<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>HWR_14</author><text>The UK and especially Japan have significantly higher population densities. You would expect them to have less square footage of retail space.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, a reason for the mall explosion was because real estate developments, especially commercial malls were heavily subsidized by taxpayers in the 1980s (might have the decade off). Those still exist at a smaller scale, but not enough to justify their levels, even back before 2008.</text><parent_chain><item><author>bobthepanda</author><text>This was inevitable, and not even because of online shopping.&lt;p&gt;America has been over-retailed for a long time. Retail per square foot around the world looks like this, in decreasing order&lt;p&gt;US - 23.5 sq ft of retail per person&lt;p&gt;Canada - 16.8 sq ft&lt;p&gt;Australia - 11.2 sq ft&lt;p&gt;UK - 4.6&lt;p&gt;Japan - 4.4&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;p&gt;US stores got here by taking on more debt than they could handle, expanding aggressively, and then collapsing under the burden. When the big box stores and department stores went bankrupt, they often took whatever mall they were anchoring down with them. The question has always been not if this would happen, but how quickly.&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.insider.com&amp;#x2F;5bb37815ac0a6314735194e8?width=1300&amp;amp;format=jpeg&amp;amp;auto=webp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.insider.com&amp;#x2F;5bb37815ac0a6314735194e8?width=1300&amp;amp;fo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Malls adding apartments to offset dwindling numbers of shoppers</title><url>https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/25/malls-adding-apartments-to-offset-dwindling-numbers-of-shoppers/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>echelon</author><text>Contrarian perspective.&lt;p&gt;The model worked until it apparently didn&amp;#x27;t. If Amazon and online shopping hadn&amp;#x27;t happened, we&amp;#x27;d still be going to the malls.&lt;p&gt;A large number of retailers fell not to online shopping, but instead to lowering quality of service and goods. Sears, Circuit City, JC Penny, and Kmart each have analogous stores and former competitors that remain and are doing well.&lt;p&gt;Outside of disposably fast fashion like Shein, it&amp;#x27;s usually more convenient to try clothes on shotgun fashion. In person.&lt;p&gt;Fragrance, jewelry, luxury goods. All better done in person.&lt;p&gt;Home Depot is peerless and will never be replaced with an online equivalent.&lt;p&gt;Touching and trying things on is an experience that just can&amp;#x27;t be matched online (sans metaverse, if it actually delivers).&lt;p&gt;Amazon is aggressively expanding physical retail presence. They&amp;#x27;re focusing on convenience, which is probably the biggest reason people avoid shopping in person.&lt;p&gt;People love shopping. And if the shopping experience is modern and fun, and interspersed with drinking and dining, they love doing it with friends. It&amp;#x27;s a social activity too.&lt;p&gt;If malls morph into &amp;quot;live-work-play&amp;quot; hubs like this old sears factory [1] or this entirely new construction in that mold [2], they&amp;#x27;ll absolutely flourish.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.poncecitymarket.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.poncecitymarket.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;townbrookhaven.net&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;townbrookhaven.net&lt;/a&gt;</text><parent_chain><item><author>bobthepanda</author><text>This was inevitable, and not even because of online shopping.&lt;p&gt;America has been over-retailed for a long time. Retail per square foot around the world looks like this, in decreasing order&lt;p&gt;US - 23.5 sq ft of retail per person&lt;p&gt;Canada - 16.8 sq ft&lt;p&gt;Australia - 11.2 sq ft&lt;p&gt;UK - 4.6&lt;p&gt;Japan - 4.4&lt;p&gt;etc.&lt;p&gt;US stores got here by taking on more debt than they could handle, expanding aggressively, and then collapsing under the burden. When the big box stores and department stores went bankrupt, they often took whatever mall they were anchoring down with them. The question has always been not if this would happen, but how quickly.&lt;p&gt;Source: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.insider.com&amp;#x2F;5bb37815ac0a6314735194e8?width=1300&amp;amp;format=jpeg&amp;amp;auto=webp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.insider.com&amp;#x2F;5bb37815ac0a6314735194e8?width=1300&amp;amp;fo...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Malls adding apartments to offset dwindling numbers of shoppers</title><url>https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/25/malls-adding-apartments-to-offset-dwindling-numbers-of-shoppers/</url></story>