I went to Fairlane two days before Christmas and the mall was almost completely devoid of shoppers. It was the first time I had been there in several years. Driving up to the mall I knew something was off since at least 75% of the parking lot was empty. When I got inside I was the only person shopping in many of the stores I stopped at. The foot traffic looked more like a slow summer afternoon than the day before Christmas Eve. Even in Sears there seemed to be more workers than actual shoppers -- and not really that many of either group -- so I ended up buying a video game partly out of pity.

Is this the next mall to die? I haven't been to any of the other inner ring malls in a very long time, but I always thought that Fairlane was the strongest of that group. Are Northland and Eastland doing worse than this?