John's Blog

One of my favorite websites is Deadmalls.com, which chronicles those temples of commerce that once were thriving, but have now faded for a variety of reasons. A strange obsessions of mine, I'm sure but for some reason I find this stuff fascinating. I got strangely excited (no; not THAT way) to see that they have now included what was "THE mall" for me growing up. I worked there as well, and have many good and not so good memories associated with that place; it's weird to see it now as a shell of it's former self. While we're on the subject, a few interesting mall facts:

There are 50,000 shopping malls in the United States alone. At last count there were 1,175 large regional enclosed malls in the United States, accounting for about 14 percent of all U.S. retailing, or about $308 billion in sales.

Women will buy more if they hear their heels clicking on polished hard surfaces, so designers often use hard flooring in hallways. Inside the stores themselves, there is often carpeting or softer surfaces to lure customers in and make them feel at home.

Places to sit in the common areas of malls are hard to find. People aren't shopping when they're sitting.

Escalators are placed strategically to force shoppers to pass the maximum number of storefronts.

Most malls have bends and turns as shoppers typically won't walk towards something that seems more than one tenth of a mile away.

Floor plans in malls are disorienting for a reason - so shoppers cannot make a quick exit.

The average mall shopper stays for 80 minutes and spends $75 each visit.

The average mall customer spends 22 seconds looking at a mall map, and often leaves the map baffled.

The spaces near mall entrances typically yield lower rents and lower valued items. The shopper, upon entering the mall, is still disoriented and is not yet ready to buy something. That is why hair cutteries are so commonly found near mall entrances.

Men are more interested in people watching at malls, whereas women are more interested in shopping. Men also like the non-retail parts of malls, such as food courts, which do not require them to price shop or try on anything.

Bookstores have much higher "conversion rates" when they are outside of malls. Bookshops in malls are thought of as places to browse while waiting or marking time, but not places to buy books. Plus it is harder to bundle a mall bookshop with a cafe, which is often the most profitable place in the bookshop. For these reasons, bookshops are leaving malls in droves.

Do you know where you're going the first time you walk into a new store? Most of us will turn toward the right. We pick up that bias because we're used to driving on the right-hand side of the road, and because most of us are right-handed and use that hand to touch the goods. We then proceed through the store counterclockwise.