An overview of Shopping Mall, History of the Shopping Mall
History of the Shopping Mall
SOROUSH HASHEMI, master of corporate entrepreneurship, University of Tehran
The shopping mall is a global phenomenon that has its roots in ancient outdoor bazaars where people would go to buy goods from local artisans, farmers and craftsmen. The shopping malls that we know today were birthed in the beginning of the 20th century and have since then grew to cover the major cities of the world in a few different forms. Not only has the shopping mall become a place to find and purchase goods, it is also known as a cultural hot spot where people of all ages can come to interact. However, there has been some criticism to shopping malls, specifically strip malls. Shopping malls are typically known to be indoor shopping centers, though some have outdoor areas with the shops having their own indoor space. The idea came from old covered marketplaces that were popular between the 10th and 15th centuries, and are even still around today. In 1785, the first purposely-built shopping center was created, but it was not until 1916 that a shopping mall as we consider them today was built in the United States. During the 1950s, large indoor shopping malls began to spring up in major cities across the world, with famous ones being built in Paris and London. As automobiles and suburbs sprung up, strip malls were created, which the first shopping centers were built outside of downtown areas.
Types
There a few different types of shopping malls that should be noted. The average shopping mall is less than 400,000 square feet, with those between 400,000 and 800,000 square feet being known as regional shopping malls. Because they are larger, they can accommodate higher end stores that may need more space for their stores. Super-regional malls are those that are over 800,000 square feet. These are the premier shopping mall for the surrounding areas and suburbs. Strip malls are strictly sub urban and usually consist of large parking lots surrounded by single story shops. Outlet malls are special shopping malls where manufacturers sell their products directly through their own stores.
Features
The first shopping malls were composed mainly of independent shops with some food vendors scattered throughout. It wasn't long before food courts were added to give consumers a central place to eat. This also offered more choices of food. Other additions that were made to shopping malls through the 20th century included the addition of department stores. These were added when large finances were needed to keep bigger shopping running.
Size
From 1986 to 2004, the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada was considered the largest shopping center in the world. In less than four years it became the fourth largest, which shows the rapid growth of shopping malls during recent years. The largest mall in the world is the recently opened Mall of Arabia in Dubai, which will be 9, 29,000 square meters in size. The second and third largest shopping malls are all located in China and Malaysia respectfully.
Potential
The most recent history of shopping malls paints two very different pictures of the future of the buildings. Strip malls have quickly fell out of popularity and power shopping centers have taken their place. These feature big box retailers that often supply goods at lower prices than smaller local shops. In downtown districts, where land is expensive, vertical shopping malls are popping up, which include the design of skyscrapers. In the future, it is thought that most new malls will expand vertically rather than horizontally, including parking spaces for the mall.
Evolution of Shopping Mall
A shopping center, shopping mall, or shopping plaza, is the modern adaptation of the historical marketplace. The mall is a collection of independent retail stores, services, and a parking area, which is conceived, constructed, and maintained by a separate management firm as a unit. They may also contain restaurants, banks, theaters, professional offices, service stations etc. The first shopping mall was the Country Club Plaza, founded by the J.C. Nichols Company and opened near Kansas City, Mo., in 1922. The first enclosed mall called Southdale opened in Edina, Minnesota (near Minneapolis) in 1956. In the 1980s, giant mega malls were developed. The West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, opened in 1981 - with more than 800 stores and a hotel, amusement park, miniature-golf course, church, "water park" for sunbathing and surfing, a zoo and a 438-foot-long lake.
Shopping Carts
Sylvan Goldman invented the first shopping cart in 1936. Sylvan owned a chain of Oklahoma City grocery stores called Standard/Piggly-Wiggly. He invented the first shopping cart by adding two wire basket and wheels to a folding chair. Goldman, together with mechanic Fred Young, later designed a dedicated shopping cart in 1947 and formed the Folding Carrier Co. to manufacture the carts. In 1946, Orla Watson, of Kansas City, MO, invented the telescoping shopping cart. By using hinged baskets, each shopping cart fitted into the shopping cart ahead for compact storage. The telescoping shopping carts were first used at Floyd Day's Super Market in 1947.
Smart Cart
Silicon Valley inventor George Cokely - the same guy behind the Pet Rock - has come up with a modern solution to one of the supermarket industry's oldest problems: stolen shopping carts. It's called Stop Z-Cart. The wheel of the shopping cart hold the device, which contains a chip and some electronics, when the cart is rolled over a certain distance away from the stores, the shopping cart owners knows about it.
Shopping Cart Bumpers with Advertising
Harold Evans patented (US patent #5,306,033) a shopping cart bumper system, a foam wrap-around unit that protects while providing valuable advertising space.
