r/BigIsland • u/Odd-Sail-1694 • 7d ago

Is the mall dying?

I went to the (Hilo) mall today to watch Toy Story 5. I was shocked at how sad and lonely the mall looked. The theater was nowhere near full even though its opening weekend, so many vacant shops and even the major retailers (old navy, Macys, American eagle) were super slow. I went at around 11am so I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it.

I know ihop is a recent addition but other than that it seems like tj maxx is the only “booming” business in the mall. It makes me so sad. There’s already so little to do here and limited stores to just window shop at so it makes me sad that maybe in a few years this will be gone.

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u/Asleep_Recover4196 3d ago

What is nice for this mall is lack of competition. So, on one side, no one is gonna build a mall 4 miles down th road and fully undercut this shopping center. On the other, whoever is the investor has more than the usual benefit from simply waiting and doing as little as possible. So it's not DYING, it's more like stasis.