Comparing Malls

Labelscar conducts an interesting exercise comparing two malls in Jonesboro, Ark., looking at how a new project, Mall at Tuttle Creek helped push Indian Mall out of commission.

Over the years we've spent a great deal of time investigating why malls die. We've found a great number of reasons, and one of the most popular of these has been competition. We hate to sound general, but it's happened all over the place, and probably close to you too. The newer, shinier mall (replace ‘mall' with ‘Lifestyle Center' or ‘Big Box Power Center' or whatever, same difference) becomes instantly popular and leaves the smaller, older center by the wayside. However, this process usually takes a while, typically at least several years if not longer before total dominance is shifted from one retail center/area to another, and the losing mall finally gives up and meets Mr. Bulldozer. However, that's not necessarily the case here. What we're about to investigate is rather unique, in that the dominance of one center shifted to another instantaneously; as one shiny new mall opened, the older, smaller mall was immediately abandoned, seemingly overnight.