Mall of America packs in buyers, gawkers - Mall of America shopping center, Bloomington, Minnesota

Discount Store News, Sept 7, 1992 by Jill Lettich

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Moro than 150,000 people rushed to the new Mall of America here on its first day of operation, but retailers are still asking themselves if the crowds are coming for the entertainment or the shopping experience.

The largest mall in the nation and the first to combine upscale department stores with offprice retailers opened in this Minneapolis suburb Aug. 11.

Attracted by a 7-acre Knott's Camp Snoopy amusement park, a miniature golf course, movie theaters, nightclubs and restaurants, plus more than 300 stores, the first day crowd came ready to play and gawk.

Initial reports indicated there were more lookers than spenders. People paraded through and bought novelty and gift items for the most part, according to an informal poll of retailers. Chains that were brand new to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area understandably had the most traffic.

Most of the retailers are counting on the uniqueness of the Mall of America to create traffic. Customers will find upscale stores as well as off-pricers, mass merchandiser Sears, and Service Merchandise, a catalog showroom, all in one place. In addition, a number of stores that generally operate in strip centers have also leased space in the mall. However, few expect to change their base to mall locations.

The mall is neither a standard regional mall nor one of the new hybrid outlet malls. Instead, developers Melvin Simon & Assoc., Indianapolis, managed to attract the diverse retailers by promoting Mall of America as an entertainment complex.

With 40 million people expected in the first year (Disney World expects just over 20 million in its theme park) developers note that there should be enough customers to go around to both the upper and lower tier retail stores.

Though the opening went off without a hitch, it was not all smooth sailing behind the scene s, with a number of problems blamed on "negotiations" and plain old business politics.

Three of the four anchors in the mall, Bloomingdale's Nordstrom and Macy's (still fighting dismal sales since declaring Chapter 11), are new to the area. And one noticeable absence from the mail was the hometown favorite retailer: Dayton Hudson.

Rumors early on in the mall's development indicated that D-H did not believe that the area could sustain a mall as large as Mall of America.

The fourth anchor is mass merchandiser Sears.

A group of discount retailers that the mall directory actually calls "junior department stores" made their indoor mail debut at Mall of America: Marshalls, Service Merchandise and Filene's Basement. The latter two are also newcomers to the Minneapolis area.

Specialty stores like Linens 'n things, and Kids "R" Us set up shop in the mega-mall despite their usual strip center real estate preferences.

Toys "R" Us was to have a spot in the mail, but it reported that negotiations for its space fell through. Toy Works leased part of that available space, though it was not ready for the opening date. Toy Works is a division of Kay-Bee Toys, which is also in Mall of America.

There are various reasons that these stores chose to open in Mall of America. All were lured by the promise of huge crowds. But while stores like Filene's Basement are utilizing their standard prototype and relying on repeat customers from the immediate regional area, Service Merchandise adjusted its usual store product mix to include a larger percentage of jewelry and gift items to lure the large numbers of outof-town visitors promised to Mall of America tenants.

Because of the size and retail mix in the mail, competition is rampant among most of the stores. Many of the off-price and specialty store mail newcomers made changes in design or merchandise mix to suit a mall location and to appeal to the Mall of America shopper.

* "This is our only mail store," reported Jim Sweany, store manager, Service Merchandise. "We're expecting a big tourist crowd here and we've adjusted the merchandise mix. There is more glitz and jewelry in this store."

Sweany pointed out, for instance, that one of the newer product features at the store was a high-priced line of jeweled evening bags by designer Judith Leiber, some of which sell for more than $1,000. Leiber is a well known name in high-end department store accessory departments.

* Julia Heath, the store manager for Marshalls, also expects a slightly different customer than usual at its Mall of America store. "This place is really designed for an all-day shopping excursion," she noted.

Marshalls opened the prototype store it introduced last year. This is Marshalls' ninth Minneapolis-area store and the first of its kind in an indoor mall, Heath noted. The store is an average Marshalls size, 30,000 sq. ft., with some adjustments made for the mall, such as using mannequins on its window displays, something it plans to take forward to other locations, said Heath. According to the company, the eight other Marshalls in the area will be renovated within the year.

In domestics, Marshalls may feel the heat from specialty stores like Eddie Bauer Home, Lechters, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma. Linens 'n things, a sister company to Marshalls under parent Melville Corp., is also m the mall. Melville made a substantial investment in the mall. In addition to Marshalls, Kay-Bee, Toy Works and Linens 'n things, it also opened its standard mall stores: Wilsons, FootAction and Accessory Lady.