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Malls manipulate by
design
By Julie
E. Houston • Bankrate.com
 Whenever
you shop 'til you drop, you're being watched. Not only is the mall
security guard keeping an eye on you, but stores and mall designers
are observing you too.
What they learn from your shopping habits helps them
determine how to plan the next shopping mall and dig straight for
your wallet.
"Shoppers are very pressed for time, so we have helped
save them time while shopping and making their purchases," says
Robert Gibbs, founder of Gibbs Planning, a mall design company headquartered
in Birmingham, Mich. "We're responding to what shoppers really want."
Some of these changes have included displaying items
by color and size, and installing cash registers that complete the
entire credit card transaction without carbon copies.
A "Welcome" sign of the times
However, there is more to designers' plans than
making shopping quicker. They are also changing the overall design
of malls and individual stores, so shoppers feel welcome to spend
their cash.
"Everyone's so hurried. You've got to make people
slow down and stay longer," says John Schallert, who consults stores
on their merchandise and layout. He says that mall designers are
starting to make the shopping centers feel more "homey."
One way of doing this is by adding comfortable chairs
and area rugs. Taking a load off in a place that feels like your
living room gives shoppers a resurgence of energy to keep spending.
"Loitering is OK," says Jeffery Gunning, an architect
who specializes in mall design for RTKL, in Dallas.
"The old thought that, 'If they're sitting, they aren't
shopping,' just isn't true anymore," Gibb says.
Let me entertain you
Another way of welcoming the shoppers is "shoppertainment,"
according to Gunning. Malls are adding movie theaters, extensive
food courts and restaurants, even amusement rides to encourage people
to stay longer or come back when they are ready to buy.
There is also a trend toward theme malls. Gunning
cites a mall in Denver that's designed to look like a mountain lodge
and a mall in Tampa, Fla. that gives shoppers a feel of walking
down Main Street while inside the mall. This includes stores altering
their storefronts with streetlights and doors.
In addition, designers develop themes for particular
malls based on a town's history, what was on the land before the
mall was built, "and sometimes the ideas are purely out of a hat,"
Gunning admits.
"A mall is like a town center. It's private property
that is treated like public property," he explains.
Some of the old ways of designing malls still apply.
"It's still important to maintain good site lines, and bend and
shape [the walkways] so that you go along and see all of the signs
and windows," Gunning says.
Lite-Brite
Lighting also is important in an effective design.
"Bright lights give the product a new and more exciting feel," Gibbs
says. Better lighting in stores is coupled with a well-lit and cheerful
parking area.
In addition, Gibbs explains that 70 percent of shoppers
go to malls after 5:30 p.m., but they leave when they see the sun
setting. So malls have added more lighting around skylights and
windows to hide the sunset.
Sunset will fall on indoor malls, though. The wave
of the future in shopping is moving outside, Gibbs says. "The days
of dedicating a day to shopping is past. Now people want to park
out front of a store and run inside a store for what they want."
Plus, people like the idea of dining outside, wandering
a bit, and making purchases, too. The compromise is what Gibbs calls
a hybrid mall. Cars drive through the main street lined with stores
and restaurants, and then people head inside for more shopping and
entertainment. It's the best of both worlds.
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