January 13, 2006
Federated puts Lord & Taylor on the block
The anchor situation continues to be interesting at Old Orchard with Federated Department Stores announcing yesterday that they are selling their Lord & Taylor division. Old Orchard has a Lord & Taylor location, though it is rather small. In fact, the small store (along with the former Saks Fifth Avenue space, now a Steve & Barry's University Sportswear) were outlined for demolition by Westfield when their Old Orchard expansion plans were made public last June.
I'm guessing that the Steve & Barry's situation is a short-term lease and if Lord & Taylor gets sold/closed, Westfield will want to get their hands on that smaller building as well, clearing more hurdles for their expansion ideas. The Chicago Sun-Times has the full story on the Lord & Taylor ownership situation:
Federated to sell Lord & TaylorSource: Chicago Sun-Times
January 13, 2006
by Sandra Guy, Business ReporterLord & Taylor is up for sale, and its stores may end up as new locations for an expanded Saks Fifth Avenue or another department store, analysts speculated Thursday.
Lord & Taylor's owner, Federated Department Stores, announced Thursday it will sell the 55-store chain so it can focus on its Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. The news ended rumors that had circulated for a year-and-a-half that Federated would dispense with the modernized but floundering Lord & Taylor, which has five Chicago area stores.
The Lord & Taylor chain garnered $1.57 billion in sales in 2004, and analysts immediately speculated that it could sell for $745 million after taxes.
The most likely buyers would be private-equity companies flush with cash. Private-equity companies have recently gobbled up Neiman Marcus Group and Toys R Us in separate deals.
Deborah Weinswig of Citigroup Smith Barney speculated that a private-equity buyer could buy Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, and rename all of the stores Saks Fifth Avenue.
Another analyst who asked not to be named said a smarter pairing would be Lord & Taylor with the upscale Parisian chain of 40 department stores in the South. Parisian is being sold by Saks.
Federated bought the New York-based Lord & Taylor chain as part of its stunning $11.9 billion takeover of the May Department Stores, including Marshall Field's and L.S. Ayres. The consolidation of the country's top two department-store chains, announced a year ago, took effect Aug. 30.
May Department Stores had tried to turn around the Lord & Taylor chain by introducing more fashionable merchandise and closing 32 stores that represented 38 percent of Lord & Taylor's store base but only 19 percent of the chain's total sales.
Federated expects to sell Lord & Taylor this year. Federated CEO Terry Lundgren, the man responsible for renaming Marshall Field's as Macy's, said that although Lord & Taylor didn't fit Federated's focus, it has "a great name, many outstanding locations, an experienced management team and a strong customer following."
Local shoppers have lost two Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the last three years, and could see more closings of Lord & Taylor stores.
After Saks announced last May it would close its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, the shopping center proposed tearing down the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue stores to build an open-air shopping area filled with specialty retailers.
Two years ago, Saks closed its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Oakbrook Center mall in the western suburbs. It was replaced by a Bloomingdale's Home Store.
Posted by Tannerman at 10:03 AM
December 14, 2005
Christmas at Fountain Court
Christmas has hit our favorite Westfield mall (though my wish with Santa would be for Westfield to knock off the little ego trip about their name -- it's stupid). Amy and I like to take photos to capture the decorations (see what we found last year).
A tradition at Old Orchard is to drain the large fountain located in Fountain Court (yeah, that's how it got its name) and put a large Christmas tree on that location, complete with little enclosed windows containing animated stuffed animals. It's not as cool as going downtown to see the State Street Christmas windows, but it's something.
The windows at the base of the tree feature animated teddy bears doing stuff with musical instruments. It's supposed to come off as cute, but frankly the display is rather cold and lifeless. Probably because their is no storyline, music, or purpose... and sometimes the mechanics are broken. But other than that, it's not too bad! :)
Then again, I think I'd rather tolerate this weak display than have to put up with Marshall Field's becoming crapola-Macy's.
Posted by Tannerman at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2005
Outside the Orchard - 09.29.05
We know you've been missing it (and have got to be saddened by all the Marshall Field's-Macy's news), so once again the Old Orchard Observer presents Outside the Orchard, a brief look at what the online world is saying about Skokie's mall.
Over on Jeni's Musings, a simple observation is made regarding the outdoor beauty of Old Orchard (even if it was posted way back in May) [Saturday, May 28]:
Saturdays are made for shopping
went with tita gina to old orchard mall (out door mall) in skokie - it is so beautiful. should have taken a picture. but too busy shopping
Jasmine writes about the recently-added Sephora store via News From The Flip Front [Monday, July 11]:
Stef and I shop for makeup at the Sephora store in Old Orchard Mall. This is where I find the Paul & Joe mascara which, when applied, makes me look like I could be an extra in a Bollywood musical.
Trey took a trip to Chicago back in June, and stayed at a hotel near the mall. Here are his thoughts posted via his blog, uniquely titled Trey's Blog [Thursday, June 30]:
To snap us back to reality, we trekked back across downtown to where we had parked. We drove back to Old Orchard, where our motel is located and visited the mall there, Westfield at Old Orchard. This mall is very cool because it has a indoor mall layout, but maintains an outdoor architecture. In other words, the stores are side-by-side, the walkways are close, and the roof only exists on top of the stores. A nice cool breeze blew through the entire time. This would be very nice to have in Houston, but the heat could make it a miserable experience. The girls ate a couple of New York style (thin crust) pizza slices. Cheri and I split a gyro and a Vienna Beef hot dog. They were decent, but still considered mall food. We finished out the day sharing a waffle cone of Fat Free Dreamsicle Frozen Yogurt. YUMM.
