Potomac Mills: not your run of the mill factory outlet mall

Discount Store News, May 9, 1988

Potomac Mills: Not Your Run of the Mill Factory Outlet Mall

DALE CITY, Va.--To dispel any notion that factory outlet stores are piperack outfits operating out of grimy, red-brick factories in dying mill towns, a visit to the Potomac Mills Mall should suffice.

Start with the name. Western Development Corp., developers of Potomac Mills and Franklin Mills, a similar mall under construction in Philadelphia, prefers to call it a super-regional specialty mall.

That name squares with the store mix at Potomac Mills, where about one-third are factory-owned and operated outlets, one-third specialty retailers and one-third service shops, such as a beauty salon, and surplus stores, including an outlet for Sears, Roebuck & Co. and another for Rodier of Paris, a tony chain of 29 high-priced women's apparel units.

In terms of graphics, live plantings, hardwood flooring and general ambience, Potomac Mills is equal-if not superior-to many full-price suburban malls. Its 1.25 million square feet of selling space, occupied by 200 stores, is strung along both sides of an interior mall that runs for nine-tenths of a mile.

In another similarity to full-price malls, Potomac Mills features anchor stores, none of which are factory outlets: IKEA, the home furnishings store that features knockdown Scandinavian furniture, the Sears Outlet Store, largest of 109 Sears surplus units, a Cohoes off-price apparel store and Waccamaw Pottery, an off-price, Southern-based chain of housewares stores.

The factory outlet stores include: Carter, Adidas, Nike, Manhattan, Van Heusen, Rowe (couches and chains), Calvin Klein, American Tourister, L'eggs, Hanes and Bali, Aileen, St. Eves, Maidenform, Cambridge Dry Goods, Windsor Shirts, Willi Wear, Gitano, Aca Joe, Escada, Laurel and Crisca.

Price categories range from $2 for a pair of private label boys' jeans at the Sears Outlet to $200 for an Crisca sweater that was priced at $500 when it came out last season.

Collectively, the Potomac Mills stores rang up sales of $200 million in 1987, said Sherry Lewis, a mall spokeswoman. But the mall refuses to disclose individual store results.

Potomac Mills draws 250,000 shoppers a week, Lewis said, and 2,000 tourist busloads a year. Arranging bus trips is a major part of the mall's marketing effort.

Potomac Mills, about 20 minutes south of Washington D.C., is 11 miles from the nearest full-price mall in Springfield, Va., so the manufacturers avoid competing face to face with their department and discount store accounts.

Indicating their sensitivity, Van Heusen, Calvin Klein and Maidenform forbid the mall to use their names in its advertising, Lewis said.

St. Eve uses the store name of Intimate Eve to avoid offending the department stores in Washington that carry its line. At the outlet store, a St. Eve nightshirt is priced at $12.96, whereas department stores such as Woodward & Lothrop carry the exact same item for $28, store clerks said. To feed and entertain shoppers, Potomac Mills includes a food court and a 10-plex movie complex.

Western Development is building its Franklin Mills Mall in partnership with Carrefour, which opened its first U.S. hypermarket there in January. Western and Carrefour are attempting to co-develop another outlet mall on Long Island, but a zoning dispute is blocking progress. Western expects to open its third mall, called Sawgrass Mills, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1990.

A December 1986 shopper survey conducted by Stillerman Jones Co. for the mall revealed that the estimated average family income of a Potomac Mills shopper is $47,760, compared to $34,956 for shoppers at other area malls, Lewis said. The average age is 35.4, compared to 37.8 at other malls.

The average shopper spent two hours and 30 minutes at Potomac Mills, against one hour and 20 minutes at retail malls. Average expenditures came to $78.45, against $38.85 respectively.

For mall merchants, sales per square foot were $266, against $158.48 for other area malls.

PHOTO : Potomac Mills Mall, south of Washington D.C., features the live plants, graphics and wood floors of a modern mall. It shows how far outlet discounting has come from red-brick roots.