It’s a Saturday afternoon in the summer. Your mom drops you off and says, “I’ll pick you up in three hours.” You meet your friend at the Auntie Anne’s pretzel stand, and your weekend shopping spree begins. This is the mall experience. 

Ten years ago, going to the mall was a regular weekend activity. Walking into random stores with no intention to buy anything–just to try on dumb outfits–seeing people getting their eyebrows waxed in those stands in the middle of the central lobby and begging your mom to let you jump on those giant bungee trampolines was something that we all probably experienced growing up. When was the last time you went to the mall and experienced all of that, though? It’s probably been a while, right?

It seems safe to say now that we have witnessed the downfall of malls. The culprit? Online shopping.

We love to get sucked into the “convenience” of buying everything online. There is no longer a need to take time out of your day to drive over to the mall, browse your way through multiple stores, try things on, put them back, choose another thing to try on and then buy it. It is understandably a lot easier for most of us to find time in between our classes or before bed at night to browse through an online selection, hit “buy” and wait a day or two for the package to show up at your door. 

While the anticipation of a package can be a lot of fun, the reality is it does not beat the mall experience. The convenience aspect is true sometimes, but online shopping turns into such a hassle when you don’t know what size you need. Especially since sizing can change between brands, it always feels like a gamble when you select a size. If you wait three days for that package to come in only to find out that the clothing doesn’t fit, you have to go through the nuisance of sending it back and waiting for an exchange to come in days later. Why go through so much trouble when you could go to the store and know right away if it fits or not? 

Online shopping also simply does not captivate the same experience that physically going to the mall does. The stores are all grouped together–which is an actual convenience–there’s a food court with an option for everyone’s taste, and best of all, you can people watch. What’s better than that?

We also cannot forget about the absurdity of some of the things you find in a mall. The indoor playgrounds, eyebrow waxing and massage stands, and bungee trampolines are pretty much guaranteed to be at any mall you go to. When you think about it, it is kind of strange that these things are just hanging out in the middle of the lobby. No grocery store just has a carousel in the middle of the store for funsies. If you want to go from clothes shopping to the movie theater to eating a soft pretzel and then go ride one of those mechanical animal things around the lobby, though, the only place you are going to be able to do all of that in a reasonable time period is the mall. 

Simply put, going to the mall is infinitely more fun than shopping online. Sure, there is the convenience of not having to leave your house when shopping online, but you will probably save more time by going to the mall and actually trying those clothes on anyway. Perhaps the days of making a point about going to the mall are over, but be sure to remember the excitement you felt going to one when you tell a story in 20 years about your weekend mall trip as a teenager that starts with, “Back in my day . . .”