US Malls Avoid Death Spiral With Help of Japanese Video Arcades

In November 2021, Eric Bunyan led a group of Japanese businesspeople through an empty space in the Danbury Fair mall that had once been a Forever 21. The girly-pop retailer had vacated the two-story, 60,000-square-foot location after going bankrupt in 2019, during a grim yearlong stretch in which the Connecticut mall had also lost its Sears and its Lord & Taylor.

Bunyan, who was in charge of leasing for the mall’s owner, Macerich Co., recognized that department stores weren’t returning to glory. The internet, he says, meant “there are better, faster, cheaper options” for buying underwear and T‑shirts. He thought his guests, representatives from the Japanese arcade chain Round One Corp., might offer a way to turn the massive space into something that would actually inspire people to leave their homes.