I live near three thriving major shopping malls-thriving to the point where we say "What bad economy?" and "Doesn't anybody work in San Diego?", cause the parking lots are full at 11:00AM on a Tuesday.

However, I've noticed vacancies in two key areas:
the upscale La Jolla Prospect Street (rents are too high) and Downtown San Diego. The latter, particularly the Gaslamp Quarter, has been significantly affected by the homeless crisis, resulting in blocks of empty storefronts in one of San Diego’s busiest tourist areas—definitely not ideal.

Retail is alive and well in Minot ND Richie Alan Naggar . As you may know my son has an art gallery downtown and I run my Notary business in the same professional building. Our downtown is a very popular place to shop. There are some vacancies but it is because some landlords have let their properties deteriorate to a point they are uninhabitable.

Chicken Little has been crying that the retail brick and mortar mall's sky is falling for years.  And yet, the sky is still hanging up there.  Stop listening to that damned chicken.

    It's not just "online" that is destroying the brick and mortar businesses, Richie. 

   Sure, Jeff Bezos and his "look at my boobs" girlfriend are crushing the competition, but that is not the sole cause of the collapsing stores.

     Brick and mortar stores are coping with organized (and legalized) shoplifting.   The malls have become hangouts for gangs and malevolent teenagers; nobody feels safe shopping in the malls.

      Brick and mortar stores are dealing with brutal property taxes, staggering insurance costs, and government regulation upon regulation. 

  Owners/employers of brick and mortar stores are struggling to find legitimate employees.  They/we are witnessing an "entitled" generation who will not work hard, nor do a  good job, nor provide customer service.  

   Will commercial real estate survive?  Yes, maybe... if/when they can find a way to overcome an antagonistic government, and if/when they can find motivated employees.  

The Frederick Towne Mall has been vacant with the exception of the two anchors stores , Home Depot & Boscov's, for over ten years now. There have been many proposals to revitalize , but nothing seems to stick. They even talked about filming the sequel to the Blair Witch Project movie in the mall.

We still have a local retail mall (Danbury Fair Mall), which seems to be reinventing itself all the time, i.e. finding new tenants. The turnover of smaller stores is amazing,  some have even returned after a while. Even the anchors have changed, e.g. Lord&Taylor left, but Target moved in. In a nearby coastal town (Norwalk), a new "ultra modern", somewhat upscale mall was built a few years ago; still chugging along. 

We have what is left of the small mall near us.  There's really only Belk left from the original anchor stores.

Our country has long been over-stored.  Retail like real estate can be cyclical.  But there is an industry-specific evolution also taking place plus not-so-subtle cultural influences. 

It's always interesting to me to observe what is happening in our communities.  And elsewhere too. Such knowledge continues to provide perspective.   

Our standalone stores (mostly chain) seem to be doing very well. Costco is expanding into a bigger location - although they are already big enough in my opinion. Stores in town seem to be doing well also - I don't see any for sale signs around. We do also have a small mall which isn't doing well and I think it's for sale. I'm not really sure. I'm not a shopper and have only been in there once or twice in the last 5 years. Maybe there are more people like me around here?

Our local mall closed 10 (?) years ago.   It is currently being developed into warehouses, fast food, some retail and a convenience store.   Online sales have crushed bricks and mortar retail, and will continue to do so unless retail offers a unique experience.  In 10 years the real crushing blows will be dealt to most retail.  Guaranteed.  **Edit**--it was bulldozed 3 years ago.  

I do feel that retail's lifespan is a little shorter than in years past, Richie Alan. However, we have a large regional mall near us that is still thriving. While there are a few vacancies, we are seeing those vacancies being filled fairly quickly.

Horizon Outlet Center (Laughlin NV across river from us) is for sale AGAIN. It was purchased for 5m in 2006, I think asking is double that now and it's about 50% occupied. When they shuttered the movie theater I went rut-roh. It used to be full to capacity but not since the bust of 2008 . . . very sad. It's a lovely property and 'should' be bustling. I think when a mall in that kind of area (across from 5k hotel rooms!) fails, it's greed and poor management. Vegas malls are fine so it's not politics. It's just hard to find good help in this resort/transient area . . .

Well run centers with popular major anchors seem to be doing fine. Those that are dated and tired are struggling a bit. Some have been torn down and likely will be replaced with residential developments

I have seen quite a few malls in my area shut down.  Since I am in Minnesota right now, I am going to visit the Mall of America and I have heard that it's the biggest mall, haha.

Yes.  There is some vacancy, but malls that always did well are still busy.  Ones that were never shopping destinations are not.

Where I'm at, the two major malls and five nearest strip malls are all doing well.  Those tend to have super markets in them as well as established restaurants.

Most of the retail malls near me are suffering and are more of a hangout for the younger set. We do have 1 mall that appears to be doing well, though

I initially agreed with you but my feelings are that malls are here to stay.  I shop online but some folks love t shop in person as a form of entertainment.  

A major mall in our city is being torn down for redevelopment. 

The stores here all seem to have plenty of people hauling full bags of consumable junk out in a steady stream.

My wife and daughter seem to keep a few stores in the black, however I prefer to do my shopping on my keyboard.

Local businesses and many retail stores are closed and continue to close.

Many commercial buildings are vacant.  Reminds me of years past. 

Yes, we have several. The parking lots are usually full. People like to shop in person even if they also shop online. The Outlet Mall in Leesburg VA gets so crowded that people have to park across street at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby and walk over a half mile to get to the outlet mall. Also, new brick and mortar stores are currently under construction with no end in site. I have never ordered a single product from Amazon. But, there have been some that have closed, relocated, or merged. JoAnn fabrics for example is one that closed their Leesburg store. A new Trader Joe's is under construction in that same location.

Yes, many stores are not doing well in Los Angeles ( inside the mall or separate, luxury,  low end, or any). In addition to online sales we have another huge issue: burglaries... you likely heard,  it is utterly terrible. 

Lots of empty retail spaces on Maui, and the largest mall is less than 50% occupied.  They say they will rezone it to make it more usable, and probably should have done that years ago when this started happening.  But, Walmart and Costco are thriving.

The town of my address has never had a mall.  The next town over has a small mall with Belk as the only anchor left.  JCPenney closed years ago.  Has 5 places to eat and gym and TJ Maxx, drug store and clairs and maybe still a jewelry store.  

We have quite a few vacancies in retail centers.

There is only 1 that is doing well. Another one close by just closed & they are going to turn the area into condos of some kind.

Just all around too much retail space here.

Sure there are some vacancies but it does appear that they don't last long and a new business is opening up.  I'm amazed at the continued building and economic 'aliveness' here in PHX.

Most malls are losing tenants and their anchors. I know of several that have been completely Torn Down !

We still have a few shopping malls in the Metro Raleigh area. I'm not sure how they're doing. We see shopping centers and they appear to be doing great. The one "mall" we had in Cary was purchased by Epic Games and demolished. Now we wait to see how long it takes Epic Games to build their new headquarters. We now have a large development called Fenton that includes apartments, restaurants, and retail shops.

Our shopping centers typically have grocery stores, medical or service offices, restaurants, and some retail. People still want to get out and walk around in modern spaces.