Death Of The Mall Food Court

Getting dragged into court is a bad thing. Unless, of course, that court happens to be a food court

A standard feature of shopping malls, airports, and office buildings for decades

food courts were a nearly ubiquitous experience in American life. Until they weren't

So today, we're pulling up a chair to the rise and fall of the food court

James W. Rouse is frequently credited with coining the term shopping mall

and more importantly to us, he was likely the visionary behind the idea of the food court as

well. The basic idea of adding a food court to a mall was, and still is, to keep shoppers in the

mall as long as possible, so they do more shopping and spend more money. Of course, the idea of large

markets full of shoppers can be traced to ancient Middle Eastern bazaars, and the idea of large

buildings full of food vendors goes all the way back to the market of Trajan in ancient Rome

and likely even earlier. But the first modern food court was technically located in Toronto's

Sherway Gardens Mall, constructed in 1971. But it flopped, allegedly because its selection wasn't

varied enough. Three years later, however, the Paramus Park Shopping Mall in Paramus, New Jersey

opened their own food court and it was a slam dunk. That success kicked off the construction

of food courts and malls across America. But that was just the beginning. Food courts were

about to explode like an Orange Julius drop down an escalator. Kids who grew up in the Burbs turned into parents who raised their own kids in the Burbs and before you knew it food courts at the mall were a family destination The association with teens would help make food courts a part of pop culture frequently showing up in classic movies of the era like Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Valley Girl, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Over the years, the large fast food and restaurant

chains slowly found homes at the food court. By the 1990s, other industries took notice

For example, food courts became common at colleges and universities, even brought fast food franchises like Taco Bell, Subway, and KFC that were once rare at institutions of higher learning

At the same time, airports started building food courts to take advantage of hungry travelers who had no other options

and office buildings installed them to cater to hungry workers with short lunch breaks

The reason for the decline of mall culture is complex. For one, many of the buildings themselves were getting old, and renovations could be costly and disruptive

As a result, many malls began to grow visibly neglected, and people just didn't like being at them as much

Less shoppers meant less stores. Vacant retail locations and empty parking lots gradually left many malls resembling ghost towns

and nobody can enjoy an Orange Julius in that situation. Also, suburban shopping habits were changing

In 1998, an online book vendor called Amazon began selling a whole lot more books

and from there on out, people would increasingly be shopping from home. The Great Recession of 2008 also took a mighty toll on mall traffic

In 2020 alone, tens of thousands of mall stores, including anchor businesses like major department stores, closed their doors forever