Open Up to Mall Locating

Retail malls are forgetting about walls so they can broaden the view and the definition of retailer. The Washington Post reports that only one enclosed shopping mall has been built in America since 2006. According to Utah Facilities, this one—City Creek Center in Salt Lake City—has a retractable sky-view glass roof expected to be open 70% of the time. So I’m not sure even it qualifies as an enclosed mall.
     Into the open-architecture malls in America are moving professionals, health care providers, government offices, hotels, and apartments. If you choose to launch a store in such a mall, here are research-based tips:

• Look for variety among the retailers not only in product line, but also in personality. The personality of your store shouldn’t match too closely that of surrounding stores unless your prime target market is teens. Researchers at Northwestern University and Emory University explored how adults can tire of lifestyle marketing, in which a product or store brand is positioned as a forum for the customer’s self-expression. Even when the stores adjoining yours are selling completely different product lines than you do, if the personality of your store duplicates that of a bunch of others in the immediate vicinity, adults become more likely to go to another area to continue their shopping. 
• Locate near stores where people will want to dwell. Cafés, dress shops, hardware stores, and book shops are examples. But any store appealing to a specialty interest and staffed by experts can increase dwell time. 
• Check that there’s a place for place making. Outside the stores themselves, dwell time is enhanced by place making. This term refers to creating plazas where people can gather and decorative corridors where they can stroll. Place making encourages those from outside the area to patronize the stores surrounding the plaza and walkways. It encourages locals to become more interested in staying around when spending their money. The Salt Lake City mall gets its name from a manufactured creek, 1,200 feet long, running through. 
• Hobnob with other retailers in the mall, keeping in mind that with your new neighbors, the definition of retailer may very well have been broadened. Answer questions. Offer advice. Carve time from your nonstop schedule to visit the competition to see what you sell that they don’t. When you spot those products and services, tell the floor staff how pleased you’d be to get referrals. 

Click below for more: 
Increase Home Prices in Your Neighborhood 
Carve Out an Off-Center Store Personality 
Watch Out for Discrimination 
Go Uptown by Opening Downtown 
Hobnob with Your Neighborhood Retailers