The shopping center is a concept as old as commerce itself as early merchants were quick to recognize the value of gathering at a centralized location to peddle their wares.
Then, as now, the foundational success of the shopping center lies in its powerful appeal as a destination where shoppers can satisfy a wide range of needs and wants for products and services.
Shopping centers perfectly illustrate the adage that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Physically locating numerous retail stores at a single location made the shopping center a compelling destination. In turn, retailers’ prospects for success improved because they benefited from higher levels of shopper traffic than they could have generated independently.
In addition, for retailers who
occupied shopping centers, a
host of business considerations
were simplified or eliminated.
Unlike operators of standalone stores, shopping center tenants were freed from issues related to real estate site selection, construction and a host of operational and maintenance considerations.
The forerunner of the modern shopping center is recognized as the Country Club Plaza, developed by the J.C. Nichols Company near Kansas City, Missouri, in 1922. Three decades later in 1954, the concept of the shopping center experienced a major turning point with the opening of the first enclosed mall called ‘Southdale’ near Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Enclosed malls were incredibly popular. The mall became a retail phenomenon and from the 1960s through the 1980s, enclosed malls grew rapidly and transformed the retail landscape.
As mall developers strived to create ever more powerful destinations, mega malls, such as the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada and the Mall of America in Minneapolis, emerged in the 1980s. These structures broke new ground in the world of shopping center development by including food, entertainment and amusement options among their extensive retail offerings. The combination elevated the mega mall to the status of tourist destination.
While the word “mall” has become synonymous with shopping center, retail destinations today take many different forms and go by names such as strip center, power center, outlet mall or lifestyle center. Their approach to site selection, architectural design and tenant mix, varies. Each relies on the fundamental principle that retailers’ exponentially increase their prospects for success when assembled together to create a shopping center.
Contribution to Retail History
The shopping center represented the earliest form of retail development and established the philosophy that a mutually beneficial effect was created by assembling a group of retailers together to form a destination. This foundational principle shaped shopping center development over the centuries and continues to do so today. The shopping center has evolved to become not only an eclectic collection of retail shops, but an multi-use entertainment complex as well that features numerous restaurants, live shows and events, amusement park type areas, plus hotels and office space.