Shopping Malls and it’s Types (With Statistics) (2024)

1. Regional Mall:

A regional mall is a shopping place which offers general merchandise (a large percentage of which is apparel) and services in depth and width. A typical regional mall is usually enclosed with an inward orientation of the stores connected by a common walkway and parking surrounds the outside perimeter.

As per International Council of Shopping Centers any mall which is designed to cater large number of local people and is larger with 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m²) to 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m²) gross leasable area with at least two anchor stores is known as regional mall. These malls are proved to be good tourist attractions if are located in vacation areas.

The unique feature of such malls is that their goods such as clothes, fashion accessories, grocery, etc are made in their regions. Many of these malls provide information about lodgings, restaurants, local events, and services in their area as well. During weekends and holidays, these become a place for fun and social get together.

The main attraction of a super regional mall lies in its anchors dealing in traditional, fashion, and discount department stores.

2. Super Regional:

A super regional mall, as the vary name implies, is a shopping place which is an extension of regional malls in terms of size and merchandise assortment. As per International Council of Shopping Centers, any mall which is designed to cater large population base and is larger with over 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m²) of gross leasable area, and serves as the dominant shopping venue for the region (25 miles) in which it is located is known as super regional mall.

A super regional mall usually is an enclosed mall with three or more anchors catering visitors with mass merchants, more variety, and a deeper selection of merchandise. Most of the regional malls are multilevel and serve as dominant shopping venues for the region in which they are located.

3. Vertical Malls:

The concept of vertical mall came in existence because of the complexities of densely populated cities/nations where land price were so high that it was becoming difficult for existing retailers to think of any kind of horizontal expansion to accommodate increasing crowd to their retail outlets.

Therefore, retail stores were configured over a number of stories accessible by elevators or/and escalators connecting the different parts and levels of the mall. The main philosophy behind such creations was to dedicate each story or a part of the mall to particular theme like beauty and fashion, apparel, furniture, grocery and kitchen ware and so on.

The credit for establishing the first vertical mall goes to Mafco Company, former shopping centre development division of Marshall Field & Co, which in the year 1960 conceived the idea of a vertical mall. The Water Tower Place skyscraper was ultimately in 1975 appeared as the very first vertical mall in Chicago, Illinois.

It contains a hotel, luxury condominiums, and office space and sits atop a block-long base containing an eight-level atrium-style retail mall that fronts on the Magnificent Mile. The mall which is still operational has almost 100 shops spread in eight different levels. Besides this, mall contains several restaurants, eateries, a live theatre, arranged around a chrome-and-glass atrium with glass elevators.

Today along North Michigan Avenue, the mall has been joined by the Shops at North Bridge and the Avenue Atrium (popularly known as 900 North Michigan), both of which contain higher end retail mixes. The entire building is designed in such a way that addresses the challenge of providing separate entries and vertical circulation for, what amounts to a regional mall-scaled retail center, one department store, the theatre, offices, hotel, and residences.

It took a lot of time for the general public to adapt themselves to such malls as the primary challenge of such mall is to overcome the natural tendency of shoppers to move horizontally and encourage shoppers to move upwards and downwards. Though a vertical mall is a recent concept in countries like India and China but densely populated conurbations such as Bangkok and Hong Kong witness several decades ago.

Times Square is considered the first “vertical mall” in the Hong Kong. Due to skyrocketing land prices in Hong Kong, and the higher yield on retail property, Times Square departed itself from the common western model of the flat shopping mall and converted it into nine stories mall. The mall and lifts to the office tower were connected by long escalators linking the ground floor podium and the first level of the mall.

The most obvious reasons for establishing vertical malls are:

i. High land prices

ii. Densely populated cities

4. Strip Malls:

Strip mall (commonly known as shopping plaza, arcade or mini mall) is an open area shopping place where various stores are generally arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking arrangement in front. They face major traffic arterials and tend to be self-contained with few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods.

Strip malls are very common in most of the sub-urban areas of USA and Canada. Some of these malls are as small as 5000 square feet while others are over 100,000 square feet. These malls usually cater local population and have merchandise assortment as per the location and demand.

The other form of strip mall in the USA and Canada is usually anchored on one end by a big box retailer, such as Target, Wal-Mart, or Kohl’s, and by a large supermarket on the other. In the real estate development industry, strip malls are also known as power centres as they attract and cater to residents of a local and extended population area. The type of retailers may vary from grocery stores to book stores to electronic stores.

Though such categories of malls are very less in number, but are popular ones as compared to large number of smaller types. Number of retailers vary from area to area and may range from four or five retailers to a dozen or more.

A strip mall (also called a shopping plaza, shopping center, or mini-mall) is an open air shopping mall where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front.

They are usually referred to as power centers in the real estate development industry because they attract and cater to residents of an expanded population area. The categories of retailers may vary widely, from electronics stores to bookstores to home improvement stores.

