Birth, death and shopping

Northland Shopping Center, Southfield, Michigan, 1954
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Morgan sends us a link to a summing up by The Economist of the state of retail shopping and the sales environment these days, from shopping malls to a new form of ersatz city center.

Southdale, the Minneapolis area shopping center mentioned in the article, was the first climate controlled shopping mall in the U.S. It was preceded by a few other open air centers, including Northland in Southfield, Michigan. Northland predates Southdale, and was commissioned by the same overall owner. (Dayton's also owned J.L. Hudson's in Detroit. The same company spawned Target, which is still in operation, while the department store chains have long been sold off.)