Showing your age...

Not me - I've been showing my age for quite a while; nothing new.

Yesterday, when we first got out and about, Joan wanted to go to the Traders Market - it is a collection of craft sellers in what used to be the large Sears store at the Rushmore Mall.  A walk through to view the booths felt more like a large rummage sale.  Oh, there were some crafty things for sale, but also plenty of booths selling used stuff.  People in the booths were engaging as you walked by, but there was nothing we saw that convinced us to get out our wallets.

Of the people walking around in there, not many carrying a purchase (my indicator of how a business is doing).  Definitely more people in there than the last years of when it was still a Sears store, though.

Joan asked if I wanted to look around in the mall... and by "look around," I'm pretty sure she meant: walk.  I wanted to see what stores were still there.

I have seen the news reports over the last decade about how malls are in decline.  When we first moved to the Black Hills in 1977, the Rushmore Mall was just getting opened... it was a very big deal.  The professional photographers association we belonged to did group displays in the mall twice a year for a couple decades - and we would always see an uptick in bookings after a mall display.  The mall was always packed.

This mall was always nicely kept up, but by the time we moved away in 2006, a walk in the mall showed that the crowds had dwindled.  Walmart, Amazon, and other major retailers were taking away their market share.  When we visited here last summer, we saw that 3 of the big anchors were gone or going away (Target moved to a new location in a strip mall, Herbergers closed up, and Sears was on the ropes).  That brought fewer people to the mall, and it was apparent that other smaller stores were feeling the pinch.

Walking through the mall showed this...

Virtually empty.  On a Saturday around noon.  Back in the day, it would so packed it would be hard to thread your way through the crowd.  As you can see from the photo, the appearance of the mall is still nice; we've been in some malls in the past few years where it was apparent that no money was being spent on maintenance.

Times change.  Public perception changes.  "The mall" used to be a fun place to go... not so much anymore, at least at this particular mall.  Kids don't need a place to "hang out," they have social media to stay in touch with friends.  People can shop online and never have to leave their house.  Going to the mall is no longer an event.  Teenagers don't have to go there to see and be seen - they have YouTube and Instagram.

This does not bode well for small retailers... unless you have something unique to sell, people can do a search online to find the cheapest price... and it isn't generally in a store with a physical presence (and the overhead associated with that).  Walking by the Victoria's Secret, the store looked great: nice displays with dramatic lighting.  Two large entrances (one for their underwear side and the other for their Pink line), there were two people we could see in there shopping.

Looks like the end of an era.