u/KviingK

It’s actually so annoying how you can download a whole season and 1 to 3 episodes absolutely REFUSE to download.

It obviously just isn’t me - a quick google search will show that countless other people experience it too. And yes, we have tried all the normal “tech support” things. Enough space, 5G WiFi connection, forced close and reset, less than 20 eps. The 20 episodes rule isn’t even true, I can download later episodes (eg. episode 6 or 7) but the one I tried to download will just stay stagnant

Is it too much to ask for the service we pay for to function normally? Especially during Ani-May? I know not everyone downloads, but those of us who do PAY for it, and I’m not paying to have a few episodes skipped.

There doesn’t seem to be a sure fire fix or an obvious trigger to reset whatever bug this is. Has anyone had any luck?

Long read, so grab a snack!

I’m sure we’ve all been to a shopping center in this area. You could probably tell me 3 of the stores in the Greenbrier area, 3 in the Lynnhaven Area, even 3 in the Patrick Henry Mall area. I guarantee that at least 2 of the stores mentioned in Greenbrier are in the PTC (Peninsula Town Center) area, and the same could be said for any other shopping centers in the 757.

This is called “Retail Monoculture” and it’s STRIPPING our local economy. Let’s take Military Circle Mall for an example. Military Circle Mall was very prevalent in the area and home to many major departments like Macy’s, Sears, and JCP. When these chains struggled nationally between 2009 and 2016, the mall rapidly failed, and eventually closed.

Retail Monoculture is vulnerable to “all-at-once” failure, meaning if an anchor store goes bankrupt or fails, it creates a massive dead zone for the area that smaller (smaller in the sense of corporate value, but physical locations work in this case too for certain situations) chains & stores usually cannot survive. Here’s another example: MacArthur Mall.

This beautiful mall was centered around Nordstrom and Dillards. When Nordstrom pulled out in 2019, foot traffic immediately cratered. This caused smaller stores like Apple and J. Crew to pull out, creating a larger domino effect. Skip to 2023, and the city had to BUY the mall just to gain control of the dead land. Starting to see a pattern? Pembroke, Coliseum Central and Chesapeake Square Mall suffered similar fates.

We can’t just chalk this up to “coincidence” either. When EVERY shopping center is built on the confidence of the same few national chains, we aren’t creating unique shopping centers that attract attention. It’s copying and pasting the formula across the entire 757. And when that formula breaks, it does so everywhere, all at once.

We’re then left with massive empty structures, a steep decline in **foot** traffic (foot traffic, specific traffic, and car-related traffic are all different things with different impacts) and cities scrambling to come up with a plan that sounds better on paper.

I’m not an economist or a degree holder, but I am a taxpayer and a resident of 21 years. I can tell you what the solution isn’t: more big box stores. Big-box anchors don’t have to be the backbone of EVERY shopping center. We need spaces that require diversity to thrive, such as Selden Market. Smaller stores means lower barriers to entry that encourages mixed-use instead of turning retail into isolated, repetitive hubs.

Local biz doesn’t fail “everywhere all at once”. Local biz typically doesn’t fail overnight like K-mart or Sears. They’re rooted here and stability matters. A plaza full of 10 different local spots is a million times more resilient than 3 chains acting like a “shopping center”.

And to our officials, let’s not wait until after collapse and let’s plan before it. Waiting till a mall is dead then buying it back is pure damage control, there’s no logic behind it.

Now, whether or not online shopping is the catalyst for national chains failing is an entirely different conversation, but it probably is. These are just the ramblings of a youth who misses the local malls in his area. The question remains, though:

Do we want a local economy? Or do we want a bunch of leased spaces controlled by corporations that can pull out whenever they want?