Posted by Brianna Panzica - Monday, October 17th, 2011

Shopping malls are struggling as high unemployment is keeping consumers away and even changing their shopping patterns.

According to data compiled by Reis (NASDAQ: REIS), mall and shopping center vacancies have jumped since last year and have even risen since the second quarter.

As Bloomberg reports, regional and super-regional vacancies were at 9.4% in the third quarter, up from 9.3% in the second quarter and 8.8% a year ago.

Vacancies at community shopping centers, the article reports, have jumped to 11% from 10.9% a year ago. This rate was last surpassed in 1990. The Commerce Department also showed that retail sales hit a plateau in August after a 0.3% increase in July.

"This time around, because of the dramatic changes in consumer spending practices, we're very likely to see more malls in the death spiral than we've ever seen before," Green Street analyst Jim Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal.

Many of these problems are due to the closure of what Bloomberg calls “anchor tenants,” and this is causing smaller stores to close up as well.

In shopping centers, these anchor tenants can be grocery stores, drug stores, or even large hardware stores such as Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW).

But Lowe’s has announced a plan to close at least 20 stores that have been struggling lately. The home improvement company has cut the number of stores that will be opening in 2012 down to 15.

And Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS), the largest American clothing chain, is also closing one fifth of its U.S. stores.

As Gap North America president Art Peck told Sign On San Diego, “We have been in many malls for years and even decades, and some of those stores are tired and worn out.”

The company will, however, be expanding abroad...

The article reports that Gap will triple its store number in China. It will also be opening the first Banana Republic in Paris this year, and it will bring Old Navy to Japan.

These two companies will be contributing to even more major vacancies in the near future.

Bill Martin of ShopperTrak said that it could be the significant change in shopper patterns that is contributing to the loss of business.

Shoppers, he told Bloomberg, are browsing much less and becoming more of “mission shoppers” – shoppers with a specific goal in mind and little desire to browse elsewhere.

These shoppers, he said, are now visiting an average of 3 stores per trip compared with 5 stores before the recession.

And he also noticed a strange new pattern: while retail sales grew 3.5% last year, shopper traffic fell 0.5%. These two trends usually follow similar patterns.

But between “mission shoppers” and online shopping, that is not the case anymore.

The first companies that could feel the blow of online shopping, Bloomberg reported, will most likely be electronic companies like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). Electronics can be easily researched and purchased online, and electronic companies might contribute to the next round of vacancies.

*Photo courtesy of Brian Ulrich.