Andrew writes via md-2-b about leaving his church in Chicago to head to New York and med school! Apparently, he was suprised about what happened after that final Sunday service [Monday, July 25]:
So I figure something is up, but I'm not really sure what. At 6, Tai and I arrive at J&J's place. We're supposed to go to Maggiano's at Old Orchard, but Jeannie has to drop off a book at Tuscany's for a med school friend. I don't think anything of it... but when we get to Tuscany's, John suggests that we *all* go inside so that "we can see what it looks like." Hmm. So I follow, a little warily. Then the hostess greets us and asks, "Won, party of 20?" Haha... so the surprise was up.
I really didn't mean to find out about the dinner, and I really am sorry that it wasn't a surprise. It was very thoughtful and well planned out =c)
Did you know that Old Orchard has 12 movie screens? After that big rennovation a few years back, they doubled the capacity for movies. And bum writes on The Bum Log about seeing one of the summer's better films at the "Double O" (um, that's Old Orchard in can you couldn't figure it out) [Saturday, June 18]:
Just got back from seeing "Batman Begins" at Old Orchard. It was a good movie, commendable acting by Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine et al, but my favorite part? The fantastic job they did turning Chicago into Gotham City!!!
On the other hand, many bad films have been viewed at the mall as well, as Swain describes on The House of Swain [Saturday, June 18]:
I can recall sneaking into Cruel Intentions at Old Orchard in Skokie, Illinois... and many others so forgettable, that they're already out of my head for good. Having said that, I can tell you that I DID catch a free showing of Battlefield: Earth, and I STILL wanted my money back afterward.
The addition of extra theatres does make things rather confusing, however, because the screen locations are split 6 and 6. Screens 1-6 are located near Potbelly's while Screens 7-12 are near Maggiano's. The author of Modern Day Spinster shares in the confusion [Wednesday, August 10]:
In an interesting turn of events I went to the movies with BJ and saw March of Penguins at Old Orchard. I didn't park on the Maggiano's side because I inverted the theater numbers in my head.
The Beyond Retail blog "features opinion on retail, community and local projects and issues in the towns of Framingham and Natick, located in the MetroWest region of Massachusetts." And apparently, the author isn't happy that there aren't more Apple Stores in the area... using the example of Northbook Court and Old Orchard here in the Midwest [Wednesday, July 13]:
Old Orchard, an upscale shopping mall in Skokie, IL, is a mere 8.4 miles and 13 minutes from Northbrook. And not to diss Chicagoland, but I personally think that there are a lot more Apple users in MetroWest and Boston then in Chicago's North Shore and even the city of Chicago, seeing all of the universities and colleges in the area, not to mention the iPod craze that has been huge in this area.
Of course, Anabel (of Anabel Lee After Dark) likes the fact that Old Orchard has an Apple Store because, well, you can buy stuff there [Friday, August 5]:
Oh, I guess I should mention that tomorrow morning I'm going to Old Orchard to buy my ibook. I know, I know, I have no use for it. But to be honest, I really want it. Plus I have the money for it. Or well, I will in a week. I'll probably stop using my desktop as much. Perhaps only to play the sims. In any case, I'm excited.
Congress approved a transportation bill back in July. The Chicago Tribune had this interesting tidbit [Sunday, July 31]:
In addition to authorizing the CTA's proposed Circle Line, the legislation approves extending the Orange Line from Midway Airport to the Ford City shopping center, extending the Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street and continuing the Yellow Line from Dempster Street in Skokie to the Old Orchard shopping center.
The Jade, who authors Jaded in Chicago apparently is divorced and has a kid... but has time to shop [Sunday, July 31]:
I got a pretty sweet divorce deal wherein The Ex paid my mortgage and all my bills and childcare costs for a year and a half. So, I just went to school, didn't work, and curbed my shopping tendencies. The limiting my shopping was hard considering that until that point I was like a homing pigeon trained to return to the shoe department at Nordstrom in Old Orchard on a regular basis. But I managed.
On More Nonsense, Nick writes about the worst year of his life, 1997 [Wednesday, July 27]:
The other thing that happened in 97 was that I had quit working at IRI and was now consulting. Consulting meant that I would not get a vacation all year. I worked a forty to fifty hour week every week with out any break. Holidays came and I didn’t even get paid for them. Plus I was no longer working downtown so I had to drive to work every day, which I hated. I missed being in the loop and being able to go to lunch in the big city. Instead I was relegated to going to Old Orchard mall and grabbing some fast food.
Rita describes herself as "a student at the University of Chicago. I'm unfriendly. And I don't like squirrels." I believe she's also Jewish if you take the posts of her Nobody Sasses A Girl In Glasses blog into context. As since Old Orchard is located on Chicago's North Shore, a heavily Jewish area, you are bound to get some overlap in blog postings [Thursday, August 4]:
But there's nothing in itself wrong with recording all the minutia that made up the geography of life for Chicago Jews, and a lot of which makes up my own geography a few generations later--West Roger's Park, Lincolnwood, Hyde Park, Devon Ave., Boone School, Old Orchard Mall, The Bagel, even Jimmy's gets a nod. There's always something personal at stake when your own geography is opened to the public via a book or a movie. You become the kid who sees himself in a family movie and recognizes himself for the first time: "That's me! That's my house!" And you wonder how everyone else watching perceives you and your house. Do they see the same things you see?
