A
mall in the US has just announced a new key tenant. It is the Ford Motor
Company, and they are not selling cars. Ford has taken over the ex department
store space to locate one of its business hubs. The former retail space will
become an office and this change in use is being echoed in other shopping
centres across America.
Those
other shopping centres are transforming parts of their complexes to accommodation
and lifestyle experiences like health centres. Forbes magazine says this is
part of an adjustment in consumer behaviour - a move from shopping to more
experience based activities. Consumers still want to congregate and socialise
but not just for pure shopping. The most obvious demonstration of this trend is
in ready to eat food although there are other "entertainment" options
and this would appear to be a rich source of speculation for retail centre
designers and entrepreneurs generally.
So,
a mall that accommodates offices, hotels, entertainment, and also allows you to
buy a shirt or cosmetics, has more relevance than a mass of shops. Clearly this
wasn't the plan when these malls were built so there is plenty to play out here
although consumers do appear to be sending a clear message - give me a good
reason to congregate, enhance the experience, and I will join the party, but
pure shopping doesn't do it anymore.
The
mall in the US that inspired this story is in Detroit. The two storey
department store that Ford is taking over was a Lord & Taylor site and has
been vacant for some time. Other anchor department stores operate in the mall
although a Saks Fifth Avenue store was recently demolished to make way for restaurants.
Consumers
are looking for a variety of stimuli from their retailing destinations and it
will be important for retail centres to have the flexibility to adjust. Does
this mean that shopping centres will be based more around smaller independent and
flexible retailers in the future? Hell, we’ve been doing that for decades at
QVM although the transition in malls doesn’t exclude smaller size chain
operations and that is still a bone of contention at our market.
By
Greg Smith