An interview with author Paco Underhill, whose books Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, The Call of the Mall: How we shop, and What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping, have been among the most important to the retail and consumer industry.
Terry: What would you like to share with mall owners and investors?
Paco: I think one of the key aspects that we are looking at across the retail and shopping mall spectrum in the U.S. is that there are malls doing extraordinarily well and those doing extraordinarily poorly.
One of the key aspects of the malls doing well is the transformation of the developer community from being landlords to being placemakers. They are giving their constituents a reason other than shopping to go to their mall. We are also watching the evolution of the multi-purpose site. That is virtually everyone in the global development community aren’t talking about malls, they’re talking about “alls”. Which is “how do I take a piece of RE and include some form of office, include retail, but increasingly adding housing into the process?” What the modern shopping mall is looking for often is having a built in customer base that could shop in their PJs if they wanted to.
Montesi: Thank you. We agree completely and have seen this work in our portfolio. Next question: If you were a retail center owner, what would be keeping you up at night?