A reporter weighed in about customers (this AM) from a mall with 520 stores

[SoCalDem]

FIVE HUNDRED & TWENTY STORES???

and this is ONE mall...and probably within not too many miles there are OTHER malls, not quite as big, but sheez....

THIS is what's "wrong" with our economy.

Let's say you are from xxxxxx,XX and it has 50K people, and there is a mall near you...and/or a Walmart/KMart...Malls are often achored by or located near other BIG BOX stores like Staples/BestBuy/Sportmart/Lowes?Home Depot, etc.... 520 stores is a LOT of stores, and the needs were probably met by many fewer stores before the Big Boxes/malls came along.

The money spent in those places does NOT stay in the community (except for the low wages paid to local workers, and often a pittance paid in sales taxes). What people often miss in the fine print of the reports that pre-date the arrival of said malls/companies, is that fact that these companies are often demanding (and getting) tax-holidays for a very long time, because they are promising jobs jobs jobs.

In times-past, stores were locally owned & run, and yet everyone managed to have shoes, dresses, pants, office supplies, car repairs, books, food..you name it.

The money was divvied up at the LOCAL banks as merchants deposited checks & cash from their sales and paid out the wages necessary to cash those checks.. It was a CIRCLE..a closed circle.

It's now a funnel..with locals tossing money into the top as they buy stuff made elsewhere, and the money goes OUTSIDE the community..

The locals get cheaper stuff (maybe), but they also get higher taxes (someone's gotta pay for the running of the community), and they may get wages from working at those places, but they probably also see lots of closed up businesses that used to provide the things they needed. Every empty business/building is a LOSS in taxes paid to the community, in addition to the blighted look that could drive down interest in people who might think about relocating there.

And when the tax holiday ends, the BIG BOXES often just pull up stakes and move to the next town, leaving another big empty spot... Why do they do it? Because they know that their customers will follow them..They almost have to follow them because the local places that kept money within the community have been put out of business, and will not be returning.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Only the Mall of America has 520 stores.

It's its own city.

[localroger]

8. It's basically the mall for the entire state of Minnesota

The MoA is just ridiculously weird in scale. It's surrounded by motels and people drive in and do shopping holidays; since it has three floors a popular plan is to shop a floor a day. It's also right by the Minneapolis airport so they get fly-in traffic. It is not in any way typical of anything else anywhere. I think it exists mainly because that part of the northern Midwest has no other population centers capable of supporting a more typical mall of 100 or so stores, and so MoA is the supermall for a vast area of sparsely populated countryside.

I've been there once, and it is amazing that they have stuff in stock and on-shelf that you'd have trouble even ordering online.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. K&R. Economists refer to the principle you're detailing here as the

'multiplier effect' (or 'velocity of money'). A single dollar spent and recirculated locally has a significantly higher multiplier effect (producing higher GDP) than a dollar sucked into the funnel and spit out into the grasping hands of the parasitical 1% rentiers.

[brewens]

3. Yup. Your parents bought a new tv, you went to school with the kid who's dad owned that store.

The kids dad drove a new car and you probably knew the guy that owned the dealership. At one time most of that money stayed right in your community.

[freshwest]

4. Well reasoned out OP. We must get free of the Chamber of Commerce hype machine.

[KatyaR]

5. I went to the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania this fall.

It has over 400 stores. It would take days to get through it all. We were told that people actually fly in from overseas to go to this mall, because it's the largest mall in the northeast and has the largest number of high-end stores together in one place. It was crazy huge. I can't imagine what it was like there today.

[Agschmid]

10. King of Prussia is a HUGE mall. I still feel Natick Collection in Mass. is the best. n/t

[obxhead]

6. About 3 months ago I bought a new string trimmer.

I had 2 gas powered (electric does not work for my property) string trimmers (weedeaters) that barely ran, were a pain in the ass to reload, on and on my complaints ran.

I had enough, it was time for a new one.

So I did the research and decided on the exact model trimmer I wanted. I would accept no other brand or model number.

Well, as it was late in the season none of the big stores still had one in stock and ordering one online proved to be impossible. I finally went to the home page of the manufacturer I chose and found a local distributor.

I had forgotten what good SERVICE was.

I walked in, told them exactly what I wanted and the owner said, yeah I have one. I said I'll take it, didn't even ask the price.

He came back 3 minutes later with the trimmer and opened the box. Handed the woman working the counter the warranty paperwork, which she began filling out. While she was ringing me up, he started putting it together for me. He then handed the trimmer to his service guy who filled the thing with gas and went outside to run it for 10 minutes to make sure everything was in proper working order.

Not only was my trimmer $10 cheaper than the box stores, but it was tested, filled with gas, and the warranty paperwork I would have ignored was actually filled out. I was informed if I had ANY problems bring it back right away, they are the authorized service center for our area anyway, regardless of where it's bought.

I had forgotten completely what genuine service was. I can't wait to have the money for the next lawn tool I want. This local business will get the sale.

I bought a national brand product, one that is available in many stores. There is a REAL difference buying it from a small local retailer and a huge national chain box store.

Hell, now a days Lowes or Home Depot probably would have made me use the self check out, let alone do everything else myself.

[NYC_SKP]

9. I always try my local ACE hardware family run store first.

Then if they don't have it, half the time I'll go without or try to fix it, or build it, or buy it used.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[icarusxat]

7. Spreading this stuff around where people can read it...

amounts to education. A good way to get banned in this country.