The folks at Steve's News Annex plagiarize the Chicago Tribune with info about the previously-discussed (here, here, here, and here) Forth & Towne concept store at Old Orchard. Here are some excerpts from the excerpts [Monday, August 8]:
As for Old Orchard, "it's a mall, but it's an outside mall" with a good tenant mix, Muto said. "It's an affluent area and it's close enough to the city that it draws city residents. We're trying a two-level store there."
Apparently, you will soon be able to get some facial work done at Old Orchard, per the Chicago Tribune [Tuesday, September 13]:
Consumers shopping for shoes at Westfield Old Orchard will soon be able to pick up a shot of Botox, too. Pure Laser, which performs its hair removal, acne treatments and facelifts-in-a-bottle from the sixth floor of a professional building at the Skokie mall, is expected to begin construction soon on a location that will make it neighbors to other tenants Marshall Field's, Lenscrafters, Big Toy Express and Champps Americana. "My guess is it will offer more exposure to customers in the mall and walk-in traffic," said Shannon Ridgeway, Westfield Old Orchard marketing director. The higher-profile site is expected to open before the end of the year. Pure is at the forefront of what could be an explosion of personal-care services popping up in shopping centers as Baby Boomers want to try to turn back the clock, one retail consultant said.
Finally, we have some photos of good old Old Orchard, hosted via that nifty Flickr service (which Yahoo! recently acquired, so you know it's going to turn bad soon... anyone remember Hotmail pre-Microsoft?). Mac(3) shares a photo of the fountain located in the Fountain Court (go figure). Also shot by this photographer was two photos of the lion statue (1 and 2), also found in Fountain Court. And last but not least, two odd photos of a parking sign (1 and 2).
And that pretty much wraps up this edition of Outside the Orchard. Hope you found the postings completely pointless!
Posted by Tannerman at 04:24 PM
July 21, 2005
Professional Building becomes a wireless tower
Proving once again that there's nothing Westfield won't do to make a buck, they are adding mobile phone tower antennas to the top of the Professional Building. What, you didn't like having just a normal brick building there? You had to muck it all up with stupid looking wireless crap? On the plus side, since installation, the antenna points have been colored brown to help them blend in with the brick. But honestly, ever since Westfield took over Old Orchard, they've done nothing but milk it to death with short-term money-making elements like this. Idiots!
Posted by Tannerman at 03:01 PM
July 12, 2005
Outside the Orchard - 07.12.05
The Old Orchard Observer presents once again... Outside the Orchard, a brief look at what the online world is saying about Skokie's mall.
Flickr user lay-c dot com posts this photo and this photo, highlighting the fountain located in the Fountain Court section of Old Orchard.
On the Dianatics blog, an interesting analysis is made regarding "Mall Mice", using Old Orchard as an example: [Saturday, June 11]:
My guess is we're switch hitters in our membership at the mall. We've been the field trip leaders who planned to go there for something new for the wedding, shirts for work or Aunt Zelda's birthday present next month. Most likely we've also been the tag-alongs — by volunteerism or having been cajoled into the trip, perhaps with the mythical promise that it'll be fun.
Observed on a recent Saturday at Old Orchard was a classic study in a mall goer and go-along.
He: Are you looking for nice shoes or casual shoes? These are good. He holds up a pair red flats.
She: I'm just looking for shoes.
He: Moving to a chair where he can see her through the racks of shoes... What size do you wear?
She: 7 to 7 1/2.
He: Noticing she's in the size 6 to 6 1/2 section... You're looking at the wrong shoes. These are the wrong shoes.
She: More annoyed... They're all mixed up. You just have to look.
Carolyn Moncel chimes in all the way from Paris, France, where she is adjusting to living. She writes in in Tales from the Seine [Monday, June 27]:
Now, here's what I don't get and no one yet has been able to give me a straight answer. Why are there only store sales roughly four times per year? ...In the US, if a store decides to put their inventory on sale, they just do it. They don't need what appears to be the government's approval to do it.
Chuck Berry sings "I'm so glad I'm living in the USA," and when it comes to shopping, it has become my anthem. That's because it's true when he says "Anything you want we got it right here in the US of A." When I get back home for vacation, I'm going shopping at Old Orchard, River Oaks, Orland Square, the Mag Mile or someplace. What's more, I just might kiss the ground in the process!
Over on The Savvy Traveler, it seems like biking has become hazardous for the author [Friday, July 1]:
...yesterday I went on this long bike ride to Glenview to get immunizations shots for typhoid and craziness, but i ended up on this highway, where there was no bike path. ...alas! about 3/4 of the way back my bike got stuck on a tree branch (a la nature reserve) and it broke, just like that. haha. now this seems funny but at the time i was wicked pissah. so i walked a bit, and got a cab ride from old orchard. ah well, i think i'm gonna have to go to the evanston hospital for the immunizations and malaria medication.
Reading Putting Power In Their Hands, it's argued that Dad's aren't too bright when it comes to shopping at Crate & Barrel [Wednesday, July 6]:
...we took our shopping skills to the suburbs as we tore through Old Orchard Mall. Mom and I got all sneaky on Brian and bought him new glassware that was on sale at Crate and Barrel before he had a chance. It was Mom's idea I swear. We tried to get Dad in on the plot to occupy Brian while we stood in line but Dad's not always bright in that area. He just kind of looked at us and smiled as Brian walked right up behind him. We made the two of them leave together and after our purchase, found them sitting and chatting in front of a flowerbed.
