By Sierra Ferguson | AZ Daily Sun
Bonnie Bouschet has been with the Flagstaff Mall for almost a decade, but when her 89-year-old mother embraced online shopping during the pandemic, it became clear to the general manager that times are changing.
Bouschet recalls when the mall opened in 1989. It was a time when business was booming for “anchor stores” — big-box brands like Sears, JCPenney and Dillard’s. Before the pandemic, consumer behavior had already started to shift away from in-person shopping. Gen X and millennial shoppers started to pivot away from the fluorescent-lit indoor storefronts that characterized so much of the experience of being an American teenager in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“It’s interesting, because when I first came to the mall we had a lot of vacant spaces. It was a little challenging, just from the standpoint of malls where starting to fade with people saying, ‘Oh, let’s shop online.’” Bouschet said.
