Satellite towns are going to need some upgrading: the neighbourhood malls require more amenities and services. There has to be more shops around the malls to provide alternatives and greater variety. Because working from home is probably here to stay. Besides the way we consume housing, the demands we place on our neighbourhood malls are going to change. We will probably shop more there and lunch options will need to be more varied, not just catering to students after school.
Shops in the major town areas including eating outlets are going to consider moving out into more residential areas, fragmenting flagship stores into local distribution points. There can actually be more combinations of online-to-offline business models with this change in landscape. Because a small shop in the neighbourhood is never going to rival the variety one can offer up in a flagship store, you want to allow customers to access the greater range of products through digital means either at the store or nearby so they can eventually consume at the store or bring it home from there.
Food options will have to go beyond the usual chain outlets and provide takeaways or delivery options with ease. Malls can start considering ways in which the last-mile food logistics can be better organised than having an army of grab delivery or foodpanda delivery men/ladies sitting outside malls. Perhaps some kind of central holding area where food will be pushed to for that mall?
Food courts can start simplifying their dinning areas (if they are not keen on having crowds gather and sit for long), maybe even combining kitchens to create cloud-kitchen type of setup.
The smaller scale amenities that may be a little “odd” or less consumer-ish such as the laundromat, dry-cleaner, money-changer, hardware shops can be organised around the malls. These outlets may need to serve people who are there for a clear purpose and don’t enjoy as much agglomeration economies.