That could put them at risk of obsolescence, similar to the way dot-com era Internet Malls were quickly leapfrogged by eBay and Amazon.com.

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The expediency of bulk-leasing negotiations may explain why, despite the theory of a few years ago that the Internet would turn malls into dustbins, mall REITs in general have scored higher total returns (stock appreciation plus dividends) than other kinds of property trusts.

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Meanwhile, the less affluent are doing more to feed the goddesses of the shopping malls and Internet servers than their wealthier counterpart.

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Virtual shopping malls and Internet portals like Yahoo!

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For all the consumers who have not started shopping I advise you to venture out into the malls or the Internet.

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We've got more shopping malls than churches, we spend more time staring at Internet coupon sites than reading Shakespeare, we stomp on each other at 5 A.M. on Christmas Eve to snag that discounted laptop at Wal-Mart, a store that now sells buckets of popcorn, suggesting that shopping for Glade plug-in air fresheners is the entertainment equivalent of going to the movies.

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We've got more shopping malls than churches, we spend more time staring at Internet coupon sites than reading Shakespeare, we stomp on each other at 5 A.M. on Christmas Eve to snag that discounted laptop at Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), a store that now sells buckets of popcorn, suggesting that shopping for Glade plug-in air fresheners is the entertainment equivalent of going to the movies.

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While camp life is hardly cosmopolitan, some of the young can meet foreigners, have access to the Internet and occasionally slip out to a nearby town, or even the shopping malls and bright lights of Bangkok, Thailand's capital.

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