This is funny, and true, but when malls decided they were for Directly Observable CapitalismTM only and not for any hanging around, being social and having some sort of community function they became much more boring. And, funnily enough, much less profitable. This shows that social control trumps profit, as I’ve long posited. It was more important to restrict social spaces than it was to make money. The tale everyone spins is that the internet killed malls. But that’s not really true. It was the ownership class deciding that the interests of fuddy-duddies who didn’t actually spend that much money were more important than those who purchased the most but were younger and less socially powerful.
I could not find it again, but think it was on Reddit — anyway, there was a story someone told about they and their 18-22ish-year-old friends hanging around at a Starbucks nearly every day, not being disruptive, just chilling. Then out of nowhere, the owner asked them to leave and not come back. So they did. Turned out this group and their friends who would drop by also sometimes were responsible for something like 30% of the store’s sales alone. The drop in orders was so severe that when the owner saw one of them again, he apologized profusely, gave them all a free couple of days of drinks and asked them to please, please come back.
Malls never did the “begging to come back” part. The fact is, most people are dumbasses most of the time. Mall owners are no exception.