The folks over at life (over IP) are one of the few to write the full official name of Old Orchard in a blog post [Wednesday, July 6]:
I also decided to walk back from work tonight, a nice 20-minute walk. Every little bit helps. The Westfield Shoppingtown Old Orchard is right near the hotel, so I stopped in at the Apple Store, and grabbed a bite at the Cheesecake Factory. It's amazing that a open-air mall like this could exist in a cold-weather area like Chicago.
In this blog (Caution: NSFW) blog, author poiesia shares "100 factoids about me," including [Monday, June 27]:
74. I no longer like Old Orchard.
Evan writes in draykopf about being Jewish and shopping in the 'burbs [Thursday, July 7]:
Today I was shopping at Lowes in Lincolnwood. For those of you unfamiliar with this Chicago suburb, it is roughly in between two HUGE Jewish neighborhoods. At the blinds section, I found myself standing in line behind a nice woman and her two children - both wearing shorts and ratty t-shirts with dirty kippot and tzit tzit dangling. 20 minutes later, as I walk out of the paint aisle, I nearly run into a man pushing a cart and talking on his cell phone (don't you need an ear piece for this?) - he is wearing black pants, a white dress shirt a long beard and a kippah.
After that, I end up at Old Orchard in Skokie where after lunch at a place called "The Bagel" I found myself sitting in a sunny spot while waiting for my wife, and reading the July edition of the World Jewish Digest, which, by the way, has a couple of great articles about Jewish blogging.
Finally, Crain's Chicago Business featured an article about the Midwest losing jobs in the month of June, specifically [Wednesday, July 6]:
Illinois ranked second in the number of jobs lost in the Midwest in June, while employment cuts on the national level reached a 17-month high at a time of year when downsizing activity is typically slow, according to a report released today.
...In the retail sector, home decorating store The Great Indoors made significant cuts as did local branches of department store operator Saks Inc.... Both announced store closures in suburban Chicago, with the home decorator closing its Deerfield branch and Saks saying it would shut its high-end Saks Fifth Avenue store and its connected discount outlet at Skokie's Old Orchard mall.
Posted by Tannerman at 01:18 PM
June 29, 2005
Outside the Orchard - 06.29.05
That's right, there's been more activity in the blogging world regarding Old Orchard. Like our first Outside the Orchard installment, we'll keep you up-to-date on the buzz...
LiveJournal user sialagogue writes in I love it, but I hate the taste [Saturday, June 25]:
Doug went to Old Orchard with some people...
I hope Doug had a good time!
Meanwhile, on Dear Knucklehead, Mike provides his thoughts regarding those who hang out at Old Orchard, based on his observations at the Howard L station [Monday, June 27]:
As Howard is the terminal point of one train line and the starting point for two others, the collection of people here is somewhat more diverse than you'll find elsewhere. Guys from the South side who work in the Skokie industrial corridor, college students on their way to Northwestern, thugs with nothing else to do spending some time at the Old Orchard mall, upperclass folks on their way to a Cubs game or downtown for their twice-a-year el ride. And I'm always surprised at the number of people who are on their way to the Skokie courthouse.
Being commuters of various sorts who have their own destinations and goals in mind, there isn't much mixing, but I notice that people there tend to gravitate to and stand by their peers. With the exception of college students who are constantly hitting on each other, there's no real interaction between many of these groups.
Leah in Chicago is just happy that Nordstorm provides lots of shoe sizes [Sunday, June 5]:
Then it was time for shoes. Oy. Shoes are a weakness, which is hard when you wear an 11. But we hit DSW and searched for a brown shoe in an 11. If I didn't find it, I wasn't going to allow myself the purple Franco Sarto mules. The brown shoe didn't materialize, but a sexy (and I mean sexy) Kenneth Cole black pump did. Yum.
From there is was to Old Orchard -- to Nordstrom's, because they carry size 11s. Alas, brown is not in for the summer and there were no brown pumps in size 11 in the house. On a whim, we popped into Aldo's and I asked the sales girl (with a TON of attitude on my part), "do you even carry an eleven?" "In some shoes." "In this one?" Attitude, attitude, attitude. All from me, not from the salesgirl. I am so used to not being served that I assume they can't/won't help me.
To my surprise she came back with a box and handed it over. "Um, what about these shoes?" She had those too! I walked out with one great pair of tan pumps and headed towards Steve Madden. Just to make sure I was happy with what I had.
It's one thing to travel to the mall to get shoes. It's completely another to travel to Old Orchard only to find a restaurant not open, such as what angelkutty wrote about on Echo Park [Monday, June 13]:
...finally we decide to go to Champs in Old Orchard to watch Game 2 of the NBA finals. we go to Old Orchard and the Champs is under construction, so we just decide to go to Buffalo Wild Wings in Skokie.
Now, I have no record of Champps (note that's spelled with two P's officially) being rennovated or anything like this, so this was just an odd remark. That said, I've been to both Champps and the Buffalo Wild Wings mentioned... the wings were the better choice anyway!
Finally, recent Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, very close to Old Orchard) grad Ashley is spending a year in Japan as an English teacher, posting her adventures via The World of Ashley. Apparently, the Old Orchard "style" is evident on the other side of the world [Monday, June 27]:
...yesterday I went with a group of people to an American style outlet mall - that looked exactly like Old Orchard! trippy.
Posted by Tannerman at 09:35 AM
June 27, 2005
Outside the Orchard - 06.27.05
Every now and then, I like to see what other blogs are writing about in reference to Old Orchard. Outside the Orchard is a recurring feature that takes a look at this online conversation! We keep tabs on Old Orchard conversation... because no one else is crazy enough to!
