Experts have been tracking, following and predicting the death of the shopping mall for years now. It seems to finally be coming to fruition. ‘Dead malls’, as they’re called, have been creating blight all over the country since we fell into a full blown recession. Four or more walls with stuff in it is no longer motivation enough to get people to spend money. So retailers are getting creative and so is the shopping experience.
In New York, an old cathedral, which has had many reincarnations including a nightclub and a drug rehab center, has been turned into a shopping center. Limelight Marketplace aims to capture the interest of the cathedral’s history and architecture to make it a destination shopping experience. According to the New York Times, the effect is questionable but the idea is no doubt a reach for retail innovation.
In another part of New York, Grand Opening, treats retail like art. The concept is that there is no concept. Periodically, the long narrow box of a store is completely changed and merchants are rotated like gallery artists.
In Texas, Kuhl-Lipscomb, has made their 70,000 square foot store into a tourist attraction by offering a unique and eclectic mix of wares that are periodically re-merchandised to create a seemingly new environment.
SlowRetail has compiled a pretty distracting (in that I spent over an hour following they’re links) list of innovative retail concepts from all over the world. Maybe the next big trend in design is no trend at all. After the mall and after big-box, maybe people want to be inspired when they shop and have a little experience to show for it.
