{"id":99,"date":"2005-11-18T17:47:38","date_gmt":"2005-11-18T23:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2005\/11\/18\/what-killed-downtown-and-when\/"},"modified":"2006-02-16T18:01:19","modified_gmt":"2006-02-17T00:01:19","slug":"what-killed-downtown-and-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/11\/what-killed-downtown-and-when\/","title":{"rendered":"What killed downtown? And when?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

Friday, Nov. 18, 2005:<\/font><\/b><\/font> What happened to the Mall?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font>I thought the Mall is what destroyed Downtown, not Wal-Mart.<\/font><\/p>\n

The latest batch of Wal-Mart-bashing ignores the history of American retail. I don’t know this history in a scholarly way, only that portion I’ve lived. So this is a chip of a Brick, a Brickbat.<\/font><\/p>\n

The people who poo-poo Wal-Mart are not the underinsured employees so much as the well-heeled who cannot believe lots of people earn so little and are rather desperate in our America. These well-to-do should remember downtowns have been dying since the 1950s (they should also remember how badly those clerks must have been compensated as well as how few federal rights the employees of small businesses are entitled to).<\/font><\/p>\n

I wonder if the Wal-Mart bashers forget the growth of the enclosed shopping mall concept because to include that would mean boycotting Bloomies.<\/font><\/p>\n

What the mall did to downtowns and Wal-Mart is said to be doing to downtowns (and to malls, I hope, as I have hated them for 20 years … while downtown merchants self-destruct), Internet shopping is doing to all three.<\/font><\/p>\n

It’s called growth or evolution or free market, or the people rule. It ain’t a bad thing. -30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Nov. 18, 2005: What happened to the Mall? I thought the Mall is what destroyed Downtown, not Wal-Mart. The latest batch of Wal-Mart-bashing ignores the history of American retail. I don’t know this history in a scholarly way, only that portion I’ve lived. So this is a chip of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":79,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/06\/bargaining-universal\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":0},"title":"Bargaining universal","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, June 10, 2004. The small business community continues to make itself extinct. It's so easy to hit Wal-Mart as it's such a big target (pun intended) but it's what we truly want. Bargaining is a basic human need as food and sex, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/12\/wal-mart-takes-liberty-bell-to-arkansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":1},"title":"Wal-Mart takes Liberty Bell to Arkansas","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock A DISSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA -- The Liberty Bell is moving to America's heartland, specifically Bentonville, Ark., the National Park Service has announced. The bell, one of the nation's most prominent treasures, will be a permanent exhibit in the sculpture garden of the planned Crystal Bridges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"liberty bell 03 stress test","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/liberty-bell-03-stress-test-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1320,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/welcome-fair-shareholders\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":2},"title":"Welcome, Fair Shareholders","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- Dear Wal-Mart shareholders and employees, oops, I mean \"associates.\" And the former, you smart happy investors. If you've come to Northwest Arkansas before, we're glad to have you back, and that means you don't need to trouble yourself further in the reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chronicles of Crystal Britches"","block_context":{"text":"Chronicles of Crystal Britches","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/chronicles-of-crystal-britches\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/no-blue-light-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":3},"title":"No blue-light special","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a blue-light special Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, July 1, 2004. Again proving my personal theory about Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is this week's news about the Springdale Sam's Club seeking a a permit for package liquor sales. Oh, the theory is that Wal-Mart is conservative economically, not politically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":355,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/09\/what-kind-of-vermouth\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":4},"title":"What Kind of Vermouth?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Wine and other drinking experts recommend you cozy up with a good local liquor store staff for sound advice. Popatop in Little Rock was said to be excellent for this. When we lived there years ago, She and I would ask two different clerks about, for example, which is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/05\/zzzz-om-zzzz\/","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":5},"title":"Zzzz, om, zzzz","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Saturday, May 14, 2005: Note to self: There's many ways to meditate, necessary when working an evening shift but want to enjoy the daytimes then need to re-fresh before going in: Meditation is first, because there it is. A 20-45 minute nap accomplishes about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}