These threads make it obvious that most people would be okay with malls being the only place where shopping is allowed to happen.
"Our local mall is great, I don't see a need for any other malls or standalone stores. Malls provide an air conditioned space, on-site site security, and even refreshments while you shop."
I think it stems from a lack of empathy for others. I don't buy dildos so I see no reason to allow dildo stores to exist.
I have never seen a shopping mall with a sex shop. Maybe lingerie or some novelty items at a Spencer’s, but I doubt mall operators would want to deal with people complaining about their kids walking by a store selling pornography and sex toys.
They usually end up in undesirable locations or in rundown strip malls.
I go past a mall with a dildo shop inside it on my current walking commute to work.
I saw another one of the same chain in the main train station of… I think it was Hannover? I was travelling a lot by InterRail and the places are blurring together.
Zürich has (or had) a sex shop with the wares clearly visible from the outside in the expensive bit of the city centre.
Cambridge (UK) has an Ann Summers in its main shopping centre. Thinking of the UK, I’ve seen vibrating cock rings openly stocked in Tesco, which is the largest supermarket chain in the UK.
Attitudes to such topics are surprisingly flexible.
I think most of the comments here are US-centric, which also happens to be where the app stores are mostly implemented, so they come with the same source values.
Why do people find a corner-case of an analogy, and somehow think it negates the analogy?
It's just an analogy.
Of course 'some malls have sex shops' - but obviously, most of them don't.
The vast majority of corps don't want their brands anywhere near porn, sex, guns, politics, hate/contentious speech etc..
Most decent malls are actually selective of who they want in there, and the 'other residents' of the mall have a say as well.
There are an infinite number of places porn/guns/politics can be sold, so that's not a problem, it's just not going to be in a system wherein the other players are wary of it.
It's actually good reason why we need a lot of alternative points of distribution.
I wonder if there should even be some legislation around that, in terms of the kinds of app stores that are preloaded must be more 'open' and that alternative options must be provided very easily.
Thinking about them in terms of the mall or a shopping plaza is good. However, you mistakenly compared the app store with the Gap.
The app store is the mall space, numerous apps abound, as do shops. The gap might not sell porn, but Victoria secret, Spencers, Hollywood (nights?? I can't recall) exist in the mall and might not be porn but... Some retail plazas might have an adult section. Best buy or Fry's at one point had adult magazines and videos.
Some retail plazas even have other things progressives and democrats find offensive, like guns and old classic literature. Occasionally you can also find a pawn shop in a retail plaza.
There was a point where you would rent out your mall or retail space to anyone with the money to cover the cost plus a small profit. The decadence, wealth inequality, and unrealistic valuations from government interference have led to a world where it's fairly easy for some to cherry pick who they want renting from them based upon their ideological, political, or racial spectrum or beliefs. The same now occurs in our app stores.
High end malls never had any of those things, anywhere I’ve been in the US. Victoria’s Secret and Spencer’s are pretty far from sex shops or pornography in my opinion.
Not that I agree the policies of app stores to restrict items solely because they are pornography or sex related. But high end mall operators might reject sex shops for many of the same reasons.
Think of them as retail outlets, in a mall. Do you see shady stuff going on there?
Would 'The Gap' sell porn to increase profits by 15%? Of course not. And for obvious reasons.
We shouldn't think of 'App Stores' as some kind of truly open marketplaces, any more than a shopping mall is.
What we need is just more independent means of distribution.