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Twenty years ago, the United States had roughly 2,500 major shopping malls — glass cathedrals of consumerism and symbols of American prosperity. Today, hundreds stand abandoned: empty parking lots, boarded-up storefronts, rusting escalators. The phenomenon even has its own name online — "dead malls" — spawning documentaries, blogs, and urban-exploration tours through the ruins. The popular explanation is that online shopping killed the mall. The truth is darker and more interesting: American malls weren't killed by consumers. They were killed by their own business model — a landmine built into their foundation from day one. How a mall actually works
The classic mall model is built around "anchor" tenants — massive department store chains like Sears, Macy's, or JCPenney. They occupy huge floor space and pull in foot traffic. But anchors pay the mall's owner almost nothing per square foot — sometimes a purely symbolic rent. The real money comes from dozens of small tenants around them: boutiques, cafes, clothing stores paying far higher rent per square foot, precisely because they're guaranteed traffic drawn in by the anchor. It functions as an ecosystem with one critical vulnerability: the co-tenancy clause. Small tenants' leases often include a provision that if an anchor closes, they can demand reduced rent — or walk away entirely. One anchor's departure triggers a chain reaction: small shops leave one after another, mall revenue collapses, and an entire complex turns into a dead zone.
Who really killed Sears
Sears is a case study in corporate cynicism. Hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert took control of the company and spun off its real estate into a separate entity — then leased those same buildings back to Sears. The company was effectively paying rent on its own former stores, bleeding out its operating business to enrich the property owner. Yes, the format was outdated — but what finished Sears was a calculated gutting from within, not just changing times.
Who survived and who didn't
In 2014, the industry's biggest player, Simon Property Group, made a decision that split the sector into survivors and bankruptcies: it began shedding weaker Class B and C assets to focus on premium Class A malls in affluent areas. Those who didn't restructure in time — like Washington Prime — collapsed during COVID, with some mall operators' stock crashing to mere cents a share.
And what about us?
With the start of the full-scale war in 2022, Ukraine's shopping mall market suffered its own shock. Some malls in combat zones or occupied territories were physically damaged or shut down. Many international brands paused operations in Ukraine for safety reasons, some chains closed stores in specific cities, and property operators faced tenant exodus and falling foot traffic amid air raid alerts and power outages. It's the same co-tenancy mechanism — only triggered by war instead of a market decision. Ukrainian malls are now living through a compressed version of the path American malls took over twenty years — except the crisis hit instantly instead of gradually. Business models really are born in the West. But as dead malls prove, they die everywhere — including right here.
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