Why Some Bay Area Malls Are Thriving While Others Are Dying

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The fast-evolving retail landscape has zapped the life out of once bustling shopping centers throughout the Bay Area. And yet, many of the region’s legacy malls are still thriving. While San Francisco Centre, the former home of high-end department stores downtown, is now mostly empty, a revamped Stonestown in San Francisco’s west side is full of shoppers. Tenants such as indoor arcades, escape rooms and niche food vendors are drawing crowds to once desolate malls. We talk about where Bay Area shoppers are still going and how brick and mortar shopping is changing. Guests: Heather Knight, San Francisco bureau chief, The New York Times Michael Berne, president, MJB Consulting Kirthi Kalyanam, marketing department chair, director of the Retail Management Institute, Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Kiki Weedy Podcasts comes from San Francisco Opera,
0:03.7	a company sister Helen Prejean on a life-altering journey where her faith is put to the test.
0:08.4	This fall celebrate the homecoming of one of America's most important operas,
0:12.1	Dead Man Walking, September 14th through the 28th.
0:15.2	Ready to launch your business?
0:16.7	Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:20.0	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business
0:24.0	with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand,
0:27.6	marketing tools that get your products out there.
0:29.9	Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:32.6	From startups to scale ups, online, in person and on the go.
0:37.1	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:39.6	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:46.2	From KQD in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:02.8	This morning we're talking about the mall.
1:05.5	That is to say, we're talking about the trends in retail that have sent many legacy
1:09.8	malls spiraling into vacancy and irrelevance,
1:13.2	while a select few remain thriving. San Francisco Center is mostly empty while Stone's Town is packed.
1:20.6	This might be one of those things when the pandemic accelerated something that was already coming,
1:25.2	but what happens now to brick and mortar retail?
1:27.9	I mean, what do you do with a huge empty mall?
1:30.6	And can malls in decline ever make a triumphant comeback?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.