The retail sector shrunk, customers turned away from high-end brands and the future of the mall as most people know it isn’t clear.
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A for sale sign is affixed to the side of the former Nordstrom department store on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022 in downtown Anchorage. “We still spend plenty of money on retail and we don’t have an income tax … We have more disposable income to spend on stuff than the average American because we don’t have that,” he said.
“Our demographics are shifting, we don’t have as many affluent oil and gas workers, as an example. We are definitely not what we used to be and that is one of the big challenges that we have,” he said. “... It is not what it was in the boom years.” “It’s kind of like, why am I going there and going into the parking lot or dragging all the way there to park when there’s only a couple of shops to go to?” she said.
“People were so pent up with not being able to get out and having to do everything online that when things really opened back up, it really created this boom,” he said. “Sometimes I wanted something new or my kids needed something new and it was really hard to go shopping but like there’s always somebody with a bag of clothes and whatever size,” she said.