Continuing our examination of the concept of the “shopping mall,” we visited Mid Rivers Mall, located at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Mid Rivers Mall Drive.
The mall is doing fine, but it’s not doing great. There are four hundred thousand people located within four or five miles of the mall, and they are overwhelming middle to upper middle class. But the Dillard’s has been downgraded to “Clearance,” reminding me of the St. Louis Centre location in its final years.
But it’s doing better than Sears, which is completely out of business across America. I suspect that this location would probably still be in business if it could survive on its own. Scattered throughout the parking lot were a myriad of different trucks in various states of repair. It doesn’t exactly convey a sense of prosperity…
Inside, occupancy rates are good, and certainly better than South County Mall, which we looked at recently. It dawned on me that there are jewelry stores anchoring the corners of the center court, where rents are surely the highest. Makes sense.
Malls in America, regardless of wealth, are going out of style, and their owners are going to have to reinvent them.