Mid-Cities Mall in Manitowoc Wisconsin missed the evolution

 

Mid-Cities Mall opened in 1968, anchored by Penney's and Montgomery Ward.  It was located on the northeast side of Manitowoc.  (That's Lake Michigan at right in the aerial photo.)

By the mid-1980s, the mall began to struggle as retailers preferred to located their stores within easy driving distance of Interstate 43 on the western edge of Manitowoc.

In January 2011, Penney's was the last mall store to close.

Photos by Retiring Guy

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/21/2023

Among the other losers:

Wisconsin has fewer malls compared to 20 years ago as online retailing continues to grow and full-service department stores lose market share to discount and specialty retailers. 

Along with Milwaukee's Northridge Mall, which closed in 2003 and remains vacant, Sheboygan's Memorial Mall was demolished in 2017 to make way for a Meijer supermarket-discount store and downtown Green Bay's Port Plaza Mall was demolished in 2012 and replaced with new uses − including Schreiber Foods' headquarters. 

City Center Mall, in Oshkosh, was converted to call centers as well as a restaurant and event hall, Becket’s, which hosts weddings in the mall’s former center court.

The mall was demolished in 2015, and the site has remained vacant ever since.

Related posts:

Dear Manitowoc shopping mall aficionados, It';s too late baby!  Best, Retiring Guy.  (6/10/2023)

Visit to the site of the former Mid-Cities Dead Mall in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  (6/5/2023)

Malls in America: Everything's coming up roses.  (9/24/2022)

New Jersey news:  Phillipsburg Mall death watch.  (1/29/2020)

Greetings from Trump's America: Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, where the mall has recently lost four anchor stores.  (1/28/2020) 
Westgate UPDATE: Last nail to be hammered in April.  (1/11/2020)
Warren Mall losing the last of its original (1979) tenants.  (4/19/2018)
Get me rewrite: Natural gas odor forces evacuation of all 5 guests at the Shops of Grand Avenue.  (12/21/2017)
Not a seagull to be seen at site of former deadest of dead malls.  (7/28/2020)