Describing a Shopping Center
What is a shopping center?
A shopping center, mall, shopping precinct, shopping arcade, or simply shopping mall is defined as one or more buildings that form a complex of stores representing merchants, having interconnecting walkways that allow visitors to easily walk between the different units. , along with a parking area. . Therefore, it can be simply defined as a modern indoor version of a traditional market.
The term “mall” is used primarily in Europe, South America, and Australia. In Hong Kong, the frequently used term is the same, but it can also contain words like “square”. However, in North America and the Philippines, the common term used is “mall”. There are places where other terms are used to describe basically the same thing, such as “mall” or “shopping precinct.”
How did the mall appear?
Shopping malls corresponded with the rise of suburban life in many parts of the Western world after World War II, especially in the United States. Modern shopping malls have been developed since the 1920s. Design had a tendency to be inward-oriented from the beginning, where malls would follow theories of how customers could be attracted to each other in a controlled environment. Similarly, the concept of having one or more large stores in a mall was pioneered, considering that other smaller-scale chain stores or individual stores would benefit from the shoppers attracted by the large stores.
Types of shopping centers
There are different types of centers, depending on their size and where they are placed.
1. Regional – A regional mall is a mall designed to serve a large area (15 miles), larger than a conventional mall. Therefore, it can vary between 400,000 square feet and 800,000 square feet. It also has at least two large stores and has to offer a wide selection of stores. The tendency of these malls is to have high-end stores, which need a larger area to have profitable services, and they may also have discount department stores. In vacation areas, these malls are often tourist attractions.
2. Super Regional: This is a mall with over 800,000 square feet of gross leasable area, probably 3 or more big box stores, more variety, mass retail, and fashion apparel. This type of mall is usually the dominant shopping venue in the region where it is located.
3. Outlet: This is a type of shopping center where manufacturers can sell their products through their own stores directly to the public. Some stores may be operated by retailers, who mostly sell discontinued products or returned products and are therefore heavily discounted.
Components of a shopping center.
1. Food Court – Usually consists of several fast food vendors surrounding a shared seating area.
2. Department Stores – These exist to attract retail traffic, drawing people to smaller stores as well. Physically, those anchor stores are located as far apart from each other as possible, to maximize the amount of traffic between them.
3. Independent stores: these consist of satellite buildings, generally located on or near the same piece of land. Those stores may or may not be in a legal connection to the central facility through ownership or contracts. They can use common parking lots or have their own. However, those stores and the mall are generally perceived as a single unit.
Regardless of what they look like, today we could hardly imagine our world without shopping malls.