> As long as I can remember, Westland Mall on Fort Wayne's west side has been
> almost completely empty. Only a few stores, and no shoppers. Even 25 years
> ago, when I was a kid, it was like this! I photographed it this afternoon.
Not enough desolation. It needs a tipped over trash can or something. ;)
The truth is that you weren't there when the mall is busiest--mornings
when all the walkers are there. Places like this are great for getting
exercise in the winter months. Best of all, no Y membership fees.
The shopping center business is tough. I'm not sure that it is
possible to ever make money in it. The most successful ones have
excellent partnerships with the tenants and are constantly refreshing
and improving the facilities. But once the spiral downward starts,
unless the owners are willing to expand their investment, the place
will fade away to nothing. Meanwhile, paying local property taxes on
the structure.
Once a mall or shopping center loses its "cool", it's curtains for it.
I am perplexed by the desire to hold onto some of these anchor tenants
which are anything but cool. Sears? REALLY? Sears hasn't been cool for
at least 25 years. Then there was Montgomery Wards. Oh, please! Before
that place finally went toes up, it was dingy, dark and depressing in
their stores. Cool? Hardly. JC Penney's is a little better, but all
these types of retailers exist only until the next one comes along and
kills them off. (Oooo, it's JCP now. I'm impressed).
I had a tremendous education in this back around 1989 or so. There
were RUMORS, that's right RUMORS of an upcoming recession. This was in
September of that year. By mid October, the big established retailers
yanked ALMOST ALL of their holiday advertising as they decided to go
into trench mode. Meanwhile, there was one smallish retailer that took
the opportunity and took advantage of the discounted advertising rates
and dominated the airwaves. Think about it, you are a retailer that
does the majority of your sales in the holiday season and you pull all
of your advertising? In hindsight you ask "what in the world were they
thinking?" The end result was that the majority of the established
retailers filed for bankruptcy or basically died. Sears, Montgomery
Wards, JC Penneys, KMart... The list goes on. Oh, and the company that
decided to double, triple, quadripple their advertising? Wal-Mart.
Guess who emerged from the recession that followed as the dominant
market leader? The side note on this is that there was no recession
until everybody pulled their advertising and the customers
disappeared.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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