Malls should (now) be about experience stores.

This is more of an opinion rather than anything else.

Earlier today i came across a post of another shopping mall closing doors in the US, mostly not due current economy but to the overall migration from offline to online purchases.

We all can't deny this is path we are moving towards and, frankly, is not as bad. Online offers better pricing, we can have in the comfort of our home and the logistics are constantly improving so we can have the products sometimes even on the same day!

But the downfall of shopping centers as a whole marks also an impact in our social behavior; We visited these places not only to buy things, but to also belong to our own community. So, with the advance of technology, online shopping will continue to close doors in any offline stores across the globe. What else is to do about it?

Experience. Actitivies. Experimentation.

There are two things i believe the online will never take from human beings: Socialization and Experimentation.

The concept of shopping malls should switch to a place where humans could interact one of another, do things they can't normally do at their household: It could have sports centers, with a variety of actitivites, that could range from the usual bowling to indoor-climbing to basktball courts. It could coworking spaces, for small business owners to work and hangout. It could have theatrical places, with the usual movie theaters but also many others, such as Talk Shows, Comedy Clubs, Art Expositions and so on. It could maintain the food courts, fancy restaurants. And even other places such as gyms, pet day-care, hair saloon, libraries and so on.

In today's worlds, i belive most malls try to have a few of these things.

My main point here is not about a specific type of business it should have. Is not about also holding to nostalgia and trying to have the malls to what is was. It is for bringing business inspiration for you, to create places we can go to interact with each other, engage in new activities, learn new things, see new things. It is about maintaining us humans what we are: social.