Will the pandemic be the final nail in the coffin for Michigan’s malls?
Updated Feb 12, 2021;
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National trends have not been favorable for malls for almost two decades.
In 2008, the financial crisis closed 400 of America’s 2,000 largest malls. Ten years later the “retail apocalypse” cut retail chains nearly in half, a Yale School of Management paper reported.
In 2017, the investment banking company Credit Suisse predicted 25% of all malls in America would be closed by 2022.
This was all before a global pandemic halted in-person shopping for months; which begs the question will COVID-19 be the final nail in the coffin?
Grand Rapids Business Journal
Courtesy Woodland Mall
Woodland Mall will be hosting the LOVE.ART.HISTORY. exhibit and a screening of the documentary “In Between the Trees” over Valentine’s Day weekend in the mall’s center court between Kay Jewelers and Chico’s.
The themes of the three-day event are love, Black culture and Black history to acknowledge and celebrate local artists of color, Black History Month and Valentine’s Day.
The art exhibition by ArtXchangeGR, a West Michigan art resources company, will feature original works of fine art and reproductions by local artists, including Olivia Thorns, Lowell Reynolds and Steven Reynolds. Their artworks can be purchased at the pop-up art exhibition from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.