Born and raised in Washington, D.C., currently living in Philadelphia, Megan is focused on How we use storytelling and the sharing of life expriences to effect real change

Malls are dying.

Abdul Mannan was perched on a stool, scrolling through his phone, on a recent afternoon at Lakeforest Mall in suburban Washington. He was two hours into his shift at a jewelry kiosk and had yet to exchange words with a single customer.

There was a time, he says, when business was brisk, and the Gaithersburg, Md., shopping center teemed with shoppers. But that was before the J.C. Penney at the end of the corridor closed this summer. The Lord & Taylor went dark a few months later, and soon Sears will be gone, too.

“Some days, we don’t sell anything,” Mannan, 28, said. “Not one penny. You see the mall? It’s empty.”

Continue reading The Washington Post here, courtesy of Abha Bhattarai.

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