I read in Spacing (of all places) that they're replacing Centre Mall with a big-box power centre.
This has me wondering why power centres are considered superior to malls. (Obviously they are considered superior, because malls were invented/popularized first. They wouldn't have come up with power centres if they thought malls were superior.)
When you go to a power centre, you're going to only one store or to the specific stores on your list. It's set up so that you're probably going to drive from store to store, and you have no particular reason to go into any stores that you weren't planning to visit.
However, in a mall, you walk past a whole bunch of stores, and they're usually open onto the common areas with the contents very visible so you can just sort of drift in and browse casually. You see a shirt you like, you end up wandering into a store you weren't planning to go into at all.
If I were a retail business, I'd certainly want to be set up in a way that encourages passers-by to come in and have a look around. So why do businesses think big box is better?
4 comments:
I suspect that it has more to do with the property developers than the retailers themselves. If you've got, say, ten acres of urban area to develop into a retail centre, it's much easier to build six stand-alone big box stores -- less hassle to deal with renters, less work to create and maintain an agreeable indoor space, much smaller property management costs and commitment.
Until shoppers make a decisive move back to malls, they're not going to build new malls.
I say this with some sad nostalgia, because I was there when the new K-mart wing opened at Centre Mall. They had an awesome arcade there, too...
God that sucks! No space for smaller retailers, no public space, no food courts, a physical layout that turns drivers into raging assholes...
Why do people shop at these places anyway?
I think M@ is correct. It's all down to developers, not consumers.
"Why do people shop at these places anyway?"
I loathe malls beyond my ability to express. I prefer power centres, although I only recently learned they are called that.
Here's why.
I hate shopping and hate crowds. And now, I drive. So I drive to the one store than has what I need, go in and buy it, and leave. With the power centre, I save up a small list of things I need, drive over there and get everything I need.
I don't have to walk past 30 stores I don't need in order to get to the one I do need.
I detest what passes for public space in a mall, because it's not public at all, it's private commercial space.
I never see small retailers at malls, because they can't afford the rent. To me small retailers are found either on urban streets or suburban strip malls (ugly but essential).
Maybe malls are for people who like shopping?
That's weird, I like malls because i hate shopping. But then, for clothes especially, I never reliably know which store (if any) is going to have what I need, so with a mall it's only one trip and I can quickly scan a lot of different stores without having to engage or interact with the salespeople until I'm ready. If I go into some small store on Yonge St. that I've never been in before, I don't know if they'll be set up so that you have to have the salespeople help you, I don't know if they'll be out of my price range, I don't know if I'll be sized out of the entire store, I have no idea what to expect when I walk in the door. In a mall I can do recon.
There are chain retailers who do small stores that would be too small for a power centre (Reitman's, Smart Set, Fairweather, etc.) Since these seem to be the most reliable sources of clothing for me, I'd hate to see them shut out.
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