Before on-demand entertainment, Saturday morning cartoons were a weekly event. Kids across America gathered around the television for a shared experience that today’s generation will never fully understand.
The American shopping mall was once more than a place to buy things—it was our indoor town square, teenage hangout, food court, movie theater, and social network. Then online shopping, smartphones, changing habits, and COVID helped empty the corridors. What happened to the American mall—and could it still have another act?