Shoppers on Your Marks, Get Set, Shop! Speedway to Become Mall
Shopping centers spring up in some interesting places. Usually they need lots of land, and would ideally be in areas near populated areas that need and depend on their services. Once in a while, a piece of property becomes available that has some cachet to it as well. In California, the Irwindale Speedway will become a 700,000-square-foot mall after it closes next January. While your humble e-newsletter editor has raced cars inside a mall before (see pic), he’d no doubt enjoy a large oval track that goes around a mall, in this case as a tribute to its soon-to-be former location. Just planting the seeds of an idea.
Advice from the Trenches: Help Your Shoppers Get to You
We always hear stories about technology this and digital that being the next big things in retail. But what If you took the advice of a pro from deep in the trenches? One who succeeded at every turn in the retail world? Today’s dose of inspiration comes from a profile of Jean Guinup in WILMA Magazine out of North Carolina. Jean started as the general manager of Woodbury Common in Orange County, NY (now known as Woodbury Common Premium Outlets) and worked her way up to vice president of marketing for the Northeast Region of Simon’s Premium Outlet Division. While she recognized “shopping is the number one activity in all visitor statistics, the fact remains that people still need to arrive at a particular destination before they shop, so it’s in the interest of a business to be involved in the marketing of that destination.” So she worked with airlines, hotels, resorts, credit card companies, tour operators to bring a steady stream of shoppers to Woodbury Common, and it worked. They’ve recently completed a massive renovation project. Who’s clicking?
Can Your Shopping Center Top These?
The thing about Internet articles is that they are often incomplete, and sometimes they age so you might read them a little while after they’ve been published, and could use some refreshing. Case in point: this list claims to represent “The world’s most over-the-top shopping malls.” Challenge accepted! Check out the list and tell us if you’ve got something or seen something more impressive than these. Honorable mention: Justin Bieber dancing at The Galleria last year in Houston, TX, with a Houston police officer.
DMM Fun-Facts
DMM/ShoppingCenters.com currently boasts over 8,300 major shopping centers with a total of 3.6 Billion sq. ft. of retail space. Tenant listings now top 316,000 stores and 27,418 primary shopping center and malls contacts. DMM’s data is presented and organized in a way that makes the most sense for you and your business. To take advantage of our online and customized data products, click here.