Geek survivors of a closing mall

Saturday I went out to find as many geeky places as I could remember. It was part of finding out why Washington seems to be more geeky than other places. There were videogame shops, comic shops, board game shops, and more. In fact, there is a mall that seems to be dedicated to geek ideas. The problem is that the mall seems to be suffering a bit, and it has made me ask some questions.

This isn’t the first mall I have seen this happen to either. A mall near my highschool, and one in Phoenix have suffered similar fates. So, we need to discuss a completely new set of questions, while asking the first. Why are malls with geeky things closing down?

Before continuing, I think it should be said that this is the generic term for geek. I have my own opinion of what a geek, and a nerd are in specific terms. A geek is someone who knows a ton of details about a subject, and really enjoys spouting them off. They may not understand everything, but their knowledge of minutia is impressive. A nerd is someone who works to understand the subject itself, but may not know all the details. I tend to use Engineers and Scientists as my examples. Engineers know a ton, and research a ton on the subject they work within, but often don’t understand the full meaning of an equation, or bit of data. Scientists will know their field very well, but even a similar field to their own will have sketchy knowledge.

The generic term for geek is used to collect the unwashed, and unwanted into a spectrum. Nerd, Dork, Dweeb, and others are simply descriptions of the same type of people. These are the uncool kids who are into uncool things. Comic books, TV shows from other countries, science, and other things connect these losers into a spectrum that only stupid highschool movies dare talk about. Usually the answer is to give up the uncool things, and get a hair cut.

The geeky mall I am speaking of is the Northtown Mall in Spokane Washington. I went to it, expecting to see more life. Instead, most of the stores were closed.

They were not just closed, but no longer there. The signs of what used to be still hung waiting for a bored Janitor to remove all signs of existence away. The mall had a sign saying things were being fixed up, but the amount of places gone was more common than not.

This isn’t the first time I found a beloved mall closing down. When going through Phoenix, I found the Metro Center Mall in even worse conditions. There were shops still open, but it was mostly closed, and sad to be in. Suprisingly enough, next door was Castles and Coasters, which was doing well. Most of the shops left were either for things like quinciñeras and geeky things. There were music shops, an anime store, and a broken down arcade.

This pattern of geek shops remaining is similar to another mall. I lived in Yakima while going to highschool. Near my school was a mall that we all frequented. If you had an extra long break, or just didn’t want to go to class the mall was available. There were problems with how the mall was run, for example the parking space next to the mall charged to enter. Some stores actually paid for your parking if you showed them a tag. It became a real drain, and soon enough everyone left. We wanted to bring tumble weeds into the store, and have them drifting back and forth through the ghost town that was our former hangout.

It is now a hilton hotel, but owned by the same moron. That space available sign used to be a JC Pennies. The parking garage was torn down, and is behind the mall. It was also the ending for downtown Yakima. There are some great shops, and other things still around, but it is not the same.

What this has to do with geeks, is that the last remaining stores in the mall were geeky. They were a videogame store, which is now next to the valley mall. A book store, which collapsed, and that type of store is no longer found in Yakima. The card shops, and others also went under while I was in Phoenix. I left a mall that was struggling, and came back to a ghost town.

The sign for Borders is still up, but that is another vacant spot. And since hollywood video is across the parking lot, this spot is sadly empty.

Seeing this pattern three times now, I wonder why it is happening. Geeky things are pretty dang popular now. Comic book, and other geeky movies are now the top grossing films, and even win awards. This is not a look at why malls are closing, we know what is happening there. It is called Amazon, and it is hitting every store, even Wal Mart. The problem is that the malls are closing, and the remains are geek stores. Why is the geek store surviving?

While going through the Northtown mall, I saw that there were some other patterns. Higher end stores were still there.

Also, there were stores for children, and teens.

In fact, the mall has been doing things in other malls, like having a train.

The idea for the children’s items is to have a baby sitting service as mothers are shopping. The only problem with this idea is that there aren’t many women’s shops left.

There are geeky shops.

If you look again, you will notice that many of those geeky places are also teen hangouts, or even a children’s store. In fact, the arcade is only for kids, and the Drop in And Play has videogames. Parent’s are using geeky stuff to satiate their kids. That is the plan anyway, instead, the stores with geeky things in them are surviving somehow, while the parent stores are missing.

