What I'm getting at is perhaps 20 years ago there was hysteria about teens in malls being disruptive / troublemakers therefore rentacops to chase them away so the financially valuable moms and dads can shop in peace and comfort. I knew about the crackdown so I never even bothered going to the mall as a teen. As a young adult at lunch hour at my first real job, a business formal suit and tie establishment, I bought some nice expensive clothes, walking thru the mall to my car after obviously shopping at my lunch (I took off the sports coat of my business suit) and got severely hassled by a rentacop about what I'm doing there and where are my parents, etc. Pretty much like I heard they treat teens except they didn't call the cops and issue a loitering ticket to me. Never went back there again.
The long term problem with treating teens like dirt, is they eventually grow up into adults some of which have fat stacks of cash and would make fantastic customers, however there's no way in hell they're ever going back to that place again.
It appears mall security was very effective there. Nothing left in there but urbanware clothing, tennis shoes, cell phones, and really cheap jewelry left. Its not that the neighborhood has done downhill, can't count how many million dollar condos within a mile.
What happens when you go to the mall? What type are you? I sometimes visited malls while under 40 and I never got hassled, so I'm curious.