Surprising Images of How Empty Bossier City’s Mall Really Is
The Pierre Bossier Mall is nestled between Airline Drive and East Texas Street in Bossier City. It sits just off I-20, and represents the powerhouse of retail that malls across America once were.
The Pierre Bossier Mall threw their doors open for the first time 40 years ago. At its peak, it housed over 70 retail stores, a movie theatre, and food court. Some local residents tell tales of how great the food court inside of Bossier's mall once was. Claiming it offered food options that were equal to anything else in Bossier at the time.
But as things started slipping, things started leaving. Service Merchandise closed in 1999. The Bossier 6 movie theatre closed in the year 2000. The food court started to see high turnover, and eventually the iconic anchor store, Sears, would close in 2018.
Now the mall is a shell of its former glory. Even stores like Game Stop have left the Pierre Bossier Mall.
Now this isn't a Bossier only issue. In fact, looking over the river at Shreveport's Mall St. Vincent, you can see there are plenty of issues in the area. But not all malls are dying, contrary to popular belief.
Some may blame Amazon, while others blame real estate developer greed. But as Retail Archaeology points out, there are some really successful malls in the US.
Most of the successful malls remain in high income areas, because the issue is likely based on the shrinking middle class more than Amazon. The fact that most of the wealth shift in the US over the last 30 years has gone to the upper class has shrunk the middle class to almost not existing. So without a middle class, places like Shreveport and Bossier can't support a middle class mall. While the malls in places like Costa Mesa, California, Central Valley, New York, San Francisco, or Aventura, Florida are all performing well.
Anyway, enough of that. Here's a look inside the Pierre Bossier Mall today: