Assignment 6: Adam

I visited the Southlake Mall on March 26 at about 2pm on an overcast day. There were quite a few people moving around at a casual pace. The mall is conducive to slow and sporadic movement; is it part of the design? The mall itself feels like a thousand other malls and perhaps represents one of the perfected and systematically replicated malls produced in the golden years (1960s-80s) that Crawford describes (7). Located south of the city at the I-75/Jonesboro Rd interchange, Southlake is of the sprawling two-story variety surrounded by a sea of parking which is, in turn, encased by a 4-lane circular drive (race track with speed bumps?) with several spokes giving access to surrounding surface streets (and trillions of other shopping opportunities in strip malls, box stores, and “power centers”). The mall observes J.C. Nichols’ philosophy: the key to shopping-center success lay in providing abundant, even unlimited, parking (20). And on a Saturday afternoon, business was good. Southlake is a “regional” mall with three department store anchors, a food court, and approximately 100 “pocket” stores. Macy’s and JC Penny’s are significantly placed at the south and southeast side of the mall. These stores are the most easily accessed by shoppers exiting from the interstate and they can be entered without passing through the mall itself. Sears is the lone anchor at the north end of the mall, also with private entrances. Simple observation of vacant parking in the vicinity of these anchors suggests that Sears is the least popular draw. (Photo 1)

The mall itself is basically linear with the food court as a small projection, separate but well advertised. The ceiling is exposed steel trellis and supports a flat roof. A monitor runs centrally the length of the mall and allows natural light from two ribbons of skylights on each side (Photo 2). Shopper circulation has been taken into account; elevators and stairs are located at either end of the mall at the gates to Sears and Macy’s (placed for “consumer rounds”?), and an elevator is centrally located. Maps and directories are placed at every mall entrance. The first floor provides space for kiosks and seating areas, while the second floor banister appeared to be the popular spot for us consumers to ponder our next move; and to look down on other people. I noticed a single mall cop on foot and, since the mall is not gigantic, we passed him three times. He looked happy and unconcerned. Southlake Mall has 12 vendors whom deal in jewelry (that’s between 10-15% of the shops) which seemed like a lot to me, 5 of which I have heard of before and seen in other malls. Based on my limited retail chain knowledge, I would say the shops in the mall split about 50-50 national chain to regional or local chain. I was unable to calculate Southlake’s VAL score, but I am guessing it is firmly within the middle class price range; possibly targeted at Crawford’s “emulators”.

The food court was crowded on this Saturday afternoon. This space is slightly separate from the otherwise linear mall and from the parking lot a projecting , curvilinear, glass structure (essentially extending the walls out far enough to house a carousel) announces its location on the east side. This newer structure serves as the most visually distinct mall entrance and I was duped into thinking it was the main entrance. I feel like I have seen this move before in other malls around the country because, if you do your job right, consumers will be hungry by the time they are ready to leave. Though I did not get any good pictures of the food court, vendors are arranged along the walls and the center of the hexagonal space is filled with mounted tables and chairs-it feels like a cafeteria. The floors are white, and the space is well lit, in part due to the glass carousel housing as well as the ribbon skylights employed throughout the rest of the mall. The carousel is a children’s attraction much like the “playland” attached to fast food restaurants (Photo 3).