Retail Refugees

Luxist had an intersting post today about how some shopping malls are dealing with the recession and subesequent departure of anchor department stores.  Big box stores such as costco have been occupying some of these spaces while some malls are bringing in grocery stores to fil the voids.

“For the past year or so I’ve been a little obsessed with the state of shopping malls. Some stories I’ve read have said that the shopping mall is evolving into more of an outdoor shopping venue such as the Grove in Los Angeles, others have said that its disappearing entirely. One thing is for certain many malls have a lot of vacant space lately, partly because some of those anchor department stores are disappearing or consolidating. All that vacant space is forcing mall owners to get creative. One mall, the Westfield North County Shopping Mall in Escondido near San Diego, California may move a supermarket into the area that once housed a Robinsons-May store.

Big box retailers like Costco have also moved into some malls, taking over prized anchor spots vacated by department stores. Westfield already has a Gelson’s Market at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles and a Bristol Farms at Westfield San Francisco Centre and has found that overall mall sales have increased as the mall becomes one-stop shopping. There’s a hope that the big retailers will lift the sales of the smaller specialty stores in the same way that department stores did in the past.”