LifeStyle Centers Hope to Increase Customer
Consumption and Change the Future of Malls 

 The traditional construction of malls is being revamped for the future. Currently, there are very few plans on the table to actually erect malls that are completely enclosed. A relatively old idea is being brought back into popularity. Currently, lifestyle centers are the biggest concern with developers in modernizing retail stores. A lifestyle center is typically your old-fashioned street with possibly trees, fountains, and colorfully erected stores. The lifestyle name was created by Poag & McEwen in Memphis in the late 1980’s, when very few were in existence. All of these businesses are connected together in a mall-like environment, but are outdoors and connected together by route of footpaths.

      In comparison, the regular typical indoor mall has been growing each decade to enormous and monstrous sizes. The first indoor mall was created in Edina, Minnesota in 1956 by Victor Gruen. It’s been half a century since the construction of shopping centers has vastly changed. Mostly what is interesting about the huge change in the style of modern mall construction is that they more closely resemble the downtown street shopping that mega malls were originally created to replace. However, there is the exception that these lifestyle places are privately owned and all citizens must abide by stores’ public rules.

      The benefit for businesses with the design of lifestyle centers is that they are able to draw more consumers in directly. Inside of a typical mall, people congregate and often cause traffic by just browsing. In a more open format, customers actually have to make independent decisions if they’d like to go inside of a place. There is more effort involved with viewing stores in the open lifestyle format because people have to physically walk into stores. Customers have statistically proven so far in going to downtown shopping centers, that they have more of a purpose in mind of what they want to buy. They spend less time browsing stores and come out with more purchases. In consequence, purchase rates can significantly rise if enough attention is grasped and marketers are left happier.

      Additionally, these mega downtown centers include theatres, restaurants, and entertainment facilities to intrigue even more guests than a regular or typical mall. There is more room for IMAX theatres, sporting clubs, theatres, larger bookstores, and varieties of restaurants. There are very few limitations in building lifestyle malls. The construction is more graceful and old school because it eliminates huge parking lots, traffic, and gigantic boxed structures that only pollute the natural landscaping of suburban towns. Developers have also considered attaching apartments to these downtown lifestyle shopping centers in order to create a more city-like atmosphere. These constructions may detract away from the suburban style of living, but they provide efficiency for the public.

      Some lifestyle malls have had great success stories. Popular outdoor malls have usually been modeled in warmer climates, such as California. The Promenade in Santa Monica is one of the most famous outdoor malls in America that hosts over two hundred shops and several restaurants, along streets only for walking. The only question in constructing these new malls is if colder climates will accept them with the same eagerness as other parts of the country have widely demonstrated. Sometime in 2006 New York is getting their very first lifestyle mall. The Ridge Hill Village Center is said to open in Yonkers, complete with movie theatres, office space, housing, and plenty of retail stores. It’s certainly different and definitely innovative in mall designing. This should be a true test for the malls of the future.  
 

Chloe Leery is a freelance writer and proofreader that formerly worked with senior-level copywriters in the creative advertising industry. She is currently a writer for The Successful Office Group based out of New York.