Like lifestyle centers, it too has shopped located on a citylike series of streets and parking lots, but what sets apart River ranch is that it is only a small part of an entire planned community. Instead of the shops being the main draw, the entire area is a pedestrian friendly citylike area, with themed neighborhoods, upscale apartments and living spaces like in the French quarter, and a large central gathering area and convention center. This all works together as a whole instead of trying to shoehorn a bunch of stores into a loosely gathered complex. That is why it works well.

It’s why so many lifestyle centers, mixed use centers and many malls have attempted to go upscale, in order to get the people who like to shop, as the money-saving crowds have gone to Wal-Mart and Target and the rest.

Sean…c’mon! It’s Newsweek! They researched an article, presented facts and moved on. Just because your opinion of malls and lifestyle center developments don’t match with the facts presented in the article doesn’t exactly warrant a fecal matter reference!

While I haven’t read any books on Gruen, who is literally the granddaddy of the enclosed mall (making it all the more important that I DO read them someday), and despite his ‘invention’ sort of going off the deep end in the 1970s-1980s with the over-building of malls of this ilk, I still feel his philosophy clicked, even though the ‘entertainment’ and ‘living’ elements didn’t see fruition like the ’shopping convenience / enclosed common area’ part of his vision did throughout the ‘mall boom’ years. I mean, heck, we had little 10-15 store-anchored-by-Shopko (or PrangeWay )-and/or-Kohl’s deals up here back in the early 1980s, cropping up like weeds in small towns that probably could only support one or two big stores…heaven forbid a small regional enclosed mall between them. Even in these smaller concepts of the traditional enclosed suburban mall, the concept of a gathering place for the townsfolk….the center of regional and national commerce playing host to a center for socializing and entertainment….that still came through.

That’s something that lifestyle centers are TRYING to replicate, albeit without a roof, but it’s just not working. They’re not like other outdoor concepts like Oakbrook Court or Old Orchard in IL, or how Mayfair in the Milwaukee area used to be….those malls are more akin to enclosed malls, just with no roof, and bearing courtyard areas for entertainment. Lifestyle centers just plain DON’T WORK. Some people just abhor malls, especially the clientele that shop these sorts of centers and their tenants within them. Not that ALL people in that demographic are this way, of course…….not wanting to paint a broad stroke on an entire group.

The only reason stores like Walmart are still kicking today is because they crushed all the competition that were the small shops that once dotted all these enclosed malls (especially the smaller 10-20 store community focused ones in towns of 10,000-25,000 population counts) with their rock-bottom prices and literally zero overhead costs, not to forget a streamlined distribution model….the savings from all thus being passed onto consumers.

I give those guys that, but not the fact that they dealt a blow to many-a national retail chain.

I think it’ll all swing back around someday. Soon people will even get tired of these big boxes, along with lifestyle centers, and may want things to return to simpler ideals in retailing. Like how the grandparents used to shop….downtown, in small shops that lined the street, fronted by large department stores in many cases.

I think this is why I keep following retail news and trends, along with blogs like this. Retail is an exciting….if nerve-wracking thing to follow with. Yet it is always changing and evolving. Concepts have been tried and failed in the past, and lifestyle centers are just another attempt of a different concept.