Those who say traditional retailers stand no chance against Amazon aren’t looking at small town malls: they’re doing just fine, thank you.
Writing for the Washington Post, author Jill Rothenberg notes that major anchor tenants like “Macy’s and J.C. Penney, for instance, have in recent years reported crippling losses and widespread store closures”. She goes on to say:
When those big anchor stores close, suburban malls find it hard to replace them. Many ’60s- and ’70s-era enclosed malls have been abandoned, razed or reimagined.
The place where old-fashioned malls are beating Amazon: Small-town America
Hair freshly done from the beauty parlor on a recent Friday morning, Ada Clark, 93, and her daughter Carol, 63, met in front of the J.C. Penney in the Pueblo Mall, about 100 miles south of Denver. Their afternoon plan: a walk around the mall, followed by lunch at Red Lobster.
A Big Deal in Small Towns
But that’s not always the case, especially in smaller towns. Rotherberg cites a mall in Pueblo, Colorado as a great example. It’s the biggest thing for miles, drawing shoppers from “…many small towns east to Kansas and south to New Mexico”. Quoting Steve Francis, 60, of Lamar, a town of nearly 8,000 people 120 miles east of Pueblo near the Kansas border:
Any time I get out of town to go to the mall and maybe to Sam’s Club, I guarantee that within an hour or so, I’m going to run into someone I know… You take your family, your neighbors, and you make a day of it. The Pueblo Mall isn’t just the only game in town two hours away, it’s the only game in town for three counties.
Adding some expert analysis to that, Amy Raskin, who follows urbanization trends as chief investment officer at Chevy Chase Trust, thinks that “…with department store closings, many malls will have to get creative with how they utilize space”. She notes that many malls nationwide have converted space into multifamily residential units, whereas more rural malls may take on nonstandard anchor tenants, such as a Walmart.
And the metrics at Pueblo Mall back her up: mall Manager Timothy Schweitzer says sales are up 3-5%, staying at a respectable $400 per square foot recently. That’s not the only benefit the mall brings to Pueblo, either. It is one of the city’s three largest employers, with more than 1100 retail jobs.
“It’s My Town’s Mall”
David Mitroff of Piedmont Avenue Consulting in Oakland, California thinks that smaller malls will “…compete by tailoring themselves to their consumers”. He adds:
…the mall has barber shops, gyms, local stores and other things you can’t just buy on Amazon. Or you can go see what they have. You can touch it.
It reinforces ‘this is our mall, this is our city, let’s shop there’ …Especially if it’s the same price, why wouldn’t you do that?
Furthering their outreach, Rothenberg says that they hold “…community events throughout the year, including a ‘Walk with a Doc’ mall-walking program, health fairs, school concerts and, recently, a Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Day and a ‘Pueblo’s Got Talent’ showcase.
With everything considered, the Pueblo Mall—and many small-town malls across the country—is doing just fine against Amazon and other on-line retailers.
And they can still be great investments. René Nelson and her team keep their fingers on the pulse of retail throughout the region. Visit eugene-commercial.com or give her a call at (541) 912-6583.
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