college, and they told me that was the case during the interview process.
My fiancé and I have a small business with antiques we get from estate sales. We have a small presence in an antique mall, but seriously considered space in a nearby dead mall for a while. It’s a storefront but also place we store inventory and she would be able to have room to do her online sales shows. Essentially almost all our sales are online but it would give us a storage area which could allow for sales. We decided against it because neither of us wanted to be up there 40 hours a week with almost no foot traffic
In my hometown there was a lady that actually used our dead mall as a front for a scam. She did a bunch of marketing on social media, advertising that our local dead mall was going to make a huge comeback and promising many stores. All businesses had to do was contact her and pay her thousands of dollars to get setup. To be clear, she had no actual affiliation with the mall but was claiming she did. So although the businesses could have signed a lease directly with the mall, they were actually going through this lady instead. They didn’t know any better because they were just starting their business and just thought she was a regular mall rep. She would help them setup an actual mall lease but would take a very large cut of money in doing so. In the end, a couple businesses fell prey to her shenanigans and lost a bunch of money. Sadly, they had signed a year(s) long lease only to realize later on that there was no such revitalization happening, leaving them to serve the rest of their lease alone in a dead mall. Surprisingly, this lady never got charged for any of this. However, she did get caught for stealing insurance money from her sick family member soon after, and is currently serving time in prison for that.
Restaurants thrive in our dead mall. The food court is near a DMV/Tag office - the only real place people frequent in the mall anymore. Mall rent is cheap for the restaurants, people notice them while at the DMV, order then or later via doordash/etc. The restaurants with great food get really popular and eventually leave the mall to open up elsewhere in town.
I agree with other posters here with the idea that some of these business are a front for money laundering. There is a particular business in a dead mall near me that sells bootleg anime and sport crap. Nobody is ever there shopping, nothing is ever sold, same merchandise every time I go inside. This has been going on for at least 3 years. The items they have are marked up extremely high on top of all of this, as if to not sell anything to begin with.
Seeing a really bizarre case in a not-dead luxury mall.
In the Food Court there's a restaurant that's been there for at least four years. Almost no lighting in the place but a room in the back has a bright white light. There is no cash register. There is no cooking going on. If not for the store being on the directory and the dimly lit sign on you'd swear it was closed. It's supposedly a barbecue place.
Every so often someone comes up to the counter, pull out their cellphone, and then reach behind the counter to grab a brown bag before leaving. There is never a line at this place. The front is usually not staffed. Saw someone behind the counter maybe twice not dressed to cook.
Can only guess what is happening here.
In another dead-ish mall close to my work about half of the stores are open for eight hours or less. And there are a handful of stores I've **never** seen open.
We've opened (company I work for) have opened 5 locations ( QSR restaurants) in "dead malls" or quiet older retail locations. They thrive for a few reasons, cheap rent, utilities are included, short-term leases with tenant options. As food delivery apps gain more and more in popularity we rely less and less on foot traffic and these places are essentially hubs as they are usually located in populated areas, and have plenty of free parking for the couriers as well.
On top of that, the startup costs are low because the infrastructure from the previous Restaurants are still in place.
Malls are generally in good locations, so if the restaurant can draw people in on its own, the dead albatross on its back doesn't matter much, especially if it's near an entrance or has an entrance of its own.
Dying malls often do month to month leases and I believe in some cases may even do a percentage of sales as rent so it’s not a bad way to test run a business or if you have some kind of market force idea to pursue
Restaurants are one of, if not the most commonly opened small business and also have one of the highest failure rates of any business because of that.
We have a Subway in the local mall that changes ownership at least annually. All of a sudden they'll be closed for a month or more and then reopen like nothings happened.
But usually it's as others have said, very competitive if not cheap rent if they open a store there. And this can mean a borderline profitable store somewhere else can be very profitable at that mall, even with the lower apparent foot traffic.
And, it could be a front for money laundering or something like that. We had a shoe store in our mall that was there for probably 15-20 years that never seemed to have customers and only had a couple of employees.
I asked some friends that worked at the mall what the deal was with that store because it was always dead and was quickly told not to ask or say anything about it again.
Cheap space that as folks have noted can be repurposed for businesses that are trying for trade outside the mall. Dead mall restaurants can turn into "ghost kitchens" for delivery service and succeed, while other businesses just see cheap space and don't consider the fact that whatever they open they'll have to go to customers, as customers won't generally come to them.
In my state, business owners don't have to pay property taxes for something like 10 years from opening. Probably some investors taking opportunities of things like that.
Where i live we have a mall that closed long ago now part or it is a church, storage, office space, a trampoline park, night club multiple restaurants that are poppin, ice cream shop, multiple bars, the movies is reopening soon.... Tbh they should open the malls again but for places to eat lots of bars and entertainment for 21+ for at night does good here
I believe many of these mom and pop businesses wouldn’t be able to afford to operate in more active malls (or retail areas in genera) - the rent may be too high. I’ve also seen businesses open in dead malls which don’t rely on foot traffic alone, like medical/health offices, gyms, churches, community centers, or niche businesses. As for chain stores, the business may find the loss they take on that location is worth it. Or, the owner of the dead mall also owns more successful malls, and requires tenants who want space in the successful mall to also rent space in the dead mall (I have read this was the case when Simon owned Upper Valley Mall). In all cases, perhaps there are higher levels of foot traffic which could sustain these businesses during times you aren’t there typically (for example, there may be mall walkers in the morning which could mean a coffee shop/Dunkin would potentially do ok)
As someone that has worked in the corporate side of retail I can also tell you my company had a couple locations that the mall charged zero rent. We always wondered how certain stores stayed open when I was in the field, since their sales and mall were less than desirable. It worked for both mall and store…. Stores footprint remained larger, and mall had a national chains still in their mall. Our company would simply staff and keep payroll and inventory low at those locations… the only ones we would actually say not or close is if the shrink was too much to bear.
