In retrospect, I remember the Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold, NJ when I was little. Three stories of shopping, eating and on the third floor, a two-tiered carousel that I rode often as a little girl with undiagnosed childhood depression. The ride around the carousel would cheer me up just enough to watch cartoons with my father or be spoiled by grandma.

I have a plan to put in major restaurants in a complex with similar dimensions, but would restructure sit-down restaurants to be bus-your-own-table versions. The main ways to go up and down the floors is via stairs, elevators and escalators.

This is a rough idea. Bear with me as I work the details out.

Not trying to be a negative nancy on your idea, or invalidate it, but in a world with so much waste, why?
I'd prefer to see a spot where dedicated farmers or people doing it in their communities could come together to sell, eat, and sustain the community. You're guaranteed to be helping the little fellow instead of big chains, contributing to their livelihood and putting money back into where you live instead.

If you thought about how much an average take out meal costs, for two, for example at say A&W, in Canada is $16. With that money, I can literally buy two pounds of ground turkey, effectively getting four meals, a 10lb bag of potatoes, two 3lb bags of carrots, a two liter or milk, and some really nice bread. And, as I can buy all of that local, I feel better feeding that to myself and my daughter.

Malls are pretty dead and unless something drastic happens to amazingly restructure society I don't see them coming back anytime soon. They cost tons of money to maintain, have huge tax implications, they're at the mercy of their occupants, hard to police, subject to killer liability suits, and basically aren't a good idea unless people are wandering around shoveling tons of money on useless things into your pockets. Malls worked because of arcades, music stores, and other sorts of "teen hangouts;" and because there was no such thing as Amazon or Walmart.

I've seen dedicated eatery spaces built up occasionally, but they're leaning heavily on location. For instance, if you can afford several million dollars to buy prime downtown real estate near a ball park, major theater, college campus, or between unlikely-to-fold corporate tower locations? That's the sort of thing that works. Otherwise you've got to acknowledge that A. Rich people have all the money these days, the rest of us cannot afford to eat out B. People have the internet, so they're hermits that don't leave their houses C. Rich people have all the money and they do not want you to have any of it.

Personally I'm working on Plan B: Lottery tickets and practicing to make rap videos. It's probably better than Plan C, which involves blowing rich dudes in restrooms and hope one of them puts my eye out in a freak accident, well-monitored by witnesses.

This is incredible. Invest in a blowjob cam.

To be clear, we haven't exhausted Mookinem: 2 1/2 Mile (because after that I'm out of breath) yet.

This was an exercise that failed miserably. My point was to see if there was any viability to going out to eat when you have picky friends or family.

...Aren't those really the only ways, unless you have a lot of fireman poles?





Are those necessarily at odds? I mean, the structure would be a little ostentatious, but you could definitely organize something that would work.

The reason people don't eat out is that it's expensive, and companies want to make money. However, if making money isn't your goal - just making a place that's fun to eat at - then that's not a problem. All you really need to do is break even or make enough money in other investments that you can afford a moneysink.

There's a concept called "economies of scale". For instance, think about a can of tomatoes: the smaller cans cost more per ounce than larger ones. Economies of scale means that it costs less per unit to produce a larger amount.
There are also middleman markups. Essentially, you pay for services rendered between the farm and the grocery store. The factory processes the food and then sells it to a wholesaler, who markets the products to grocery stores. The factory sells the food at a higher price than it got from the farm, because it pays for the food's transportation, factory upkeep, the advertisements and brand logo, and the salaries of the people who work there. The wholesaler sells higher because it pays for transportation, salaries, and the upkeep of their location. Same for grocery stores. This is one reason store brands are cheaper: they cut out the wholesalers and receive the products directly from the factory.

Thus, buying directly from the farms would be cheaper.

Now, suppose you ran a factory in your mega food court. You would pay for buying the food, transporting it to your food court, the salaries of the workers, and the upkeep of the factory. It could be transported directly to the kitchens, which would be far cheaper than driving. Then the only costs left would be the salaries of the restaurant workers and other such costs.

What this means is that conceivably, by buying directly from the sources, taking care of the processing yourself, and deliberately charging less than it would take to make a profit, you could create a massive food court where the food is cheaper than it would be at the grocery store AND needs no preparation.

Now, if your food court was the cheapest place to get food, let alone eat out, you would have a ton of customers. In fact, depending where you put it, you could feed an entire town or city. It could become the most popular place in the area.

You would still have to pay for upkeep costs, but you could potentially do other things to make up the lack of profits. Coating the thing in windmills or solar panels, for instance. Renting out space at high rates - make it a proper mall and add in stores or vendors. Those such things. It would take a LOT of planning, but it's possible.

Again, this would only work if you really don't care about profits, and it's not likely to actually happen unless you're very wealthy and have a lot of experience in these areas. Still, if you could manage it, it would be extremely popular and help people, as well.

If making money isn't your goal then you've got no business in being involved in a business - any business at all, including non-profits. That's not to say you've got to go all "greed is good" and put on a power tie, but ultimately every business that can sufficiently be regarded as a business (meaning excluding your family farm that's paid for and pays for itself with renting out rooms to traveling salesmen, self-employed sorts, etc) has to regard profit as, if not the chief goal, the most prominent mechanism for reaching any goal. That's easy if the goal is "profit" but it's also the mechanism if you're interested in "helping other people" or "making the world a better place."

Money is the means to accomplish your goal. Never aim for a "moneysink," if you've got enough available assets that you can afford to burn it you're still better off finding someone else who will regard money as an important aspect of a business and finance them in the endeavor. It's the difference between "I like animals" and "I'm responsible enough to own a pet." If you just love animals, go to the zoo. It's better for everyone.

And that would be why I suggested other means of making a profit.