Imagine apartments built into what used to be department stores, (Oh, you’re JC Penny 203? I’m at Sears 106). Get those old arcades up and running. Set up meal stations at the food court. Once people actually live there, stores will start to move back in.
If I’m unable to finish my life in my own home, that doesn’t sound like a terrible option.
If memory serves me right, the person who invented the mall, was an Austrian immigrant in the US. He wanted to recreate the experience of Austrian walkable city centre streets (which are full of mixed-use buildings, with storefronts at the bottom floor and apartments above). But I think only having shops was deemed more profitable by corporate.
the “mall” was invented in France when they started roofing market streets, turning a former street into a long building with shops and houses directly connected
Bill Bryson in “made in America” reference this I think