Mall of America's recipe for success includes an amusement park, pop-up stores, weddings and raves. Can local malls take a page from the country's largest shopping center?
Mall of America's recipe for success includes an amusement park, pop-up stores, weddings and raves. Can local malls take a page from the country's largest shopping center?Mall of America's amusement park is one of the ways the shopping center lures tourists and locals to make a day of their visit.In the bleary predawn hours, it's hard to tell Mall of America from any other high-end shopping center. Workers wield mops, hammers and forklifts.
It was rare then; it's still rare now. But the idea behind it — dubbed"retailtainment" — is a strategy many believe could save the American mall.People don't visit malls like they used to. For two decades, shopping centers have lost sales to the Internet. Foot traffic at indoor malls isAt the same time, malls have sprawled so much that per capita, Americans still have four times more retail real estate than Europeans, says retail expert Mohit Mohal.
They're adding activities that"traditionally — 20 years back — people would have not gone to a mall for," Mohal says."And that"I don't think it's the silver bullet, nor would I say that malls are dying, but I would say malls are evolving," he adds.By lunchtime, Mall of America is teeming with toddlers toting Build-A-Bears, babies bouncing in strollers, adults studying store maps. A girl, around 10 years old, dangles from the top of a human claw machine.
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