Like most malls across the United States, North Wilmington’s Concord Mall has been struggling for years. Now a Philadelphia-area developer that specializes in repurposing moribund malls wants to buy it in hopes of turning it into a mixed-use property with a grocery store, fitness center and outdoor green space.
Enclosed shopping malls had a good run. They dominated the American retail landscape from the late ’60s to the turn of the century, when shopping habits shifted to big-box stores and online shopping. In the days before internet connectivity, the mall gave suburban teenagers a place to hang out, giving rise to the mall culture that gave moviemaker Kevin Smith a career. Gen Z has grown up without it.
Kevin Smith wasn’t alone in mining mall culture for creative material. Robert Hazard, the Philadelphia singer whose electro-pop ruled the Philly music scene during the New Wave era of the early ’80s, came closest to a national hit with “Escalator of Life” in 1982. The song spent nine weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 but reached no higher than No. 58.
The record company was invested enough in the song to produce a second video, but this was the early days of MTV, and the crude technology employed made it look even cheesier than the first.
