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America's Changing Mall Culture As online shopping surges, the traditional shopping mall as we know it is beginning to show its age. In conjunction with Youth Radio, NPR looks at the past, present and future of America's malls.
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America's Changing Mall Culture

Here's What's Becoming Of America's Dead Shopping Malls

New transit-oriented, mixed-use walkable downtowns, like this one in Rockville, Md., are often replacing indoor shopping malls and strip malls that once defined suburban America. Federal Realty Investment Trust/Courtesy of WDG Architecture hide caption

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Federal Realty Investment Trust/Courtesy of WDG Architecture

Here's What's Becoming Of America's Dead Shopping Malls

What happens when shopping malls die? Often they're turning into medical centers, churches, schools and universities and new suburban downtowns.

Here's What's Becoming Of America's Dead Shopping Malls

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A Mall With Two Minimum Wages

Wetzel's Pretzels employee Emperatriz Orozco hands out free samples at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall. Steve Henn/NPR hide caption

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Steve Henn/NPR

Planet Money

A Mall With Two Minimum Wages

There's a mall in California that straddles two cities. Here's what happened when workers on one side of the mall started making 25 percent more because one city voted to raise the minimum wage.

A Mall With Two Minimum Wages

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Teens And Mall Culture: The Fading Love Affair?

Lenox Mall, in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, used to be the site of a country home estate and is now a traditional indoor mall with two anchor stores. Madeline Veira/Youth Radio hide caption

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Madeline Veira/Youth Radio

Teens And Mall Culture: The Fading Love Affair?

YR Media

Teens used to be all over malls, working the registers and wandering the walkways. But now fewer of them have retail jobs and it appears they prefer tech goodies at home to going to the mall.

Teens And Mall Culture: The Fading Love Affair?

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In Stockton, Calif., Punks Are The New Mall Rats

Frankie Soto is in charge of the "underground" rock shows at an empty storefront in Stockton's Normandy Village Shopping Center. Brett Myers/Youth Radio hide caption

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Brett Myers/Youth Radio

In Stockton, Calif., Punks Are The New Mall Rats

YR Media

Abandoned storefronts in strip malls are common here in one of the largest cities to file for bankruptcy. But one abandoned storefront plays host to a thriving punk indie music scene.

In Stockton, Calif., Punks Are The New Mall Rats

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