. >> reporter: the harvard business school's len schlesinger. mean malls like rolling acres in akron, which is just... >> no, no, no. i'm talking about the high quality malls that have been... what we call the a malls. the b malls and c malls, the ones that have never drawn high end customer bases or high end traffic, those are already in the process of being repurposed in all sorts of ways. they're becoming bowling alleys, storage facilities. and we'll continue to see the repurposing of that real estate. >> reporter: 15% of malls will fail or be converted into non- retail space in the next 10 years. why the across-the-alphabet decline? well, online shopping has doubled in the last seven years; tastes and habits have changed. >> what's the matter? you look depressed. i hate working the theatre. all the action's on the other side of the mall. >> reporter: for example, no longer are malls teeming with teens. >> what can i do for you? >> can i have your phone number so i can ask you out sometime? >> reporter: today teenagers play out their angst el