In fact, the one store that is a chain and doing well, is the book store.

Also, there is a candy store. I have no other reason to talk about it, except to say Awesome.

The mall is doing well with Geeks. The local movie theater had a line wrapping around the mall for the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who movie.

This finally brings up the question, why are the geek stores doing well, while the other more normal stores -besides victoria secret- leaving? This is not an easy answer.

The first theory is that geeks are so much a part of Washington culture, that the stores for them are naturally doing better. Another theory is that geeks are such a specialized group, we should place them in the fancy footwear, sports clothing, and paintball shop. The last is that the geeky culture of washington is scaring off the other customers.

Geeks tend to want to meet other geeks. This is why the convention was so packed, the desire to meet people of the faith. They have grown up with geeky things, live a geeky life, and thus go to places to meet fellow geeks. It is a way of life for them. So, having a place like a comic shop means meeting people like you. It also means you can buy whatever new thing is out right there, and discuss it. Imagine a book shop, with people ready to discuss the book you are reading with a cup of coffee. Actually, you don’t have to, there is a coffee shop in all of the bookstores in Washington.

Because of this need, there are frequent customers, and money going into the shops. The geek crowd will continue to return, at the very least to help keep the shop open. You can buy a lot of this from places like Amazon, but it doesn’t come with the camaraderie. Because of this the shops stay open longer than a place like JC Pennies.

Another idea is that because of the specialization of geekiness, with its comics, boardgames, and videogames the geek stores should be placed in the same spots as specialty stores. This includes things like expensive shoe stores, sports wear, and other things.

This doesn’t quite work because the hunting store in the mall is now closed.

I was in that same store a few months ago for Christmas. As you can see, it is no longer.

Then we have stores like the paintball/airsoft shop.

You will see people dressed up in camo talking with fellow enthusiasts. The problem is that it would be hard to separate a paintball enthusiast from a general geek. We can separate someone who buys specialty shoes, from someone who plays videogames. Paintball is basically a real life game of death match, with just as much imagination, and thought process in it.

Within the theory of specialization, we would see that specialization is in a spectrum of fans with money. It’s one of the parts of how the term disruption happens. The comic book readers are the high demand customers, who want comics to be in a specific way.

As things like Amazon grow, the time may come when the comic book shops are swept under. But it is not this day. The culture will change, and new ways of meeting and talking will be introduced. The stores right now are moving more upwards to stop from being attacked by Amazon. This is why there is now a board game, and toy section in Barnes and Noble.

The final idea is that the geeks are scaring off the other customers. We don’t enjoy saying out loud, but the generic term for geek is also what we use to say unpopular. Interestingly enough there are probably more unpopular people than popular. Still, the desire to push for the geeks, will also push back against other groups.

Women trying to find cool clothes will pass by someone dressed as their favorite Anime character, and freak out.

There are various levels of geekdom, and even within the generic geek, there are those who are unpopular. We give them new names like Fedora, and neckbeard, or even Poser. The attempt to popularize the culture, may also mean a denigration of things once common among geeks.

These same people still go to comic book shops, and show their fandom. It creates a stereotype for everyone involved with geekery. This means that as people are dressing up to meet with friends, others are deciding not to go because of those same clothes. Thus, the only shops staying open are for the people dressing up, and acting as geeky as possible.

When I went into the mall, I was hoping to find some answers to questions I had. Instead, I saw a mall that was half closed, and the geek shops seemed to be thriving. In fact, the mall promoted the geek shops.

This is my third time seeing something like this. I sort of wonder what is happening. Could it be that geeks are better customers, or scaring the other customers away. I ended up with a lot more questions than answers.

On the other hand, I saw fans doing amazing things. On that same trip, I met a fellow anthropologist, she was using the comic book shop as a job and location of study. Everyone I spoke to was friendly and polite. Also, when asked, they posed when asked for a picture. So, there were answers found, and fun was had. The answers were all side questions to the giant one. Why is Washington so geeky. So far, I have no answers, but a lot of questions.