Like myself, Doodlehead doesn't like Old Orchard's Westfieldized name [Sunday, May 8]:
This morning I stopped by the Apple Store at Westfield Shoppingtown's Old Orchard (I say the full name since it displeases me so)...
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg offered his take on the news that Old Orchard was looking at expanding [Wednesday, June 8]:
For your shopping convenienceOld Orchard is expanding? It's not big enough? As anyone who has ever gone to the massive outdoor mall in Skokie -- or tried to -- knows the place is enormous already, sprawling and jammed with customers. You'd think they were giving stuff away, as opposed to charging for it.
Hence, I suppose, the expansion. Some days the parking lot is completely filled.
To be fair, Old Orchard does have the benefit of being outdoors -- you don't get that suffocating, get-me-outta-here feeling that can come over you after too long in an enclosed mall, a condition I call "mall burn." Still, you can't look at the packs of disaffected teens drifting through it on a Friday night, for want of anything better to do, and not wonder what our country has come to.
This, of course, generated feedback in the blogosphere, such as this post over at Mental Multivitamin [Wednesday, June 8]:
Ayup.
Reminds me of a mall story and a recommendation.
The Old Orchard expansion story has prompted many folks to more seriously compare Woodfield (the largest mall in Chicagoland) with our Skokie outdoor shopping center. In many cases, such as on Blob Dog Attacks Geordi, there is no comparision [Tuesday, June 7]:
I hate Woodfield. While it has a great Apple Store (the first in Chicagoland) among other stores, I can't stand Woodfield. Perhaps I was too spoiled when I lived near the more generally upscale Old Orchard and Northbrook Court, but I hate that Woodfield is the closest mall to me now... Now, I read that Old Orchard and other malls are contemplating facelifts with nary a mention of Woodfield. This mall I'm stuck with might be in its current state for a long time.
I've never seen the movie Mean Girls, but apparently LiveJournal user hyperfocused has. She writes in her blog The Occasional Poet Dreams of Stardom [Sunday, June 5]:
Watched Mean Girls for the first time today. I hadn't realized it was set on the North Shore, more specifically at Evanston Township High... The mentions of Old Orchard Mall and Walker Brothers pancakes had me feeling nostalgic for my youth, though the movie itself made me damn glad I was 37 not 17.
Speaking of LiveJournal, user rebel_prince15 writes in his blog about the hunt for a piece of furniture [Saturday, June 4]:
Water Tower Place had more stores in it. C bought a FOM pillow he saw and I wanted the puzzle cube ottoman at Old Orchard. It's $375, maybe someday I can buy it. Ha!
Amy and I wondered where you could buy a puzzle cube ottoman up at Old Orchard. I'm thinking either Pottery Barn or one of the anchor stores. Who knows?
So, as you can see, I'm not the only weirdo who writes about Old Orchard out there!
Posted by Tannerman at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2005
Proposed Expansion: Old Orchard Goes Lifestyle
Here at the Old Orchard Observer, we've talked about consolidation in the retail industry, especially as it pertains to mall anchors. With Marshall Field's being acquired by Federated, 3 out of 5 anchors at Old Orchard will be owned by the same company. Then just last week it was announced that Saks Inc. would be closing the Saks Fifth Avenue store at the mall, resulting in another unknown for Old Orchard Center. In short, anchors are going to be lost. So what do you do instead?
Traditionally, large malls have been built on the assumption that anchors draw you to the center. Hence the label, "anchor." Often, the appeal of a mall has been built on what anchor stores are present. From a business perspective, rent and leasing rates are determined based on the number and size of the anchors in a mall.
But in case you haven't noticed, there aren't enough anchors to go around these days. There is consolidation, like what is taking place with Federated and May. There is a change in strategy, like what you see in Sears moving away from mall-based stores. There is a downsizing and focus on profitable stores, evident in what took place last week with Saks; J. C. Penney is also a good example here. And of course there is the loss of anchors altogether, as in Montgomery Wards and the like.
This has created a void for traditional malls as they try to figure out what to do. Many have chosen to go with somewhat alternative anchors. For example, the mall I used to work at, Randhurst (Mt. Prospect, IL), recently built a Costco as a part of the mall. Here in the city, unique architecture has allowed traditional "all in one stores" stores like Target to serve as anchors.
The growth of big boxes (Wal-Mart, Target, warehouse clubs, etc.) and category killers (Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, etc.) has changed the way people shop. It also is changing the world of mall design and planning. Unfortunately, malls are large and heavy on infrastructure... you can't easily change course and reconfigure.
Sometimes there are exceptions, such as Brickyard Mall, a local mall I grew up with here in the city. It was a large, two-story, indoor mall that basically outlived its usefulness. It recently reopened after being completely torn down and rebuilt as The Brickyard, an outdoor center with a mix of big box retailers and specialty stores. So far, it's been quite a success story.
Other local shopping centers are shooting to become lifestyle centers, the big buzzword in retail these days. A lifestyle center is typically an open-air shopping center that doesn't really feature anchors. Instead, the mix of stores comes more from the specialty retail/boutique side of things. Often they are modeled to look like small towns, full of sidewalks, park-like places, and common areas. They don't require as much space as a large indoor mall and they offer convenience to a typically affluent shopper, as they can just park their oversized SUV nearby and quickly shop.
