Shopping Center Business
There is an age old adage that says, "It takes one to know one." And this is certainly true if you are contemplating on such a huge scale project as putting up a shopping center.
These days, a shopping center is more popularly known as “the mall.” So what makes a mall work, and what makes it fail? There are a lot of variables to consider when setting up a mall.
First of all, we define what a mall is. A shopping center / shopping mall / shopping arcade / shopping precinct / mall is comprised of a group of retail stores that reside within a single or connected architectural plan with adjacent parking area(s) and interconnecting walkways. The mall supplies most of the basic shopping needs especially in suburban areas. These days, restaurants have become prominent features of most malls. In fact, almost everything can be found in the malls now. There are gyms, beauty salons, bill payment centers, conference areas, concert areas, dentists, dermatologists, therapeutic clinics, travel agencies, banks and even polling areas in some malls. Retail stores can be a mixture of local shops or franchise stores; it can cater to popular taste or to high street.
Classification of Shopping Centers
Malls can be classified as super malls, regional malls, super regional malls, outlet malls.
The most prevalent trend these days is the creation of super malls: large super structures which include office spaces, residential spaces, and amusement parks, to name a few.
Regional shopping malls are malls which are designed to service a larger area than any conventional shopping mall. They usually occupy a larger working area and certainly offer a wider selection of stores. This seemingly large capacity affords higher-end stores to cover a larger selling area in order for their services to be profitable. Often, regional malls are also considered as tourist attraction in many vacation areas.
Super regional malls usually cover about 800,000 square feet or more, and may serve as the dominant shopping venue for the region where it is located.
Outlet malls are another example of mall classification. Also called outlet centers, these are shopping centers in which manufacturers sell their products directly to the public through their own stores. Sometimes, the other stores in these malls are operated by retailers selling returned goods and / or discontinued products at much reduced prices.
Components of Malls
Some popular components of successful malls include the following: department stores, food courts, recreation centers.
Department stores are also called anchor stores or draw tenants. These larger stores generally have their rents heavily discounted, and are considered as traffic anchors that could eventually draw people to the smaller retail stores nearby. In some cases, department stores may even receive cash inducements from the mall to remain open.
Food courts are usually groups or clusters of shop stalls offering different local and international cuisines, franchise stalls of popular take-out foods, candy, etc. where meals are ordered singly and then carried to a common dining area. The usual set-up is that the dining area is surrounded, (and with some, totally enclosed) by the multiple food vendors.
Recreation centers run the gamut of every possible R&R activity. There are play pens for the very young children, arcades for the school-aged child, and massage parlors for the adults, etc. Spa treatment centers, beauty parlors, concert venues, and cinemas are all part of the recreation centers, and these also help generate traffic into the mall.
Until recently, business establishments are not staple sites in the shopping centers. These days, banks, staffing services, even second language schools can be found in the malls.
If you are all set to start your own shopping center then you must register with International Council of Shopping Centers to learn business ethics, how to promote, improve management and marketing as well.
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