Malls are losing their most lucrative customers
Women are visiting the mall about eight times per year, down from 18 times annually in 2014, according to a new Piper Jaffray survey.
The share of women who visit the mall on a weekly basis has dropped from 22% to 6% over the same time period.
Piper Jaffray
Meanwhile, teen mall traffic has dropped 30% to 29 visits per year since 2007.
The traffic declines have coincided with dozens of mall closures across the country.
In the last four years, more than two dozen malls have shut down. Another 60 malls are on the brink of death, The New York Times reported, citing Green Street Advisors, a real-estate and real estate investments trust analytics firm.
Piper Jaffray analysts said women are choosing to shop at discount and specialty stores over malls when it comes to purchases for their homes.
"Though her visits to the mall are on the decline, we note she is increasingly choosing to shop at department stores when shopping for herself and discount and specialty stores when shopping for her home," analysts wrote.
For teens, restaurants have replaced shopping malls as a favorite hang-out spot.
When millennials were teenagers, they were spending the majority of their budgets on clothing, according to Piper Jaffray. But today's teens, who are members of Generation Z, spend most of their money on food and beverages, the company's surveys found.
Starbucks is teens' favorite restaurant brand, followed by McDonald's, Chipotle, Olive Garden, and Taco Bell.
The chart shows the decline in teen mall traffic over the last several years.
Piper Jaffray