Automatic Doors
Horton Automatics developed and sold the first automatic sliding door in America in 1960. The company co-founders Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt invented the sliding automatic door in 1954. Their automatic doors used a mat actuator. "The idea came to Lew Hewitt and Dee Horton to build an automatic sliding door back in the mid-1950's, when they saw that existing swing doors had difficulty operating in Corpus Christi's winds. So the two men went to work inventing an automatic sliding door that would circumvent the problem of high winds and their damaging effect. Horton Automatics Inc. was formed in 1960, placing the first commercial automatic sliding door on the market and literally establishing a brand-new industry."
The Horton Family - Automated Entry
If Horton The Horton Family - Automated Entry If Horton Automatics of Corpus Christi has its way, homes in the United States will begin installing sliding automatic doors, which company co-founders Dee Horton and Lew Hewitt invented in 1954. Their first door in operation was a unit donated to the City of Corpus Christi for its Shoreline Drive utilities department. The first one sold was installed at the old Driscoll Hotel for its Torch Restaurant.
Coupons
A Philadelphia pharmacist named As a Candler invented the coupon in 1895. Candler bought the Coca-Cola Company from the original inventor Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist. Candler placed coupons in newspaper for a free Coke from any fountain - to help promote the new soft drink.
Bar Codes The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) was issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952. Cash Register In 1884, James Ritty invented what was nicknamed the "Incorruptible Cashier" or the first working, mechanical cash register. Credit Cards and Money Past, present and future, the history of money. Mail Order Catalog Aaron Montgomery Ward sent out his first mail order catalog in 1872 - for his Montgomery Ward mail order business located at Clark and Kinzie Streets in Chicago. The first catalog consisted of a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale with ordering instructions. "Ward's gradually expanded the catalog. They became bigger, more heavily illustrated; chock full of goods-- often referred to as "dream books" by rural families." Aaron Montgomery Ward was born on Feb. 17, 1844 and died on Dec. 7, 1913. He first worked for Marshall Field, a department store, as both a store clerk and a traveling salesman. As a traveling salesman, he realized that his rural customers could be better served by mail-order, a revolutionary idea. He started his business with only $2,400 in capital, when the first Montgomery Ward retail store opened in Plymouth, Indiana.
Malls in India
Mall culture in India and especially in Delhi & NCR has grown with an incredible pace. Just a few years back, people had to make a choice among shopping, movies or hanging out on a holiday but thanks to our malls, all these jobs can be performed at the same time, under the same roof and that too with a wonderful experience. And it is basically the experience and not the intention that counts when it comes to malls.
The reason why shopping malls are so popular lies in their international appeal. It seems to be a thing of history when shopping malls had their presence only in places like Singapore and Dubai. In fact, now they are everywhere around us. If we dive back in time to the early Nineties, Ansal Plaza appeared to be the only popular shopping mall of the region but presently there are more than two dozens of well-established malls in the region and another 140-odd new shopping arcades are set to dot the city landscape in days to come. People find these malls to be the best place to shop or hang out in summer heat as they offer free entry to a completely air conditioned complex with good music playing all around and loads of window shopping opportunity which is appreciated by one and all. Not to forget the numerous food joints that serve different cuisines meant to magnetize the taste buds of all the foodies. Though malls are equally popular among all ages, the true lovers of multiplexes are the youngsters for whom malls are the `ultimate place to be`. These malls serve their various purposes like shopping, watching movies, dating or just to hang out though they really don?t need a purpose for being there. “Malls are the coolest and safest place to go bunking”, says Raghav, a college student while the other boys and girls belonging to the same age group have no different opinions. These malls have also come up with different ways to cater to their target visitors like some of them have discos where the Gen-X get a chance to chill-out during nights. Mohit says, “Opening of discos has added a new adventure and fun to my life. I can now go and party in the night too.” These malls have changed the trends to an extent that the glamour that could be seen only on the silver screen has now come to our cities and we can actually see it in our neighborhood. Almost all the malls present in the region can match any highquality mall in any part of the world.
Prospects of Shopping Malls in India
Global estimates say India will be home to 26.2 million square feet of shopping malls in 2006 and the good news for the people belonging to NCR is that 40% of these will be concentrated in this region alone. Introduction of malls has not been able to replace traditional markets, which are still popular among the pocket conscious people, but has definitely added a new adventure to the shopping experience. The retail business in India is set to witness heady growth in the years ahead with the number of shopping malls in Asia's third largest economy rising to a staggering 358 by the end of 2007, says a study. The country has some 100 malls now, with the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai accounting for maximum numbers of the gleaming shopping centres, says a study by the Images fashion magazine. The retail sector will see over 34 million sq ft of shopping centre space by the year end, said the report on shopping centre development in India. "Performance beyond expectation is all the more significant in the backdrop of adverse reports and predictions on this sector," said Amitabh Taneja, director (India) of International Council of Shopping Centres."Based on a complete list of shopping centre developments taking place across the country, the projection for listed developments by 2007 is 358, with a total built up area of 87.8 million sq ft," he added. According to Images, there are a total of 96 operational malls in India with a total built-up area of 21.6 million sq ft. The number will rise to 158 malls by the end of the current year. Organized retailing is projected to grow at the rate of 25-30 per cent per annum to touch $8 billion by 2005 and $24 billion by 2010, said the Images study. Investments in the retail sector are estimated at between $400 million and $500 million over the next two to three years, and over $4 billion by the end of 2010, it added. The retail industry in India is currently estimated at $205 billion, which is likely to grow at a rate of five percent per annum in the coming years.
