Duff's Corners poised for new commercial development

[raisethehammer]

He's HAMRetrofit.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

Isn't the mall still alive and well in today's retail environment?

I doubt that big boxes pose a serious threat to the mall because you aren't going to cross that parking lot 20 times to go to 20 different stores at a box centre. Neither driving nor walking is convenient.

Big boxes are convenient because of the large multipurpose stores that sell all kinds of things - one stop shopping - then you can go to the bank and pick up a movie on the way out.

The recreational shoppers that I know still love their malls, they'll just go to Wal*Mart for the necessities.

Malls may be alive and well, but they do not seem to construct new ones anymore, even with massive population increases in many areas. Vaughan Mills was the first regional shopping centre built in Canada in something like 15 years. It appears that Hamilton's Centre Mall and Mountain Plaza Mall are both coming down.

I don't especially like power centres, but I do like many of the stores found in power centres, and Wal-Mart is one of them.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

He's HAMRetrofit.

Oh.

[fastcarsfreedom]

While everyone is busy jumping on BCTed, he raises a perfectly valid point...as I said earlier, retail is evolutionary--and with the exception of Vaughan Mills, nothing of consequence has been built since a handful of centres were built in the early 1990s--Mapleview among them. The traditional indoor mall may not be dying, but it's certainly evolving. Increased competition from non-mall retailers has effectively stopped further mall development and has brought an end to several smaller/older sites--such as MPM and Centre Mall. Nonetheless, the traditional mall developers/operators have done an outstanding job protecting their turf--which is why you see already successful centres like Lime Ridge getting millions of dollars in renovations.

The trend away from malls has meant that some operators that were traditionally mall-based (Penney comes to mind in the U.S. context) have started to build off-mall sites in order to find growth in revenue and market share.

In the middle of the concepts you have the "lifestyle center" an odd hybrid--not even--more or less the Centre Mall circa 1958--a traditional mall without a roof. There are currently several of these under construction in the U.S.--they look great ( an example close to me is at www.shoppartridgecreek.com )...I'm just not 100% convinced that this concept is viable in cold weather climates--I can't think of anything less appealing than going to a "lifestyle center" when we're kicking a -30 wind chill like we were last weekend.

Every dog has his day--10 years from now the trends will change again.

[raisethehammer]

fastcars, you're right. 10 years will bring new trends. I bet Walmart won't even both having 'stores'. They'll fill a parking lot with their trucks and let the customers come on board and buy their goods from the back of the truck. haha

[DC83]

^^ Oooh. Now Wal*Mart will be taking on a Farmer's Market Feel? WHY BUILD WALLS!? ahhahaha jks

Another example, Fastcars, is Prime Outlets in Grove City, PA (http://www.primeoutlets.com/cntrdefa...p?cntrid=1024). I actually went shopping there in the fall when I went to Pittsburgh. It's like the old-style of Centre Mall with a pond in the middle and creeks and gondollas, etc. It was nice. It poured rain while we were there which was kind of annoying. But they actually have a trolley bus that takes shoppers around the little "town".
The sad part, however, is that Grove City itself's downtown is a piece of crap thanks to this centre.

I think Fastcars had it right when he said this trend to Big Box was to eliminate Mall Rats and concentrate on shoppers. Unfortunately, not only do these centres deter youth or whoever from hanging out, but also promotes an unhealthy lifestyle of vehicle dependancy.

Why would you want kids hanging out in your mall, going to the movie theatre, playing in the arcade when they could be hanging out on street corners thinking of things that'll keep em busy "HEY, lets go start fires!".

[HAMRetrofit]

Originally Posted by BCTed

Who are you?

Your worst nightmare. Someone who does not like shopping at malls.

Unfortunately, in the next fifty years we will probably see big box stores the size of small towns with their own worker compounds serviced entirely by machines. Consumers will be generally two or three times more overweight than they are now requiring artificial devises to transport them in addition to their cars. Central Africa will be the next China with a new low in worker cruelty. Ocean ships will be five times their current size. Oil will be nearly gone. Nuclear and Coal power stations will be newly constructed next to every major city. We will have the climate of South Virginia in Central Ontario. McDonalds and Walmart will own large expanses of land where they have created new nations. New homes will finally be constructed entirely of plastic.

[fastcarsfreedom]

Not only do you not like shopping in malls, but apparently you are actually Aldous Huxley.