The "lifestyle center" concept was pioneered by Poag & McEwen with the construction of The Shops of Saddle Creek in Germantown, TN, in 1987. My current employer is located near another lifestyle center that recently opened, 500,000 sq. ft. Deer Park Town Center in suburban Chicago.
So what do you do when you are a traditional mall, you are losing anchors, and the trend seems to be towards lifestyle centers? Well, you build a hybrid! Last July, a suburban mall called Yorktown Center (previously the home of Big Idea) announced that they were going to tear down some vacant anchor space (formerly populated by Montgomery Wards) and build a lifestyle center concept called The Shops on Butterfield. Uniquely, this development would actually connect with the existing traditional indoor mall and feature an attached hotel. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, as the new development is set to open in 2006.
Even knowing these trends, I was shocked today when I read the following story in Crain's Chicago Business regarding what may happen to Old Orchard down the road. I guess the concept makes sense when you think about it...
Giant expansion for Old Orchard
Size would rival Woodfield as new vision for regional malls takes shape
June 06, 2005
By Sandra JonesThe owner of Old Orchard shopping center has drawn up plans to bulldoze the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor spaces there to make way for a Main Street-style shopping promenade — an estimated $100-million expansion that would put the Skokie mall on par with the region's largest, Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg.
Source: Crain's Chicago BusinessOwner Westfield Group's proposed site development plan, obtained by Crain's and dated May 20, calls for building 53 new specialty stores and restaurants totaling 650,000 square feet. The plan calls for a string of 24 stores backing up to Skokie Boulevard with trees, walkways and small courtyards modeled after the so-called lifestyle centers that have been drawing shoppers from traditional malls.
That strip would replace parking on the east side of the mall, the most traffic-congested. The surface parking would be eliminated and the parking deck outside Lord & Taylor would be torn down. In its place, a new parking deck would be constructed at the southeast end of the promenade near Golf Road. More specialty retail is proposed on the west and north sides of the mall.
The expansion, if approved as-is, would bring Old Orchard to 2.3 million square feet, an increase of about 25%. Retail experts estimate the cost of the overhaul at more than $100 million.
A spokeswoman for Australia-based Westfield calls the plan "very exploratory," explaining the proposal is a way for Westfield to get "a sense of the marketplace." And it still needs the approval of Skokie village officials and the remaining department store anchors: Nordstrom, Marshall Field's and Bloomingdale's.
Still, the ambitious proposal underlines the problem facing all mall operators these days. Malls like Old Orchard were designed to be anchored by department stores. But the department store industry is shrinking, and shoppers now have fewer reasons to go to the mall.
"The rules of the game have completely changed," says Gerhard Plaschka, managing partner at Chicago-based MindFolio, a consulting firm that studies malls. "You have to break the rules and come up with something that makes customers choose a mall. The old story that anchor stores are the mall magnets isn't true anymore."
AMONG OLDEST MALLS IN U.S.
When Old Orchard opened in 1956, it was one of the first malls in the nation. It led the suburban retail revolution, bringing downtown department stores to the newly constructed neighborhoods that ringed the city. Marshall Field's, Old Orchard's oldest tenant, spearheaded the project and played a key financial role in its construction.
Now, Marshall Field's, which has had a string of owners since the mall was built, is about to be sold for the second time in a year. Federated Department Stores Inc. of Cincinnati agreed earlier this year to buy Field's as part of its $11-billion acquisition of St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. May purchased Field's from Target Corp. last year.
THREE ANCHORS, ONE OWNER
Once the deal closes, as expected this fall, Federated will own Field's, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor at Old Orchard — three of the four remaining anchors.
Saks Inc. announced in May that it intends to shutter its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Old Orchard in July as part of a move to scale back and reorganize the luxury chain. Federated is expected to shutter the Lord & Taylor store and eventually turn either Field's or Bloomingdale's into Macy's, according to retail sources. The two department stores combined accounted for about 220,000 square feet of retail space and about $30 million in annual sales, retail sources say. Officials with May and Federated decline to comment.
"All the major malls are facing department store consolidation," says John Melaniphy III, vice-president of Melaniphy & Associates, a retail real estate consulting firm in Chicago. "There aren't department stores waiting in the wings (to expand), so malls are looking to specialty stores and restaurants."
A sign of how times have changed in just a decade: Old Orchard's last major renovation in 1995 — under a previous owner, a group led by real estate mogul Sam Zell — hinged on the arrival of two new department stores, Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom, to the mall. The $100-million makeover targeted the stroller set with gardens, fountains and outdoor play areas for children.
Today, malls are scrambling to meet fickle shoppers' demands for convenience and entertainment. If either is lacking, they aren't likely to show up, analysts say.
Old Orchard has already begun sprucing up the mall with a new Apple Computer store, which is often crowded. It's also opened harder-to-find specialty stores in the past year including Lacoste, Clarks Shoes and Sigrid Olsen. Soon to debut: NikeWomen.
Still, competition to attract desirable retailers is expected to get tougher as Northbrook Court, another North Shore mall, goes through a similar, but smaller, effort to attract one-of-a-kind stores.
'POSITIVE' ADVANCE REVIEWS
Potential tenants have so far viewed Westfield's preliminary proposal as "positive," says the Westfield spokeswoman. She declines to comment on specifics of the plan. Retail sources familiar with the makeover say it's likely to be complete in 2007.
"This is a great opportunity," says Mr. Plaschka, the mall consultant. "They just need to understand that you have to break the rules. That's the challenge. There is no standard mall mix anymore."
