Indoor Malls
87redcivic
Posts: 107 ✭✭✭
25-30 years ago, it seemed like every indoor mall had some sort of coin/hobby shop in it. I'm not an economist, but I'm assuming that high mall rents and low margins made that business plan disappear.
I made a rare trip into the mall this past weekend. A lot of storefronts were filled with window-dressing, ping-pong tables, and "placeholders".
Now that storefront supply is high (and rents are lower???), could we see the return of the mall hobby shop?
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Indoor malls are a dying business model. Why would I want to attach my business to that?
Professional Numismatist. "It's like God, Family, Country, except Sticker, Plastic, Coin."
Rents may be cheaper in some areas, from what I have heard around here that is not true of this area regardless of how much empty space is available.
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
I have not been to an indoor mall in at least 10 years.
I think they will be a thing of the past in 10-15 years time and maybe sooner. People shop online. Why bother having a store with all the costs.
Interest: Latin American history with an emphasis on colonial Mexico & Peru
Sports: NHL & NFL
Thank you Lord for another beautiful day!!!
I went maybe 1-2 per year and that was to buy shoes. Now I just buy them online and get them within 48 hours. So why bother. Everything I need arrives super fast online. Some times I have to wait for a package for 3-4 weeks from the USA to me here in Canada. I don't care much for the wait and if it is more important have it sent UPS or FeDex 1 to 3 days and it arrives.
I use the bus to get around. It's fine in my city but the larger city next to me geez there are some weird things and bad smells. I rather just stay in my area to be honest. People do crazy things on the bus sometimes. Sure there is the subway system in the larger city but I have never even used it in my entire life.
Interest: Latin American history with an emphasis on colonial Mexico & Peru
Sports: NHL & NFL
Thank you Lord for another beautiful day!!!
But I am 40 I hate crowds I use to go to Canada Day with over 500 000 people and sometimes close to 1 million that is when I was a teenager and even then it got on my nerves it was for my girlfriend back then truly if I had been single I would just have stayed at home in peace.
Interest: Latin American history with an emphasis on colonial Mexico & Peru
Sports: NHL & NFL
Thank you Lord for another beautiful day!!!
I remember when many malls had coin and stamp stores inside. I don't know of any today. I have no reason to believe they will ever return. The coin and stamp business has changed and malls just don't fit the bill today. When the malls start allowing "spaceholders" you can be pretty sure that the end for that mall is not too far in the future.
The only malls I go to anymore are outlets, and they tend to be outdoors for some reason.
To answer your question: I don't think the main denizens of indoor malls are your archetypal coin collector, so don't see a return of coin stores there. Maybe suburban strip malls would be a better fit?
Coin conventions yes that I do like.
Interest: Latin American history with an emphasis on colonial Mexico & Peru
Sports: NHL & NFL
Thank you Lord for another beautiful day!!!
The last time I was in a mall that had a coin shop in it was around 2012.
The mall is the Mission Viejo Mall in "The OC". The coin shop had full display cases with a wide variety of slabbed and raw coins from the US and other countries, plus bullion, coin supplies, coin books, etc.
Do not know if it still is in the mall.
Years ago I stopped by Jack Beymer's shop located at the Coddington Mall located in Santa Rosa, Ca multiple times to snoop and shop.
When I was in Denver in the 1970's I would stop by Cinderella City mall in Englewood to snoop at a coin shop in that mall. I still have an 1830 CBH in about XF I bought at that shop in the summer of 1978 or 1979.
Most malls have been operating on a percentage rent basis during the pandemic to keep occupancy artificially high. The past year would have been the time to open a temp store
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Thanks for all the responses. It's nice to have a question/topic that gets thoughtful feedback like this.
...grown up in the Bay Area I always had indoor malls...down here in real San Diego they are all outdoor. I like the fresh air down here and it’s easier to have your traveling band immediately behind you, but my Weztel’s always did stay warmer up north so it’s a tie...I never liked lines or limited options so now I have it all sent to me
Your grandkids......still like the malls.
...with nearly all retail purchases being so easy to perform online...if the mall owners were smart they would shift emphasis to fine dining...that’s the only thing that people with money can’t have sent directly to their home, in its finest form........so house the best food and then people will pay for parking, and browse the stores while they wait or after they finish eating
The outdoor malls like The Grove in LA or Century City are the only places we will go for an outing
Is the quirky Horton Center still open in SD? I love Fashion Valley and UTC
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Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
@Justacommeman
Horton Plaza is now donezo...word in the street is that whitey sat and watched The Departed at that movie theater with his girl on the opening week
I remember at least two in Atlanta when I moved here in 1975, one at Lenox and one across the street at Phipps. Never mind coin shops in indoor malls, I remember buying coins at the coin & stamp department on the ground floor of Gimbel's Department Store on 33rd St in Manhattan in the late 60s and early 70s.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
In the Detroit area in the 1970's through the early 1990's some malls hosted coin club or commercially sponsored coin shows which were often very well attended by both dealers and collectors. At one time, in the very early 1970's, the Warren Coin Club show at the Universal Mall was the biggest coin show in Michigan. The Tel-Twelve Mall in Southfield hosted several coin shows hosted by the Royal Oak Coin Club in the early 1980's. Trouble began when some of the dealers started adding jewelry to their offerings even though the malls had said "no jewelry since it competes with the stores in the mall." Neither mall exists today. They have been replaced by an assortment of free standing big box stores.
Malls around here in Northeast Ohio used to have antique shows that set up in the halls of the malls. I picked this one up at one of those shows 35 years ago for $10. The mall that I got this one from is now torn down. The coin is fully prooflike.
There's two malls by me that have coin/bullion kiosks in the middle of the walkways. Surprisingly they actually have some nice currency. The coins are mostly generic Morgans and maybe some walkers plus some bullion. Everything is over priced but they'll negotiate a little bit. Only thing I ever bought from one of them was this since I got it fairly cheap:
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Haven't been to a mall in over a year, actually it was 2019 in Sarnia Ontario - unlike American malls the one there was fully stored.
In the Atlanta area, Northlake Stamp & Coin was still in the same location in late 2019 in Northlake Mall, as it was since 1975. I also knew of at least three other coin shops in other indoor malls throughout the city in the 1970's. One is now in the suburbs (World Numismatics) but the other two are long gone.
I don't believe lower commercial rents will make any difference if my opinion is correct that there are fewer (full time) dealers. I haven't performed a full search but most here seem to be primarily bullion sellers. Aside from World Numismatics, I know of one other.
I think an indoor mall would make a great go cart track. Peace Roy
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I started my Morgan collection at American Coin Redemption in the Monroeville Mall, then later discovered the coin department in the Kaufmann’s Department Store in Downtown Pittsburgh. I miss those days.
the mall it will exist but in limited numbers as long as they can change with the times if they don't they die off as simple as that
41 packages sent and got
The mall here is basically dead.... only two shops left in the Food Court.... Three stores left out of thirty two....It is converting to a medical center. Walking around in the mall is amazing.... Used to be very busy, now it is like a morgue. The haircut place is still there, that is the only reason I go there now. The mall venue is dead or dying over most of the country.... Killed by the internet. Cheers, RickO
For now I'll stick with coin shows
I'm not sure the developers can de-leverage enough to keep the rents permanently low.
That is why you are seeing outdoor conversions and mixed usage etc. The last chapter on retail post pandemic is far from being written.
I have not seen a coin shop in a mall for over 40 years. The closest I have seen has been a hobby store that had one small section with albums, books and maybe a few inexpensive coins.