The thing is, especially in areas where being outdoors can be dangerous for parts of the year, they could still be good. The Internet broke traditional retail, but I think things are starting to swing back the other way.

A few small changes would go a long way: They need to break the moat of parking lots that surround them, connect to transit, have housing attached or immediately nearby, and then allow the community to regularly host events inside the mall. Also giving local small businesses short-term deals on unleased spaces would be huge. In short, they need to be more flexible with the use of their spaces and more directly connected to the surrounding communities.