Source: Crain's Chicago Business
Posted by Tannerman at 10:38 PM
June 03, 2005
More on the "Shoppingtown" branding change
Tampa Bay-area (FL) blogger Costa Tsiokos adds more ongoing commentary about Westfield's stupidiy regarding the "Shoppingtown" name via PopulationStatistic.com. Tsiokos references this St. Petersburg Times article from May 8, 2002:
Forget the mall; now it's 'shoppingtown'
By MARK ALBRIGHT and CHRISTINA K. COSDON
May 8, 2002Three of the Tampa Bay area's largest malls have new Australian owners. Now they're getting new names.
Westfield Group, which this week completed its purchase of Brandon TownCenter, Citrus Park Town Center and Countryside Mall, is adding "shoppingtown" to those names.
"We've called our properties in Australia 'shoppingtowns' since the 1960s," said Stephen Fluhr, general manager of newly renamed Westfield Shoppingtown Brandon. "In Australia, a mall is a shoppingtown."
Work crews this week began sticking the new names on doors and customer service booths at the malls, whose new names include Westfield Shoppingtown Citrus Park and Westfield Shoppingtown Countryside. Eventually pylon signs at mall entrances will be changed to match the rest of the company's portfolio of 61 U.S. malls and shopping centers.
Not everybody's a fan of the new names. "My wife just called and said people are up in arms," said Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst, "The mall is not moving out of Countryside, is it? To me, Countryside Mall is a perfect name. This is a dumb idea."...
The name changes mark the latest attempt by mall owners to use their real estate holdings to promote their corporate brand. The effort spread once the companies became publicly traded stocks.
Simon Property Group of Indianapolis has plastered its name all over the parking lots and doors of its Tyrone Square, Gulf View Square and Crystal River malls. Prime Retail Inc. of Baltimore added the name at its Prime Outlets Ellenton property. Mills Corp. of Arlington, Va., which owns Sawgrass Mills in Broward County, puts its corporate monicker in all of its outlet mall names.
Contrast this with the "about face" that Westfield is doing, noted in this June 1, 2005 St. Petersburg Times article:
If you didn't call them 'shoppingtowns,' don't
By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
June 1, 2005Westfield Group has stopped calling its U.S. malls "shoppingtowns."
The Australian developer, which drew a lot of attention with the unusual monicker when the company made landfall in the states three years ago, began phasing it out May 1.
With no fanfare, the owner of three malls in the Tampa Bay area stopped ordering business cards, signs, brochures and other materials that make any reference to "shoppingtown."
"We won't be taking down signs to change the name, you just won't see us putting it on replacements as time goes by," said Catherine Dickey, spokeswoman for the chain. "The name served its purpose."
While rival malls in the market have made "mall" or "plaza" part of their formal name, Westfield did not. So the three local malls now will be called Westfield Citrus Park, Westfield Brandon and Westfield Countryside. "People know they are malls," Dickey said.
Westfield imported the "shoppingtown" label for its U.S. properties from what they are called in Australia. One reason was to send a signal to shoppers that things had changed at their nearby mall. Many shoppers never picked up the hint or ignored it. But Westfield officials are unconcerned that "shoppingtown" never became a household word.
"Shoppingtown is part of our heritage, but Westfield is the brand," Dickey said.
Westfield could have saved themselves a lot of money if they just would have looked at the U.S. market and note that, well, malls are called malls! I swear that company is run by idiots.
Posted by Tannerman at 12:16 PM
May 19, 2005
Signage migration begins at Old Orchard
During a recent trip to Old Orchard, Amy and I noticed that Westfield has begun the promised removal of the word "Shoppingtown" from their branding.
Besides cutting down the official name to something shorter, the new branding also changes the font used to spell the mall name, in this case "Old Orchard." A horizontal white line has also been removed. According to my graphic designer friend Chris Arndt of Arndt Design, "what's distinctive about the new font is the 'r' and 'a'. It's clean and contemporary. Part of the class is going from upper case to title case." So there you have it!
Posted by Tannerman at 02:34 PM
May 16, 2005
Sometimes the "Westfield" sticks, sometimes it doesn't
Today I came across a rather juvenile blog post by a high school senior who, based on the context of her postings, must live in the Chicagoland area. Using the rather insanely hard-to-read text messaging-format of writing, she talks about going to the mall with a friend, and in turn compares the mall to Old Orchard:
ok so i had to wake up at 10:00 cuz asma's friend had a b-day party at the westfield mall which is 40 minz away, at BUILD-A-BEAR...so we decided to take her there n jus hang out...n omg that build-a-bear place is sooo cool... i jus walked around at the mall n checked out a few thingz n omg itz huge n itz niiice...itz one of the best mallz, better than lincolnwood n old orchard...n they had the cutest clothez EVER!!!
Based on the geography mentioned and Build-A-Bear store locations, I assume that this author visited either Hawthorn Center (Vernon Hills, IL) or Fox Valley Center (Aurora, IL).
What I find interesting about her blog post is that while she refers to the mall she visited as "the westfield mall," she later describes two other north-of-Chicago shopping centers by name, "lincolnwood" (as in Lincolnwood Town Center, Lincolnwood, IL - owned by Simon) and, of course, "old orchard" (as in Westfield Shoppingtown Old Orchard, Skokie, IL).
