Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

have we talked about this in general/politics/culture?

I don't get it personally. yeah, all the proper malls are on life support... but the outdoors ones are going like gangbusters. lowes/homedepot/target/michaels/etc shopping centers.
why are those doing so well, while indoors malls arent? they take up more space, aren't faster. no community. no window shopping, or price comparing.

My 150k pop city still has 2 malls

Caliane said:

have we talked about this in general/politics/culture?

I don't get it personally. yeah, all the proper malls are on life support... but the outdoors ones are going like gangbusters. lowes/homedepot/target/michaels/etc shopping centers.
why are those doing so well, while indoors malls arent? they take up more space, aren't faster. no community. no window shopping, or price comparing.

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It's kind of ironic - indoor malls killed "main street" shopping and the outdoor "malls" trying to replicate "main street" shopping are in part killing indoor malls.

mkopec said:

Waht killed indoor malls is online shit like Amazon. One click away and its here even the next day. I know clothes are still rough online especially for women, but they somehow handle it too.

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Women like shopping, the buying part is secondary. So since you get free returns on clothes and the "try before buy" thing, it works out fine.

The mall I worked at back in like 1990 is still open. Although it's a husk of what it used to be. That place used to be packed even on weekdays.

mkopec said:

Waht killed indoor malls is online shit like Amazon. One click away and its here even the next day. I know clothes are still rough online especially for women, but they somehow handle it too.

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this doesnt explain why the outdoor malls are doing so well. if it was amazon, they would all be dead too.

example of the local shopping center.
homedepot, khols, att store, walmart, movie theatre 12, used to be a dicks now spirit halloween, ulta beauty, michaels, panaera bread, petco, tmobile, famous footware, 1000degree pizza, tgifs, chilis, starbucks, aldis, verizon store, mattress firm, gamestop, diva nails, target, lowes

biggest difference from indoor malls. ratio of big store to little store. second, one floor. third, big stores choose their own size mostly.
I don't know, but I have to guess its a rent thing.

Caliane said:

this doesnt explain why the outdoor malls are doing so well. if it was amazon, they would all be dead too.

example of the local shopping center.
homedepot, khols, att store, walmart, movie theatre 12, used to be a dicks now spirit halloween, ulta beauty, michaels, panaera bread, petco, tmobile, famous footware, 1000degree pizza, tgifs, chilis, starbucks, aldis, verizon store, mattress firm, gamestop, diva nails, target, lowes

biggest difference from indoor malls. ratio of big store to little store. second, one floor. third, big stores choose their own size mostly.
I don't know, but I have to guess its a rent thing.

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I worked at an Aladdin's Castle at the mall and I know corporate wanted to move out of the mall at one point because it would be cheaper to rent a mall adjacent storefront. However they would have lost all the foot traffic.

Caliane said:

this doesnt explain why the outdoor malls are doing so well. if it was amazon, they would all be dead too.
...
biggest difference from indoor malls. ratio of big store to little store. second, one floor. third, big stores choose their own size mostly.
I don't know, but I have to guess its a rent thing.

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I think you are right on the rent thing, I know the indoor mall setup is brutal on store owners, because they don't own shit and are completely at the mercy of whoever owns the mall. My guess would be with the outdoor ones the stores own their own storefronts ?

Doubtful if they are part of an outdoor shopping complex. Unless you're some standalone big box store, you're probably still looking at leases vs. owning the property.

No clue on the business model of the outdoor places, but I do recall it was very common for indoor malls to have variable rent based on what the store actually made profit wise

mkopec said:

Yeah we have those here too, but nothing like we had in the 80s and 90s. Those are not really "malls" either. Its the same 3-4 big nation wide chain stores filled out with other national chain fast foods and the like.

Just my city alone is filled with blight, strip mall after strip mall sitting empty. Its literally a shadow of its former self. Even the huge ass AMC20 they built in the 2Ks with 4 huge ass IMAX screens sits nearly empty after COVID. Before that parking lot used to be filled, even during the day for matinee.

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Ppl are broke for a large part in this economy and for corpo people, more overworked than ever to have the time or energy to do shit

Great BG3 news all around. Thanks!

This is in big part cultural, people don’t go ‘out’ as much especially to places like the mall. It’s more about standing in line at whatever overpriced garbage bakery etc that the latest TikTok influencer promoted . So there’s this much more targeted ‘ I’m going to this specific place’ rather than just loitering at the mall. Also the younger gen’s spend a lot more time on their phones or pcs at home

Pasteton said:

This is in big part cultural, people don’t go ‘out’ as much especially to places like the mall. It’s more about standing in line at whatever overpriced garbage bakery etc that the latest TikTok influencer promoted . So there’s this much more targeted ‘ I’m going to this specific place’ rather than just loitering at the mall. Also the younger gen’s spend a lot more time on their phones or pcs at home

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Back in the 2000-2010s when internet pick up artists were popular you had thousands of poon hounds hanging out in the mall trying to spit stupid internet game at every girl that walked by. I think some retarded pajeet actually got arrested for it. I bet that had more to do with malls closing than Amazon. Who wants to go to the mall to get harassed by hundreds of pajeets all spitting the same scripted lines?

mkopec said:

Waht killed indoor malls is online shit like Amazon. One click away and its here even the next day. I know clothes are still rough online especially for women, but they somehow handle it too.

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Maybe, but my money is on this bullshit. There are 3 malls left in Houston area and I haven't been to any of them in years because every 20 yards you have to tell these dudes to fuck off.

Hateyou said:

I was just thinking this. I went to a mall a couple weeks ago to pick up something from a store that only exists there, hadn’t been for probably 15+ years. Had two of these guys walk almost in front of me and give me some stupid line. “Hey you know what goes great with Legos, a sleep number bed…can’t build well without good sleep!!” That guys line was so stupid I laughed out loud in his face.

Massive parking lot, ghetto clientele everywhere, high prices, having to walk a mile to get to the one store you need to get tarbage food. Man I can’t fathom why these places died.

They existed in the 80s and 90s because there wasn’t much to do with your free time. Go to the arcades, go indoor ice skating, wander around stores that carry things you’d never see otherwise. That’s all easier done in today.

I still haven’t bought BG3. Maybe this will be the winter.

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Not a single one in my mall, actually. I didnt even realize it till you guys said that and I didnt remember seeing any - and went and looked up the floor plan to make sure. I guess theyre putting the customer experience first. Those booths cant raise that much fucking rent. Theres a few shitty little stores in the mall on the end furthest away from the food court (which is chik fila, mcdonalds, starbucks, etc.) and those stores are shit like hee-bob's phone repair and Jamar's Hood wear - but unless you're looking for that shit, its a dead end.

But I do agree that most of the business models in Malls, and even the stand alone brick and mortar locations - it's like they are permanently stuck in the 90's. Kind of reminds me of some other business types. The business model is so fucking ancient, but it works.. and anytime someone wants to try something new - the old timers in charge think " Well back in 1845, this made us gaht'damn rich and this new fangled internet thing is a waste of time!"

In other news - they said they werent going to do an expansion for Baldurs Gate 3? But then I saw a blurb from where.. they are? Or is that polish? scandinavian? w/e dude - is he talking about an expansion as another game entirely? Cant find the interview with him because when I search expansion, its mostly no-name journalists trying to drive traffic.

I recall them talking about toying with the idea of an expansion or what would effectively be BG4, but they ultimately abandoned it. The reasoning was more or less they were tired of it. Which I suppose makes sense - if you spend years of your life working on something, even if it is great, sometimes creatively you just want to do something different

Which is why GRRM is never going to finish the GOT books lol