AKRON, Ohio — Inside Akron's Chapel Hill Mall, more than half of the storefronts are vacant. JCPenney is the only remaining anchor store.
- An Akron mall came close to being in the dark after the owner didn’t pay the electric bill
- Many American malls are facing increased competition from new businesses and online retailers
- Economic experts say malls need to reinvent the wheel
It's a sign of a struggling mall, and a trend we're seeing across the country.
"It's really frustrating for us, particularly, because we are a mom and pop business. A day or two with no electricity and losing business would be very, very detrimental to our business," said Annmarie Jones, manager, Gourmet Popper.
Annmarie Jones manages the Gourmet Popper at Chapel Hill Mall in Akron.
She and the other mall tenants received shut off notices during the busiest shopping season of the year.
The mall's owner failed to pay the electric bill.
"It's not the first time it's happened, it's probably the fifth time it's happened," said Jones.
Her store is one of a dozen or so still open inside the mall.
A once thriving retail destination is now littered with empty storefronts —a reality of malls dwindling across the U.S.
"When we started building malls way back in 1956, when the first mall opened in Minnesota, we were really excited about this new place to go shopping and this indoor place, and we started building them and we built and we built and we built and we overbuilt, we created kind of this mall bubble, and what we're seeing is this bubble popping," said Dr. Amanda Weinstein, economics professor, University of Akron.
So far, retailers have announced more than 8,600 closings this year.
According to Credit Suisse, a financial services company, one in four malls are expected to close by 2022.
"We are definitely going to continue to see malls close, if they don't close, we could see them repurposed, repurposed into health centers or senior living centers," said Weinstein.
Dr. Amanda Weinstein teaches economics at the University of Akron.
She says in order for malls to survive, they need to offer more than just shopping.
"So, we've kind of gone back to what a downtown might have looked like in a new way. They have a lot of different shops, they have retail, but they also have restaurants, they have entertainment, they have office spaces, apartments, they're very multi-use, with entertainment for all ages," said Weinstein.
As more and more people move to online shopping and Amazon, American malls are forced to reinvent themselves.
Thriving malls are now spending millions transforming the shopping landscape into an experience.
As for the shut off notices at Chapel Hill Mall, FirstEnergy officials said they received payment for the mall’s unpaid electric bill, and the discontinued service notice was cancelled.