Food Can’t Be Served Online, So – Food Halls!
If there’s anything that’s online-proof (at least for now), it’s food. Prepared food, served hot (or cold, as some is designed to be) in a unique atmosphere with good people and thirst-quenching beverages, with no mess to clean up afterwards. Food halls are becoming a hot trend in dining out. True, they’re not exactly new, and malls have been dominated by food courts over the years, but the new food halls (unlike, say Faneuil Hall in Boston), are “all about artisanal, locally-curated food and, in some cases, celebrity chefs,” writes Amanda Fung for Yahoo! Finance. “It’s popular with landlords because it’s popular with tenants,” said Garrick Brown, vice president of retail experiences for commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Amazon Go Not Yet – Here are Four Ideas Retail Will See Sooner
Last month we documented Amazon’s recent foray into real-world retail (albeit without cashiers – a prototype test store in Seattle). Inc. Magazine recently noted that the technology isn’t likely to be mainstream soon, as it is very expensive and most Americans don’t use mobile paying technology yet either. The magazine suggests four other ideas for retail are more likely to happen first, including smart home technologies and more sophisticated tracking of consumers. “The data collected can help stores better understand customers’ traffic flow and better adjust where to place products in the store,” writer Michelle Cheng notes.
Dubai Mall Takes Care of Shoppers Who “Shop ‘til They Drop”
When your humble e-newsletter editor is on one of his frequent jaunts to his local mall, he often seeks a chair, or bench, or flower pot, or, mercy me – a mattress store! – just to rest his weary feet. The Dubai Mall recently brought in sleep pods for power shoppers who just need a little power nap. They feature “a socket so that you can charge your phone while you rest and have a shutter that can be pulled across for privacy,” as reported in Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. We’re pretty sure these guys would love to give them a try. Which mall in North America will be first to try these? Tell us via Twitter or on our “Contact” page.
DMM: Partners Toot our Horn (Thank you!)
You may have noticed a new look to our website, ShoppingCenters.com. We’ve made things easier to find, streamlined access to our Retail Intelligence Solutions, and added a killer “About Us” page that summarizes the benefits we bring to you. We’ve also separated out the various segments that utilize our data and included testimonials from companies that are like yours, making it easier for you to compare apples to apples. Just hover over “Industries Served” for that information. And if you ever need one-on-one attention, it’s always available here.