Strip Malls:

(i) A multifaceted shopping mall containing a row of various stores, businesses, and restaurants along a road or busy street that usually opens onto a common parking lot.

(ii) In USA and Canada, strip malls are very common and generally range in size from 5,000 square feet (460 m²) to over 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²).

(iii) Small sized strip malls are very common and are found at the crossroads of major streets in residential areas catering to a small residential area.

(iv) Small size strip malls are found in almost all cities and towns the USA and Canada.

(v) These malls are service-oriented and may contain a grocery store, small restaurant, fast food stores, video rental store, dry cleaner, and other similar stores.

5. Dead Malls:

Dead malls are those malls which initially were operational like any other malls but due to some reasons now they have became unpopular and have very less or no footfall. Therefore, in spite of all facilities and retail shops, customers are not visiting to these stores. In the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, and other parts of the world some malls are declared as ‘dead’.

The main reasons for a mall to be declared as dead is the attraction of latest malls where modem facilities such as automated parking, comfortable escalators, control temperature, capsules lifts, provisions for entertainment, state of the art recreation conveniences, and multi-storeyed malls dedicated to different sections such as electronics, readymade garments, grocery, toys, jewellery & fashion are built, barring customers to visit early built malls.

In USA and other countries, many early malls have become abandoned, due to decreased traffic and tenancy. These “dead malls” have failed to attract new business and often sit unused for many years until restored or demolished. Until the mid-1990s, the trend was to build enclosed malls and to renovate older outdoor malls into enclosed ones. Such malls had advantages such as temperature control.

Since then, the trend has turned and it is once again fashionable to build open-air malls. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, only one new enclosed mall has been built in the United States since 2006.

In some cases, a mall starts dying when the mall’s adjoining areas undergoes a socio­economic decline or a larger, newer malls opens close by. Further, architectural advancements in the department store industry have made future of these malls difficult.

A few national (Big Bazaar) and international chains (Spencer, Wal-Mart) have replaced many regional chains (Six to Ten). Consequently, in some cities there are not enough traditional stores to cater local population. Big box chains such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco, Reliance Fresh, and Big Bazaar usually prefer to set-up free standing buildings rather than mall-anchor places.

Phoenix Market City is a joint venture, a concept born out of a bold vision to offer India’s urban consumers a place where they can find the best brands, entertainment, convenience and an overall exciting experience. ‘Phoenix Market City has become a name for quality and offers the most enjoyable shopping experience with the best products the world has to offer.

6. Outlet Malls:

An outlet mall (also known as outlet centre) is a brick and mortar (sometimes online retail store) is a shopping mall in which a manufacturer sells their products directly to the general public through their own retail stores. While other stores in the outlet mall sell returned products and discounted goods, generally at reduced prices.

Outlet malls are generally located in rural or occasionally in tourist locations. These malls consist mostly of manufacturers’ outlet stores selling their own brands at a discount. These malls are typically not anchored. A strip configuration is most common, although some are enclosed malls, and others can be arranged in a “village” cluster.

The first ever outlet mall was invented by Harold Alfond, founder of the Dexter Shoe Company in 1936 but the first multi-store outlet mall, Vanity Fair, opened in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1974. Belz Enterprises opened the first enclosed factory outlet mall in 1979 in Lakeland, TN, a suburb of Memphis, United States.

Features of an outlet malls:

Originally the outlet stores were located near the manufacturing facilities where shoes, apparel were made, but since outsourcing has come in practice, this strategy is not practical for most bricks and mortar stores.

The main features of an outlet malls are:

1. Prices of goods offered are comparatively less.

2. The store is owned by the manufacturer.

3. Stores are often located outside the towns to enjoy cheaper rent and grouped together with a variety of other outlet stores into what is called an outlet mall.

4. For price conscious people, the outlet store may be a great way to get savings on well-known brands but one should know that highest brand quality is not always represented at the outlet.

5. For a manufacturer, having an outlet store can be a good way to sell any irregular stock that has minor defects, which a customer would not generally accept if offered at high end store.

In addition to making a profit on non-standardised stock, an outlet store is a best place to sell off-season stock or even sometimes old-fashioned merchandise which otherwise may not attract any response if offered in other departmental stores. Besides this, the manufacturer can go one step ahead and sell those merchandise which otherwise would normally either be discarded or written off as a pure loss, because people are fascinated by getting the manufacturer’s brand name at a considerable lesser cost.

As outlet stores present win-win situation for both the customers and the trader, many companies have added a new practice to increase overall profitability. Now they intentionally produce less costly items that look similar to the original ones under the same brand names but in actual are lower in quality and sell at their outlet stores. This is where the price conscious people and bargain hunters should take care.

Note:

GLA stands for Gross Lettable Area which means the sum total of all the area which is available for rent to tenants. In most of the countries around the world GLA is usually less than the BUA (Built-up area) of a mall, because common areas such as corridors and washrooms, service areas such as waste disposal rooms, generator rooms, are nor taken as lettable.