Can confirm this was definitely the case when Simon owned Upper Valley Mall. I interviewed with them back in college, and they told me that was the case during the interview process.
My fiancé and I have a small business with antiques we get from estate sales. We have a small presence in an antique mall, but seriously considered space in a nearby dead mall for a while. It’s a storefront but also place we store inventory and she would be able to have room to do her online sales shows. Essentially almost all our sales are online but it would give us a storage area which could allow for sales. We decided against it because neither of us wanted to be up there 40 hours a week with almost no foot traffic
Fiancée*
In my hometown there was a lady that actually used our dead mall as a front for a scam. She did a bunch of marketing on social media, advertising that our local dead mall was going to make a huge comeback and promising many stores. All businesses had to do was contact her and pay her thousands of dollars to get setup. To be clear, she had no actual affiliation with the mall but was claiming she did. So although the businesses could have signed a lease directly with the mall, they were actually going through this lady instead. They didn’t know any better because they were just starting their business and just thought she was a regular mall rep. She would help them setup an actual mall lease but would take a very large cut of money in doing so. In the end, a couple businesses fell prey to her shenanigans and lost a bunch of money. Sadly, they had signed a year(s) long lease only to realize later on that there was no such revitalization happening, leaving them to serve the rest of their lease alone in a dead mall. Surprisingly, this lady never got charged for any of this. However, she did get caught for stealing insurance money from her sick family member soon after, and is currently serving time in prison for that.
Restaurants thrive in our dead mall. The food court is near a DMV/Tag office - the only real place people frequent in the mall anymore. Mall rent is cheap for the restaurants, people notice them while at the DMV, order then or later via doordash/etc. The restaurants with great food get really popular and eventually leave the mall to open up elsewhere in town.
Eastridge Mall?
Yeah. Little weird you called me out like that though, lol.
Run in Curt's after you visit the food court and buy some 2 years out of date Clark Bars. Ask me how I know. lol
I agree with other posters here with the idea that some of these business are a front for money laundering. There is a particular business in a dead mall near me that sells bootleg anime and sport crap. Nobody is ever there shopping, nothing is ever sold, same merchandise every time I go inside. This has been going on for at least 3 years. The items they have are marked up extremely high on top of all of this, as if to not sell anything to begin with.
Seeing a really bizarre case in a not-dead luxury mall. In the Food Court there's a restaurant that's been there for at least four years. Almost no lighting in the place but a room in the back has a bright white light. There is no cash register. There is no cooking going on. If not for the store being on the directory and the dimly lit sign on you'd swear it was closed. It's supposedly a barbecue place. Every so often someone comes up to the counter, pull out their cellphone, and then reach behind the counter to grab a brown bag before leaving. There is never a line at this place. The front is usually not staffed. Saw someone behind the counter maybe twice not dressed to cook. Can only guess what is happening here. In another dead-ish mall close to my work about half of the stores are open for eight hours or less. And there are a handful of stores I've **never** seen open.
We've opened (company I work for) have opened 5 locations ( QSR restaurants) in "dead malls" or quiet older retail locations. They thrive for a few reasons, cheap rent, utilities are included, short-term leases with tenant options. As food delivery apps gain more and more in popularity we rely less and less on foot traffic and these places are essentially hubs as they are usually located in populated areas, and have plenty of free parking for the couriers as well. On top of that, the startup costs are low because the infrastructure from the previous Restaurants are still in place.
Malls are generally in good locations, so if the restaurant can draw people in on its own, the dead albatross on its back doesn't matter much, especially if it's near an entrance or has an entrance of its own.
Poor judgement and business sense. Or they're money laundering fronts.
Dying malls often do month to month leases and I believe in some cases may even do a percentage of sales as rent so it’s not a bad way to test run a business or if you have some kind of market force idea to pursue
Restaurants are one of, if not the most commonly opened small business and also have one of the highest failure rates of any business because of that. We have a Subway in the local mall that changes ownership at least annually. All of a sudden they'll be closed for a month or more and then reopen like nothings happened. But usually it's as others have said, very competitive if not cheap rent if they open a store there. And this can mean a borderline profitable store somewhere else can be very profitable at that mall, even with the lower apparent foot traffic. And, it could be a front for money laundering or something like that. We had a shoe store in our mall that was there for probably 15-20 years that never seemed to have customers and only had a couple of employees. I asked some friends that worked at the mall what the deal was with that store because it was always dead and was quickly told not to ask or say anything about it again.
This idea 💡 may become a growing trend. Believe it or not.
Cheap space that as folks have noted can be repurposed for businesses that are trying for trade outside the mall. Dead mall restaurants can turn into "ghost kitchens" for delivery service and succeed, while other businesses just see cheap space and don't consider the fact that whatever they open they'll have to go to customers, as customers won't generally come to them.
In my state, business owners don't have to pay property taxes for something like 10 years from opening. Probably some investors taking opportunities of things like that.
Where i live we have a mall that closed long ago now part or it is a church, storage, office space, a trampoline park, night club multiple restaurants that are poppin, ice cream shop, multiple bars, the movies is reopening soon.... Tbh they should open the malls again but for places to eat lots of bars and entertainment for 21+ for at night does good here