Dive Brief:
-
Mall owners are reconsidering the traditional approach of their properties, the Wall Street Journal reports, in many cases replacing departing anchor stores with other businesses and creating a less retail-heavy, more mixed use space.
-
Some department stores are now dragging a mall down instead of stabilizing it, in the unfortunate, nautical definition of an anchor, according to the Journal.
-
Malls across the country are also losing their anchor retailers as Macy’s, Sears, and other department stores continue to close stores.
Dive Insight:
Some of the most successful malls in the U.S. these days have morphed into spectacular destination spots. The quintessential example may be the sprawling Grove in Los Angeles, one of the highest grossing shopping centers in the country and a clear departure from the traditional American mall.
The Grove and malls like it offer a wide variety of amenities and entertainment — not just movies (though there is a theater there) but also live shows. There’s a free trolley, a farmers market, and a park in addition to a variety of retail and restaurant options.
But this massive level of entertainment and attractions isn't possible for every mall across America. What about malls that operate on a smaller scale, in places that would never attract the level of tourism that keep a place like the Grove afloat?
The bread-and-butter malls that dot the suburban American landscape have largely been behind-the-scenes players, with consumer interactions left largely to the retailers housed there. Now, though, malls are finding success by stepping more into view, using technology to finesse things like communications with shoppers and help with mild frustration like parking.
One way to connect more with consumers is to present a mall as a community resource, not just a place to shop. While traditionally it’s been anchor tenants like department stores that were seen as bringing in shoppers, who would also float by smaller specialty retailers as they walked through, in recent years malls have added amenities like gyms and even medical and dental offices.
“Those are the new anchors. No longer should you have five department stores,” Green Street senior analyst Daniel Busch told the Wall Street Journal. Mall owners these days “have to be creative.”