PREVIEW: The Friday Edition. - Decency is about to make a comeback.
Tangle
Isaac Saul
4.7 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If I had told you in 2020 that shopping malls would make a comeback, you probably would have laughed in my face.
And rightly so. Online shopping has been growing for years as its convenience, ease, and value have become too hard to pass up. To a new generation of shoppers, the experience of going out to a brick-and-mortar store to try on clothing or test out a new vacuum seemed silly and archaic — why waste that kind of time at a mall when you could have someone show up at your door with your order and then just return it if you didn’t like it, often free of cost? Covid-19 only increased that value and accelerated the death of America’s malls.
Yet, today, malls are making a comeback — and with the group you’d least suspect: 18- to 24-year-olds. That’s right, the Gen Z kids are so tired of interacting entirely in digital spaces that they’ve started to return to shopping malls, finding pleasure in the same exact thing older generations did: the social experience of hanging out with your friends outside of the house. This cohort made 62% of their general merchandise purchases in-person last year, 10% more than shoppers aged 25 and older. And overall foot traffic at malls was up 4.5% in the first two months of this year compared to last.
I think the resurgence of U.S. malls is emblematic of the human experience. A little bit of anything can be fun, refreshing, cathartic, or even exhilarating. But a lot of something — say, eight hours of screen time a day — can start to feel pretty crappy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and good evening and welcome to a special |
| 0:12.4 | Friday edition of the Tangle podcast. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and I'm here today to tell you |
| 0:17.5 | that I think decency is going to make a comeback. If I'd do it you in 2020, |
| 0:23.4 | that shopping malls would make a comeback, you probably would have laughed in my face. And rightly so. |
| 0:29.6 | Online shopping has been growing for years, as its convenience, ease, and value have become too hard |
| 0:34.5 | to pass up. To a new generation of shoppers, the experience of going out to a brick and mortar store |
| 0:40.9 | to try on clothing or test out a new vacuum seems silly and archaic. |
| 0:46.3 | Why waste that kind of time at a mall when you could have someone show up at your door with your |
| 0:50.3 | order and then just return it if you don't like it? |
| 0:53.5 | COVID-19 only increased that value |
| 0:55.7 | and accelerated the death of America's malls. Yet today, malls are making a comeback and with the |
| 1:02.6 | group you maybe would least expect, 18 to 24-year-olds. That's right, the Gen Z kids are so tired |
| 1:09.6 | of interacting entirely in digital spaces that they've started to return to shopping malls, finding pleasure in the same exact thing older generations used to, the social experience of hanging out with your friends outside of the house. |
| 1:23.0 | This cohort made 62% of their general merchandise purchases in-person last year, 10% more than |
| 1:29.3 | shoppers aged 25 and older, and overall foot traffic at malls was up 4.5% in the first two |
| 1:35.6 | months of this year compared to last. |
| 1:38.3 | I think the resurgence of U.S. malls is emblematic of the human experience. |
| 1:43.8 | A little bit of anything can be fun, |
| 1:45.6 | refreshing, cathartic, even exhilarating, but a lot of something, say, eight hours a day of screen time |
| 1:51.7 | can start to feel pretty crappy. The same is true in the political arena, where obscenity |
| 1:57.1 | feels like it has become the norm. But this cycle of change suggests decency might be |
| 2:02.5 | making a comeback. When I say decency, I mean the quality of behaving in a polite, honest, and |
... |
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