First U.S. manufacturing collapsed, under pressure from low-wage labor overseas, leaving the American landscape dotted with hallowed-out plants and gutted factories. Now, assailed by a variety of adverse factors, from Internet shopping to economic downturn, the retail sector has been suffering too, bequeathing to the country an increasing number of abandoned -- some say dead -- malls.
DailyFinance has partnered with retail history blog Labelscar to bring you an inside look at one of these shuttered shopping centers. Our featured dead mall is -- or was -- called Northwest Plaza. "Located in the solidly middle class north county suburbs of St. Louis," Labelscar writes, "Northwest Plaza opened in 1963 as an open-air shopping center very close to the airport, along the busy Lindbergh Blvd. (US 67) and also very close to the intersection of I-70 and I-270. It immediately became the largest shopping center in the St. Louis area."
And not only there -- according to The Riverfront Times, a St. Louis weekly, Northwest Plaza "was the largest shopping center in the world" when it opened, boasting "five anchor department stores and 185 smaller shops, restaurants and boutiques." Anchors included Famous-Barr -- later Macy's (M) -- J.C. Penney (JCP), and Sears (SHLD). One of "the area's biggest employers," the plaza drew "kids from all over St. Louis County" to gather at its main
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/12/shop-til-it-drops-take-a-virtual-tour-of-a-dead-mall/#photo-11
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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