‘Not Dead, Just Changing’: What The Future Holds For The American Mall

If the mall killed Main Street, then this must be Main Street’s moment for schadenfreude. Real Estate Investment Trust stocks have dropped 18% in the past year, Bloomberg recently reported, and while mall executives would prefer to see the current decline as a transformative period rather than a death knell, that may be wishful thinking. Not all malls are created equal, of course. A-class malls are thriving, due to a premier selection of retail and restaurant tenants that successfully target the affluent communities they serve. However, B and C class malls are struggling to find customers and keep tenants, as anchor department stores such as Macy’s and Sears, and fashion retailers such as Payless, BCBG and The Limited continue to shutter. Although analysts are right to blame the internet in part for the decline of malls, department stores have also contributed to the problem, and sometimes in unexpected ways. “Department stores don’t want to hear this, but, today, anchor stores are really nothing more than fancy entrances into the mall,” Ray Hartjen, director of marketing for RetailNext, a business analytics group, told Retail Dive. “If shoppers are shopping the anchor department store, they’re there to do just that, and not browse the rest of the mall. For those shoppers going to other stores, if the anchor department store is closed, well, there’s always another entrance to the mall.” Read more at Retail Dive.