We ran a Short News article in the last Toolbox which appeared logical on the face of it and backed up commonly held perceptions of the death of shopping centres - "Sears and JC Penney Deserting Already Struggling Malls". But that really did shopping centres and their operators a great dis-service.

The wider community seems to be of the opinion that online is killing the malls. That isn't the case at all.

As was pointed out by Bill Ketcham in "The Mall Traffic Myth", "retail traffic" is not the same as "mall traffic".

In fact, mall traffic has been, by and large, surprisingly resilient, notwithstanding a very modest dip during the worst of the GFC in 2009.

Retailers relying on store traffic, however, have been doing it tough and online has certainly  changed the face of shopping.

But as far as the centre operators are concerned, as Ketcham points out, "Moms still go to escape their day-to-day routine and indulge themselves a bit, and teenagers still go to escape their parents and teachers to socialize. Some things never change."