Shopping Malls still the ‘rave’ in UK

In 1956, Victor Gruen from Austria built the first shopping mall, Southdale in Minneapolis, USA. Since then the USA has built 1000’s more, however they are one of the fastest countries that are returning to to village square shopping. The ‘coatless’ shopping experience that Americans enjoyed for so long is now on a downturn. The UK is abouot to open it’s biggest, the Westfield London site has cost 1.6 Billion pounds to build. The White City site will have 270 shops and covers 150,000 square metres. The UK may be in it’s worst downturn in 60 years, but a total of 500,000 square metres of shopping malls are being built in the UK at present. Shopping malls are now part of the experience retail environment. The following introductions to White city could be considered by any experience retail concept: Onsite spa Gourmet meals No clocks, so consumers loose their time appreciation How long will the shopping mall be the key retail shopping experience in the UK?