Retail Flexibility: With a little imagination, shopping malls still booming

UNION GAP — There was a time when the shopping mall was the place to be. From the late 1970s to the early 2000s, indoor shopping spaces dominated American cities and suburbs. Big department stores did a thriving business side-by-side with small boutiques, food courts, jewelry stores and video arcades. When it came to retail, the shopping mall was king. Today, by some estimates, there are only about 700 enclosed shopping malls left in the United States, compared to more than 2,500 at their height in the 1980s. To hear some people tell it, the shopping mall has gone the way of the drive-in theater or the automat. But rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated, said Linda DiLembo, general manager of Valley Mall in Union Gap, near Yakima.