I vote for a mall train too

It is a good idea. If I were the mall, though, I might think about liability if the transport hits someone who is not looking where they are going or is intentionally looking for a lawsuit, as well as concerns for packages left on the transport, enforcing rules about food/drinks on the transport to prevent slick walking areas, etc.

Upscale malls are thriving and expanding in my area. It's the down market ones - the types that would typically have a Sears or similar as an anchor - that are struggling and/or closing. Maybe it's because the economy is booming here, I don't know.

If you look at the stores in the busy malls and the marketing they do, I'd say that the targeted customer profile for these places is millennials, with or without young families, down to teeny boppers. Not seniors. Airports need to accommodate non-ambulatory seniors but shopping centers don't (other than ADA requirements for public places).

Although individual stores are closing, we have not had either large mall close up shop.

wildwood nj boardwalk just flashed thru my mind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxzivn5cbVc

We've had several malls close in San Antonio over the past couple of decades. One was converted into what is now considered a small grocery store. Another was converted into a larger grocery store. Another was converted to apartments. Another was converted into a large Internet data storage facility. Another remained open but had to add more anchors along with three parking garages. As the city grows outward the malls are moving outward. Shoppers are fickle here. They will abandon their old haunts seemingly overnight when a new place opens.

Lack of mobility may be *why* there are fewer seniors in malls. Many seniors have money to spend. Boomers have never been shy about spending money. They also need more of the stuff sold in the mundane anchors that are hurting. (Towels and sheets were on my list, but I got too tired to contemplate the long walks.) I'd gone to Macy's to buy bras! I might have gone on to Carson's or Penney's or even Sears. One of the reasons malls developed was to provide *choice* under one roof.

Lucille -- I did wonder about risk factors. Elmer's comment about airport transport vehicles may support my idea. The risks are the same -- maybe higher; how do they manage them? There would be a 'learning curve', but people know how to dodge 'traffic' outside of malls. These would not need to travel fast -- slower than transports I've seen zipping around airport terminals.

klseiverd -- Yes! The tram as transport and entertainment, running within yellow lines. Boardwalks have always had push carts, etc. because...It's A Long Walk! Malls already use entertainment to draw visitors.

Shifting pff topic- Malls here in Long Island are so large, they even have "Mall Walkiing Clubs" where mostly older people walk the mall in the morning. I notice most do not enter stores, but many hit the Food Court for a quick coffee orr other treat for finishing their 'mall-lap".

I used to go to JCP when they sent me $10 off coupons. But since they stopped doing that I haven't "shopped" in a mall. I've shopped online and picked up purchases at the store. I'm always shopping for the remodels.....just not at malls.

I've noticed the same thing Elmer has: our 'upscale' malls are booming. The 'lower-class' malls are dying. I went to one of the 'lower' malls with my daughter last weekend. I was appalled: dirty, mostly deserted, lots of empty spaces. We left and went to a more upscale mall and it was packed with people who were actually buying stuff, had fewer than ten empty spaces, and had much higher-class clientele. Sorry, but I'm telling it like it is. When trashy people hang out somewhere, non-trashy people tend to stop going there.

Thinking about this, our upscale mall just renovated its food court. it bumped up the selections, created a stage like area which I assume might be for entertainment.

I haven't been there yet. I wear petite clothing and there are just a few options. I can shop at the stores a few towns over instead of walking through a mall where they are not near each other.

Amiee has a power wheelchair she's never hit anyone in a mall. Lol...yes a few had to dodge her when she was in training. I can't walk thru a malL RA&Lupus prevent walking on those hard cold floors for long, if I need to go to Macy' and Sears you know their going to be at opposite ends of the mall. Can't tell you the times I wanted to tell Amiee move over and share your seat. Lol

"When trashy people hang out somewhere, non-trashy people tend to stop going there."

+1

I think with more people purchasing online, malls will decline in numbers. I don't live near a mall but frequent my local Kohl's store all the time.

I wish we did have a mall, though, for walking when I get older.

non-trashy people tend to stop going there

Yeah, you know, people like Trump, Madoff etc. - class acts like that.

Insightful comment!

Wow.

LMAO - how in the world Embothrium made the leap from "non-trashy" to Trump is beyond me.

I used to go to malls all the time when I was younger. But now they all have the same stuff in the same stores. I rarely go anymore.

I didn't read through the post to see where the "trashy" comment came from but it made me think. There have been some malls that got taken over by gangs and hoodlums. So if that's what they meant, I have heard of this happening. No one decent wants to go to a mall that's taken over by gangs or hoods...right? I wouldn't feel safe.

I think the train idea for seniors or anyone that doesn't want to walk all that far is a GREAT IDEA! Also there's the issue of time, maybe you don't have time to walk all around.

This is OT but I tell you a store where I live that is busy busy busy no matter what day or time I go in there and that's TJ MAXX! Just sayin'...

I have back problems, so I use a walker when I walk more than a block. My walker is tall enough to allow me to stand up straight. I can walk four to five miles with it. In bad weather, I go to the mall to walk, as ours is one mile if you walk the whole thing. Very enjoyable.

There's a mall in the San Diego area that has a train. The first time I saw it, my impression was that it was geared more for people with small children, but after taking a more thorough glance there were people of all ages riding it from one end of the mall to the other.

I was in that mall three years ago, so have no idea if they are still providing train rides, but it seemed very popular.

Rather than a train, I think mall should offer power scooters or power wheelchairs. I don't mean the kind that we see at Walmart or similar places. Those are slow and too big to maneuver around the store isles. I'm thinking more like the power wheelchair that I'm using such as these: https://www.google.com/search?q=power+wheelchairs&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjovj8qK3UAhVK6IMKHXHhDNMQ_AUI1wEoAQ&biw=1280&bih=606.

Some malls, amusement parks, and zoo do offer manual wheelchairs but not power wheelchairs. Power wheelchairs should be the way to lure more people shopping. After all, malls are getting bigger and bigger than they used to be.

I tell you, not only a power wheelchair makes shopping easier but also a lot more fun! It is less tiring than using a manual wheelchair which leaves us more energy to have fun while shopping.

Except that one needs to be an "experienced driver" with a power chair.

But since we are fantasizing, how about golf carts that have a driver that you can hope on and go to various points of the mall?

There's a lot of seniors at my local mall. They're all walking on the second level which is totally carpeted. No, were not buying a lot but the mall is surviving (it also had one of those kiddie trains).

I never enjoyed the mall even back in its heyday. Too many people, bad food court food. (Maybe I'd enjoy it better now?)

But if I need clothing, it's Kohl's, not in the mall, for shortsleeves and under garments; online for tall people clothing.

I don't often go shopping or go to the mall but on a trip to Cincinnati a couple of years ago when my father was in the hospital, it was unseasonably cold, so I went to a mall just across the street from my hotel to buy a sweater or something warm. Two of the three anchor stores were closed and vacant, and about 60% of the rest of the stores were closed as well. It felt like an old west ghost town, and I imagined tumbleweeds blowing across the mall from one empty store to another.

Later while driving from the hotel to the hospital I passed a spot where an entirely new mall was being constructed. That gave be the idea that similar to what is done with "wetlands" where if a construction project will destroy a wetland in one location the construction must create a equal sized new wetland elsewhere. If you want to build a new mall somewhere, you must first buy an equal acreage of existing mall, and destroy it and restore it to farmland or forest or whatever you'll need to destroy to build your new mall.

One of our major grocery stores has a few power chairs, and one can get a key from the service desk.

I don't know what kind of instruction, or requirements that users have training may be required.

ole joyful