Oh no! The country’s second-biggest mall operator is totally bankrupt! General Growth Properties, which manages more than 1,500 malls across the country, is $25 billion in debt. With vacancies at a 10-year high, many malls are being converted into offices or going dark. Is this the end of the mall as we know it? [NY Times]
What’s a teen girl to do without a place to buy shoes, cookies, and a bra—all at the same time? After the jump, a list of our favorite mall rights of passage we’re sad tomorrow’s kids will miss out on.
- Getting a brain freeze from an Orange Julius.
- Answering the age old question, “To pierce or not to pierce,” at the counter of Claire’s.
- Learning that shoplifting is wrong after getting caught with janked headbands from the Limited Too and chapstick from the Body Shop.
- Hanging out in parking lots, which are good for kissing, learning to drive, and smoking your first (and hopefully last) cigarette.
- Speaking of kissing, remember making out in the dressing room of Macy’s—and then running as fast as you can and doing it again at Nordstrom?
- Before Wii, before X-Box, even before Nintendo, we knew where we could find the cute boys: hanging out in the arcade after school, scrounging quarters and eating Doritos. Hot.
The mall was a pivotal part of our teenage years. What’s your favorite (or most embarrassing) mall memory?