What's unique about this is that this author inadvertently uncovered what the biggest problem is with the Westfield rebranding campaign... it attempts to reprogram the human need for short description of a place/location. You see it happen with sports stadiums all the time, where fans ignore the ridiculously long corporate names attached to stadiums in favor of a short version, minus the branding. For example, in Chicago, the United Center is often referred to as "the UC." U.S. Cellular Field is called "the Cell" or, even better, "Sox Park" or the traditional "Comisky Park."
The author above shows how simple use of the words "lincolnwood" and "old orchard" in the context of malls is all you need. What is contrasting with this argument, however, is that she calls the shopping center she actually visited simply as "the westfield mall." Talk about branding confusion!
Posted by Tannerman at 12:42 PM
May 13, 2005
MSNBC = Westfield Shoppingtown?
Over on Joe Sherlock's blog, he humorously comments that he "read last week that MSNBC is changing its name. Maybe it will be renamed Westfield Shoppingtown."
Ouch. You see, Westfield, you are earning a bad, bad reputation! Knock it off already.
(Oh, and for those wondering, "MSNBC" is rumored to be renamed "NBC News Channel", pending NBC terminating their partnership with Microsoft).
Posted by Tannerman at 07:32 PM
May 11, 2005
Westfield Web Watch: Macy's Hate
Since Old Orchard is owned by real estate giant, it's often helpful to keep tabs on what others are saying about the parent company. As it currently stands, Westfield operates more than 120 shopping centers in four countries, providing about 29 million square feet of space. Company trends and observations found elsewhere may add insights to the future of Old Orchard. The Westfield Web Watch is a recurring feature that takes a look at this online conversation!
Pasiphae rants about corporate name changes, namely the renaming of Bon Marché to Macy's, which may foreshadow what we will experience at Old Orchard and the Marshall Field's name. Interestingly, like so many others, the author is not so happy with the whole "Westfield Shoppingtown" branding either:
... And now you're dropping "Bon" all together and just making it Macy's. You know what? I don't want to shop at "Macy's." If I go into your store it will be to shop at the Bon. I'm going to continue to call your store the Bon. Which won't be any different than what I've been calling it these past few years, because I can't think of ANYONE that calls your store by its stupid "official" name in regular conversation. So much for corporate strategy, huh?
It's gonna be an uphill battle to get us to stop calling it the Bon. Just like we refuse to call Southcenter Mall by the ridiculous, [screwed] up name "Westfield Shoppingtown Southcenter" [Seattle, WA]. Nobody calls it that.
Posted by Tannerman at 06:42 PM
More Anti-Shoppingtown Fun!
Following up a report about a Westfield property in Wilmington, NC dropping "Shoppingtown" from their name is this article from The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA):
Westfield mall to ditch 'Shoppingtown' moniker
Chris Bagley
The Desert Sun
May 11, 2005For many it's been a tongue twister, for others a puzzlement and now, for all, it will be no more.
Westfield Shoppingtown Palm Desert is becoming just plain Westfield Palm Desert.
Australian mall owner Westfield will drop the word "Shoppingtown" not only in Palm Desert but at most of its 66 other shopping centers in the United States, company officials said Tuesday.
While the "Shoppingtown" appellation is common in Australia it never took off in the United States, a company spokesman said.
The malls will change their logos over many months, said Laurel Munson, an official in the company's Los Angeles-based U.S. division. New logos could show up first on business cards and doors.
Signs on buildings and stone monuments would likely be the last to drop the word, Munson said. She said a specific timetable for altering the signs was not known. "Obviously it's going to take time," Munson said.
An administrative assistant in Palm Desert said the name change would become apparent as the mall routinely replaces signs, food-court trays and other items. The mall hasn't yet changed anything, the employee said.
The company added "Shoppingtown" to its U.S. locations about five years ago, Munson said, as it expanded its U.S. presence. The current rebranding isn't part of a larger marketing effort.
Westfield acquired its first U.S. center in Trumbull, Conn., in 1977. It acquired the Palm Desert shopping center in 1999.
Source: The Desert Sun
Posted by Tannerman at 04:57 PM
April 27, 2005
Good-bye Shoppingtown!
It's no secret that I detest the branding of Westfield malls as "Westfield Shoppingtown _____". It seems when Westfield purchases a property, they do their best to remove any sort of unique identity that the shopping center previously held with its customer base.
While the branding isn't completely removed, the emphasis now is placed on the corporate parent rather than the individual property itself. I think this is a bad idea as a person typically associates a positive/negative experience with a physical place when it comes to shopping, not a corporate giant. And while Westfield attempts to keep the previous mall's name in their rebranding (i.e. "Old Orchard Center" became "Westfield Shoppingtown Old Orchard"), the subtlety is lost. It's unfortunate that other large mall operators are trying to mimic this branding, namely Indianapolis-based Simon. I wish I could get my hands on some research about this strategy, either for or against, because it just baffles me.
With that in mind, I was a little shocked by this article from today's Wilmington Star-News, published in Wilmington, NC. It references Westfield Shoppingtown Independence:
Westfield engages in name-droppingInteresting!
April 27, 2005
by Bonnie EkstenWHAT'S IN A NAME: Not "Shoppingtown," after Saturday. Westfield Shoppingtown Independence mall in Wilmington will shorten its name to Westfield Independence beginning Sunday.
The Australian-based property management company manages 126 shopping malls in four countries. The company has decided that "Westfield," is the brand name consumers use and recognize, said Chuck Willetts, marketing manager at the Wilmington mall.
All the Westfield properties are slated for the name change, but don't expect signage to change immediately. Mr. Willetts said signs would reflect the new name only when they need replacing.
Posted by Tannerman at 03:51 PM