Life In A Shopping Mall

Life In A Shopping Mall was Originally Posted on January 10, 2015 by lavarock

Over on Facebook there is a posting about President Obamas idea to offer free (or subsidized) college educations at community colleges.

Some “edu-mucated” professors have said that this will not cost the taxpayers anymore because we are already paying the cost in grants and other ways. They seem to miss the point that maybe we should not be paying at all, rather than just come up with yet another government program to move peoples money around from those who have it to those who don’t.

I am tempted to post an entry which asks these proponents the following:

Assume for a moment that you own a shoe store in a shopping mall. At the other end of the mall, there is another shoe store. You work hard at your business, keep the store clean, work long hours and make a small profit. Of that profit, the mall takes a part, because you are using some of their floorspace and so on. You are a good neighbor to the visitors and other shop owners. If someone asks you to display a poster for a mall event, you happily do so.

Then one day the mall management comes to your shoe store. “Mr. Jones shoe store down at the end of the mall just isn’t getting the profit you are. He may have to close up shop and move away. I am going to take part of your profit and give it to him. After all, it is only fair. You are making lots of money and he isn’t. Mall owners know what your profit is because you have to report to them how much you sell and they get a portion. If you didn’t know, “In a shopping center, the rent is usually stated as a minimum guaranteed rent per square foot of leased area against a percentage. Typically, this percentage is between 5 and 7 percent of gross sales, but it varies by type of business and other factors.”

Then a neighboring mall is mismanaging their owners badly. Shopkeepers there have begun to look elsewhere to set up shop. One of these shopkeepers appears in the mall office and wants to set up shop. Why not, the mall manager things and allows the new guy to set up shop near you. Maybe that storefront was empty or maybe they moved your wall a bit to squeeze him in. Maybe he sells flowers, or maybe he sells shoes. It doesn’t matter and if he can’t make a go of his business, the mall manager will just add a bit more to everyones rent to help the guy.

So one day you walk down the mall and notice that the guy with the other shoe store and the new guy are still not doing good business and mall management has brought in a mentor for them. The mentor looks at their books and determines that they need training. Mall stores pay for that training. It may help some but these guys also realize that they can just sit back and still get some freebies. They can work hard and try to make a profit, but at what cost? Part of that profit will then be taken by mall management to help someone else. It is easier to just sit back and make just enough to not have to pay that portion to mall management.

No not all shopkeepers will do that, but enough will sit back and take without giving and those who give will keep giving more.

According to Forbes Magazine: “Thus, perhaps 52 percent of U.S. households—more than half—now receive benefits from the government”. Some get handouts, others try to get their Social Security funds back out in a larger amount then they paid in.

So if we are that great a country, why do more than half of us have to get some kind of handout from the government? It appears to me that the mall is getting bigger and more expensive everyday.

I believe that if the mall managers actually owned and ran stores they would soon see the fallicy of some of their shopkeeper giveaways.