It`s big. Minnesota`s new Mall of America, the super-sized enclosed shopping center that opens next weekend, is truly a wonder to behold.
And not just because it sprawls across 78-acres and encloses 4.2 million square feet of floor space, over half of it devoted to retail stores.
It also may provide a glimpse into the future of retailing, a future in which the megamall-a hybrid that combines the drawing power of a regional shopping center with the excitement of an amusement park-becomes the tonic that revives America`s sagging retail sector.
Mall of America has four major department stores: Macy`s,
Bloomingdale`s, Nordstrom and Sears. About 70 percent of the stores will be ready for business opening day. When the mall is fully up and running it will have 350 specialty stores, 14 movie theaters, five nightclubs and at least a dozen restaurants and fast-food eateries.
In the center of the mall sits a 7-acre Knott`s Berry Farm theme park called Camp Snoopy. It has 16 rides, including a roller coaster. There`s also a two-level miniature golf course and 5,000 square feet of space filled with Lego block models, including a 20-foot dinosaur. Plans call for a 1.2 million gallon aquarium.
The complex will eventually employ 10,000 workers.
Its scale sets it apart from any shopping complex ever built in the United States. When the mall officially opens Aug. 11, it will be the nation`s largest indoor shopping and entertainment complex. It will rank as the second largest shopping facility in the world, eclipsed only by Canada`s 800-store West Edmonton Mall.
The Minnesota mall is the brainchild of the developers of the Edmonton project, the Triple Five Corp. of Edmonton, Alberta. It is being developed by a joint partnership between Triple Five and Indianapolis-based Melvin Simon & Associates.
The mall is about 5 minutes from the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport in Bloomington, Minnesota`s third-largest city after Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The complex was built on the site of Minnesota`s old Metropolitan Stadium, where the Vikings football team had its glory days tromping rivals in subzero temperatures. It`s also where baseball`s perennial also-rans, the Twins, labored in futility before moving on to the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis and two world championships.
In 1984, the City of Bloomington bought the old stadium site and set about trying to figure out what to do with the property.
The city wanted a special development, recalled James Lindau, who was then Bloomington`s mayor. It wanted something that would attract business and bring recognition to the city, something that would pull the city from the shadows of the better known Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The Triple Five Corp.`s megamall proposal eventually won out, though it had to clear a number of hurdles in the six years since it was selected.
Originally the Mall of America was envisioned as a much larger project, more on the scale of the West Edmonton Mall. It was to have six department store anchors and 800 stores overall, and would be called the Fashion Mall of America. The project was also going to have an adjacent office and hotel complex.
But in 1988, the bottom fell out of the retail industry. Overleveraged junk-bond deals and a general downturn in consumer spending forced many of the industry`s dominant players to scurry for cover.
Naysayers say the mall simply isn`t needed. They note the area`s already large supply of shopping outlets, including major shopping centers and specialty stores.
Mall supporters have always maintained that the Twin Cities market was a classic example of a place with too few stores, especially stores specializing in trendy, fashionable women`s clothing.
This argument was particularly true at the time the mall was first proposed. Then the only major outside retail chains in the Twin Cities market were stores such as Sears and J.C. Penney. The only department stores specializing in more fashionable apparel were Minneapolis-based Dayton`s and Chicago-based Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Dayton`s was by far the market`s leading retailer. Carsons entered the market in the late 1980s when it purchased Donaldson`s, another old-line Minnesota department-store chain.
Supporters of the new mall also pointed to statistics showing that Minnesotans have a lot of money to spend. The Census Bureau puts the state`s average family income at around $39,000.
But since the mall was first proposed, there have been a number of major changes in the Twin Cities` retail landscape. Most notable has been the entrance of top retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. And there`s also been a boom in the building of strip shopping centers and specialty retail outlets, and the entry of a number of discount apparel stores.
And even though the mall is now a reality, a skepticism remains about its ability to succeed.
”The Mall of America is attempting to appeal to customers who really aren`t there,` said Kurt Barnard, publisher of New York-based Barnard`s Retail Marketing Report. ”People in Minnesota are basically laid-back and basically conservative in their spending and dress,” Barnard said. ”They`re not as fashion forward or as fashion conscious as say a New York or Los Angeles.”
Still, Barnard thinks the mall is going to draw huge crowds.
”The Mall of America is going to be a show to be seen. People are going to flock to see it. And after they`ve seen it, they`re going to go back to where they`ve been used to shopping,” Barnard said.
The type of stores that are in the mall just are not what the consumer is looking for today, he added.
”Americans today, whether they are in Minnesota, Florida, Idaho or New Hampshire, are very sophisticated and they have very good taste, but they mostly operate on a Kmart budget.”
Retail industry statistics bear out this last point. The more moderate- priced and discount stores have fared best in tough economic times.
The combination of the merchants in the mall has raised more than a few eyebrows.
”What a crazy mix,” said one retail analyst who asked not to be named. ”You`ve got Sears in something like this fashion-forward mall. And you`ve got Macy`s, a store that`s in bankruptcy, and Bloomingdale`s, a store whose parent company just got out of bankruptcy, and you`ve got Nordstrom, which is not having its best year at all.”
Minnesota shoppers are generally intrigued by the new mall. Nearly everyone expresses an interest in visiting, but folks are less clear on just how much shopping they plan to do.
”When I go shopping, the last thing I want to do is take my 3-year-old with me,” said one shopper.
”Also,” she added, ”I can`t imagine that after I`ve spent all day at the amusement park with my son, that I`m going to feel like going to try on a dress.”
Mall promoters dismiss the skepticism.
They predict more than 40 million people a year will come, drawn from the Upper Midwest regions of Iowa, Wisconsin and even the Dakotas and Canada. Promoters are also targeting shop-aholics from the Chicago and Kansas City areas, and, of course, the growing international trade.
”We expect a lot of local shoppers, but we also expect a lot of tourists,” said John Wheeler, mall manager. ”We also expect a lot of motor coach traffic.”
Mall tourism manager Colleen Hayes says the center already has 1,200 bus tours booked through the end of 1992. They`re coming from as far away as Massachusetts.
To service these millions, the mall has an extensive customer-service network in place offering customers everything from beeper and cellular phone rental to foreign language interpreters.
Promoters expect a large number of foreign visitors, particularly from Japan. ”Japan is going to be our No. 1 international market,” said Hayes, noting that many Japanese tourists change planes in Minneapolis enroute to the East Coast.
The Japanese draw is one reason why the Knott`s Berry Farm`s theme park plays up the name Snoopy-a comics character popular in Japan.
But it is Midwestern tourism that will make or break the big mall.
”People in our region may not be able to go to Disneyland every year,”
Hayes said, ”but they`ll be able to come to the Mall of America.”
Next: West Edmonton Mall, first of the giants, turns 10.
