BUSINESS INSIDER: Retail apocalypse claims latest victim: Barbra Streisand's Basement Mall

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Can she still do it online?

Hopefully, R2.

Honestly, I'm more surprised that it lasted this long. It was never that busy.

I sent in a request for a refund a year after I ordered my Barbra mug with the nose handle which never arrived but no one ever got back to me.

The mall era is over, for better or worse.

They can turn the abandoned malls into death tra..er quarantine centers!

Super creepy. One of them was left deserted for 33 years before being demolished?

This is some Dawn of the Dead shit.

Never mind the Internet. Here’s what’s killing malls.

Paywall link, R8.

I always enjoyed a nice bagel at the Jews is News cafe after dropping off my dry cleaning.

I used to drop my kid off at the Little People Who Need People Daycare Center while I would go to the What's Up Doc Laser Skincare Center.

Never mind the Internet. Here’s what’s killing malls.

It has been a tough decade for brick-and-mortar retailers, and matters seem only to be getting worse.

Despite a strong consumer economy, physical retailers closed more than 9,000 stores in 2019 — more than the total in 2018, which surpassed the record of 2017. Already this year, retailers have announced over 1,200 more intended closings, including 125 Macy’s stores.

Some people call what has happened to the shopping landscape “the retail apocalypse.” It is easy to chalk it up to the rise of e-commerce, which has thrived while physical stores struggle. And there is no denying that Amazon and other online retailers have changed consumer behavior radically or that big retailers like Walmart and Target have tried to beef up their own online presence.

But this can be overstated

To begin with, while e-commerce is growing sharply, it may not be nearly as big as you think. The Census Bureau keeps official track. Online sales have grown tremendously in the last 20 years, rising from $5 billion per quarter to almost $155 billion per quarter. But internet shopping still represents only 11% of the entire retail sales total.

Furthermore, more than 70% of retail spending in the United States is in categories that have had slow encroachment from the internet, either because of the nature of the product or because of laws or regulations that govern distribution. This includes spending on automobiles, gasoline, home improvement and garden supplies, drugs and pharmacy, food and drink.

Collectively, three major economic forces have had an even bigger impact on brick-and-mortar retail than the internet has.

In no particular order, here they are:

— Big-Box Stores: In the United States and elsewhere, we have changed where we shop — away from smaller stores like those in malls and toward stand-alone big-box stores. Four years ago, University of Chicago economists Chad Syverson and Ali Hortacsu analyzed the recent history of retail and found that the rise of warehouse clubs and supercenters was bigger than the rise of online commerce.

They gave this telling example: Over the 14 years through 2013, Amazon added $38 billion in sales while Costco added $50 billion and the Sam’s Club division of Walmart $32 billion. Amazon had the higher growth rate, but the bigger problem for most brick-and-mortar stores was other, larger brick-and-mortar stores. This continued in 2019.

— Income Inequality: Rising income inequality has left less of the nation’s money in the hands of the middle class, and the traditional retail stores that cater to them have suffered. The Pew Research Center estimates that since 1970, the share of the nation’s income earned by families in the middle class has fallen from almost two-thirds to around 40%. Small wonder, then, that retailers aiming at the ends of the income distribution — high-income people and lower-income people — have accounted for virtually all the revenue growth in retail while stores aimed at the middle have barely grown at all, according to a report by Deloitte.

As the concentration of income at the top rises, overall retail suffers simply because high-income people save a much larger share of their money. The government reports spending for different income levels in the official Consumer Expenditure Survey. In the latest data, people in the top 10% of income saved almost a third of their income after taxes. People in the middle of the income distribution spent 100% of their income. So as the middle class has been squeezed and more has gone to the top, it has meant higher saving rates overall.

— Services Instead of Things: With every passing decade, Americans have spent proportionately less of income on things and more on services. Stores, malls, and even the mightiest online merchants remain the great sellers of things. Since 1960, we went from spending 5% of our income on health to almost 18%, government statistics show. We spend more on education, entertainment, business services and all sorts of other products that aren’t sold in traditional retail stores.

That trend has continued for a long time. The federal government’s Current Expenditure Survey goes back more than a century. In 1920, Americans spent more than half their income on food (38%) and clothing (17%), and almost all of that was through traditional retail stores. Today, food eaten outside the home and in it accounts for 10% of spending and clothing just 2.4%.

Economists debate theories of why we have shifted to services and away from goods, but no one questions that it has happened. It means that over time, retailers selling things will have to run harder and harder just to stay in place.

In short, the broad forces hitting retail are more a lesson in economics than in the power of disruptive technology. It’s a lesson all retailers will have to learn someday — even the mighty Amazon.

I'll lose my job clerking at The Mirror Has 2 Frames!

The thing about the middle class being eviscerated is probably the most important reason. A friend of mine notes that the majority of people he sees in department stores, restaurants, and Costco are older adults, which are the only ones who have money.

I don’t know anyone who shops at the Basement Mall.

I loved the Off-Broadway one-man play that Michael Urie was in about Barbara's mall, "Buyer & Cellar." Despite the title, it's a very intelligent play as well as very funny.

I used to get all my kitty supplies at "Up the Sandbox".

Going down the stoney end up...

I think Bed, Babs and Beyond are still open.

All Night Schlong is where I go for my panties and teddies.

Does she have a Modell’s down there? I heard they are closing all their stores.

[quote]I think Bed, Babs and Beyond are still open.

Only on the DL. And only on 6th Ave and 21st or wherever the fuck it was.

Couldn't Find A Bird is where I have all my dogs cloned.

Still working on making a Gap store facsimile in my garage...

Orange Jewess is a good place to get a smoothie.

Enough is Enough! Everything must go!

Second Hand Nose does great out patient rhinoplasty.

You could book and plan a great trip to Ithaca, NY, at the travel agency Hello, Gorges!

I bought an excellent mattress at Don't Lie 2 Me.

And you could always get your teeth cleaned at Yentl Dentl.

Business Insider has interesting-sounding articles but whenever I look at it I feel my IQ drop. It's the fluffiest fluff there is, barring deplorable sites.

This thread is cracking me up and making me hungry dahling!

Papa, Can You Hear Me? was a trusted place to get an audiology test and a hearing aid.

The Streis-a-Rama has become a victim of the mass cinema closings. It plays only Barbra's films.

Yes, I heard a while ago it was filled with nothing but empty storefronts.

Don't underestimate the demand for beach-themed art.

The Prints of Tides store is still doing well!

Poor Jason. I hope he gets another job soon.

I've never been a huge fan of her's but the basement mall is actually the one thing I like about her. Before I knew she had one, I was thinking of what I would build if I won the lottery and a basement mall/town was part of my dream house. So I can't fault her on the mall.

The corona virus would’ve finished it off anyway.