So Sad
This is a scene repeated everywhere across the country: a semi-abandoned outlet mall, empty and ghost-like. Very sad.
My eye doctor has opened an office at the Santa Fe Fashion Outlet mall, just a mile from my house and very convenient. I went there to get my new glasses.
It was spooky. The big, beautifully designed courtyards and pavilions and entry tower and shops were empty, boarded up. There was no one to be seen anywhere at 3 in the afternoon on a weekday. Not a soul.
It has not survived.
No fashion outlet malls have survived into the 2020s. Remember how awesome it was to shop big luxury brands at lower prices at places like this in the 1990s? What a concept. So much beautiful merchandise. All discounted. A day's destination for shopping and amusement. Refreshments. $$ Deals.
No longer.
The whole place was totally empty. Utterly abandoned. I went to the very end, to the Optical office, for my new glasses and I was put off by the ghost town abandonment all over the place.
This is not unique to Santa Fe. Outlet malls everywhere have not survived Amazon and the online shopping revolution. What will cities do with these well designed, well kept, big spaces? An optician's office is one attempt at revival, but there is so much more space.
Comments
Conversion into housing is impractical; they don't meet residential building codes so cheaper to tear them down for housing. Also to allow max parking, too many were built outside urban areas so cannot be absorbed into a walkable town/city. For many, demolition seems to be the solution. White elephants I guess. Back to available land.
One of my sisters is on the Falmouth, MA planning board and shares this info with us.
They never found a good reuse for buggy whips either.
Sigh, indeed.
Think of all that has come..................tv (I was 14 when my family got one) to the internet and ultrasound. mri, mifepristone!
The list is endless so something has to become obsolete. Yes?