Changing Attitudes of the Masses
Droves of middle-class Indians have broken off their love of traditional stand-alone Indian stores that have no air conditioning; organized parking and other public amenities. Experts say malls throughout the country are getting bigger as they are now being positioned as a one-stop-shop for shopping, entertainment, leisure and eating-out needs rather than a place only for shopping for fashion products. By 2007, north zone will account for 39 per cent of total mall space, followed by west zone (33 per cent), south zone (18 per cent) and east zone (10 per cent), and said the Images study. The study said a lot more activity on the mall development front was expected from the smaller cities in the years ahead. These cities will have about 12.8 million sq ft of mall space by 2007, with Ludhiana accounting for about 2.5 million sq ft and Ahmedabad about 3.4 million sq ft. The fast growing middle class population, the rise in women workforce and consumerism over the decade was the major forces in driving demand in the retail sector. "To the present generation, shopping means much more than a mere necessity and malls are, now fast becoming image benchmarks for communities”.
Emergence of a different Culture
Shopping orientations are related to general predisposition toward acts of shopping. They are conceptualized as a specific dimension of lifestyle and operationalized on the basis of activities, interests and opinion statements pertaining to acts of shopping. Efforts have been made to classify consumers into distinct segments primarily for targeting purposes. Types of shopping malls In a seminal study, we identified four kinds of shopping orientations:
? Economic,
? Personalizing,
? Ethical,
? Apathetic.
Others developed three-group taxonomy of shopping orientations -- inactive shopper, active out-shopper, and thrifty innovator. Lumpkin in studying elderly consumers, identified three additional distinct segments -- uninvolved shopper, inflation-conscious shopper, and actively, highly involved shopper. Korgaonkar examined six groups of shoppers: ? Recreational shopper price ? Oriented shopper ? Brand-loyal shopper, ? Psych-socializing shopper ? Store-loyal shopper ? Time-oriented shopper. Shopper typologies have also been developed for specific product categories. For instance, Furse, Punj, and Stewart profiled automobile shoppers into four categories. Constructive shoppers work hard at gathering information from Consumer Reports and showrooms. Surrogate shoppers depend heavily on others for information search and evaluation. Preparatory shoppers spend more time talking to friends, rather than spending time with in-store sources. Routinized shoppers spend relatively less time on information search but exhibit considerable loyalty to the same brand and dealer because of past satisfaction. Facts are mixed with regard to the major characteristics of non-store or home shoppers. Convenience and recreational orientations were found to be related to catalog shopping. A broad examination of non-store shoppers found them to be younger, venturesome, and recreational. Another study suggested those home shoppers as thrifty innovators, having lower income and focusing on time management. Online stores attract shoppers with certain orientations. In a recent research report, Greenfield Online found that online shopping is preferred over in-store shopping by some Internet users because of its convenience and time savings. However, the study also found that an overwhelming 69 percent of Internet users said shopping at stores and malls allows them to see, feel, touch, and try on the products before they buy them. These findings suggest that the consumers who value convenience are more likely to buy on the Web, while those who prefer experiencing products are less likely to buy online. These are consistent with the current situation of most online stores. At present, the Web has demonstrated its large capacity for disseminating information of various kinds. Many online storefronts are full of information that is searchable. That is, consumers can examine search attributes of products such as sizes, models, and prices. With the help of shopping robots, consumers can search information about products from different online stores with one search request. Consumers can also "experience" certain digital products online. For instance, they can play a segment of a music CD or download a trial version of a software program to their immediate satisfaction. Consumers also can experience non-digital products such as wines or cosmetics indirectly through reading testimonials online. However, today's online stores have a limited capacity for consumers to experience tangible products. Introduction of malls has not been able to replace traditional markets, which are still popular among the pocket conscious people, but has definitely added a new adventure to the shopping experience. The retail sector will see over 34 million sq ft of shopping centre space by the year end, said the report on shopping centre development in India. "To the present generation, shopping means much more than a mere necessity and malls are now fast becoming image benchmarks for communities.” Shopping orientations are related to general predisposition toward acts of shopping. They are conceptualized as a specific dimension of lifestyle and operationalized on the basis of activities, interests and opinion statements pertaining to acts of shopping.