Shopping Malls are so Twentieth Century

Encino doesn’t really have any shopping malls. We have strip malls. Even Encino Town Center is a strip mall. Sherman Oaks Galleria isn’t a shopping mall; it’s for movies, summer music, food, fitness and facials. Topanga Promenade, Westfield Topanga and Fashion Square (et cetera) are traditional suburban malls but they are old-fashioned and either a long way to drive to or hopeless labyrinths.

The secret to making an urban mall successful these days is exposing it to the outdoors – to the concept of the “promenade” and a central place where residents can do their necessity shopping and relax. That’s why Century City Mall works. That’s why the Grove works – because it has a spacious central courtyard and it’s yoked to the (outdoor) Farmer’s market. Americana at Brand is a failure because it really has neither. The about-to-reopen Santa Monica Place by the Third Street Promenade may work the same way the Grove does: upscale at one end, downscale at the other. But I’m reserving judgment till I see it.

Why is retail down? What besides the fact that nobody has any money now that wealth is concentrated in the top 1%? Retail in Encino is down because property owners aren’t investing in livable spaces that people want to be in and shop in. Build the right environment and consumers will come. Encino Town Center is not it.

The national vacancy rate for shopping malls is over 10% and a key reason is that many people, women especially, have significantly increased their online purchases. That’s why you see so many FedEx and UPS trucks around Encino. When residents do shop at retail they cut costs by buying in bulk and shopping around the neighborhood. Increasingly they are skipping the malls. They are so Twentieth Century.

Photo: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia