Coffee shops replace shopping malls as a social destination. Some of my thinking in this regard derives from popular TV cultural. The representations that people saw in Frazier’s Cafe Nervosa and Central Perk where Friends went for a forum can be denied.

photo of Oak Hollow Mall is courtesy of TripAdvisor. Closed in February, across the street there is a Starbucks

.Before the popular TV representation, the mall was more of a destination. It is one of that chicken and the egg Catch-22s to which there is no answer. The Coffee shop or the demise of the mall. The huge Cathedral like expanse that the large mall was and is cannot be denied. And here in Greensboro that rise of the outdoor shopping centers that surround our current offices and down Wendover at Friendly can’t be missed.

Coffee shops are everywhere

There are two that I walk to from the office regularly. In Green Joe’s, in Greensboro, north on Battleground from Tekmar’s offices, I have thought shopping malls were replaced by the coffee houses. When our offices were in Revolution Mill, we used to frequent Carolina Coffee, around the corner on State street. The same person who started Green Joe’s owned Carolina Coffee. To a large degree, the social settings were similar. What do you think? Did the coffee shop do in the shopping mall?

Coffee shops replace shopping malls because people’s imaginations change. Technology and entertainment culture are a big part of those transformations. According to Forbes’s, “malls that are doing well tend to be destinations. Those that aren’t tend to be places where people just go shopping.” The facts are clear as the article suggests that the demise of the mall is at least in part due to online shopping. This change in shopping trends due to technology since 2000 has been dramatic.

The rise of internet shopping destinations has driven the mall’s anchor department stores close. The chart shows employment’s decline in the department store sector. This is a trend of course led to less people going to malls. For social interaction part of Starbucks mission is to be a destination.

Technology not coffee shops replace malls as a go to US destination.

It is larger trend and not a single thing that stabbed the mall culture in the back. Coffee shops replace malls as a destination that people think about. It was online shopping and big box stores that gave coffee shops the prominence they have now. The trend is wrapped tightly with technology. The demise of malls like cyber security encompasses many factors. The last time I thought about going to a mall, it was Oak Hollow Mall in High Point, pictured above. The reason was cold and rain outside. That Mall which closed in February was a warm place to take a walk, and there is a Starbucks across the street..