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MOA plans life after Bloomingdale's
The Mall of America said Wednesday it's negotiating leases with at least five retailers to change the iconic Bloomingdale's store, which is closing after Two decades in the location. The mall also said it will spend $30 million to $50 million on renovations and convert a sub-level storage area into retail and restaurant space.
"We think this can be a new, exciting approach,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," said Mall of America spokesman Dan Jasper.
Bloomingdale's, an upscale mall which has operated at the mall since the property opened in 1992,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], will near the coast early March and laid off about 127 workers. The pullout was part of a bigger move by parent company Macy's Inc. to get rid of stores nationwide which were not performing well.
"This requires us to create some difficult decisions to close stores that no longer meet our performance requirements, in addition to open stores where we see opportunity," Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren said inside a statement.
In addition to the Mall of America location, Macy's intends to shut Bloomingdale's stores in three other cities, Atlanta, Oak Brook, Ill., and North Bethesda, Md. Bloomingdale's will launch its closeout sales Jan. 8.
With 210,000 square feet spread over three floors, Bloomingdale's occupied an enormous and costly footprint at the Mall of America at any given time when retailers like Best Buy Co. Inc. and Target Corp. are reducing their store counts and experimenting with smaller formats.
Richfield-based Best Buy continues to be rolling out its Best Buy Mobile stores,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which focus on selling smartphones and tablets and also the digital plans that power them. This season,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Minneapolis-based Target will unveil its CityTarget format, 60,000- to 100,000-square-foot urban stores in cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Ny.
Macy's is well aware of this trend. The company said Wednesday it'll open a 120,000-square-foot Bloomingdale's to replace a current 229,000-square-foot store in Palo Alto, Calif.
Experts say these moves are essential as more customers flock to the Internet. In the 1990s, department store chains like Macy's would flood markets with stores on long-term leases, said Carol Spieckerman, president of newmarketbuilders, a retail management strategy firm based in Bentonville, Ark. Today, as those leases expire, retailers are trying to eliminate unproductive locations, she said.
Macy's decision to close the Bloomingdale's store in the Mall of America "was not just inevitable but probably overdue," Spieckerman said.
Somewhat, Bloomingdale's struggles there have been surprising. This past year, the mall, the nation's largest,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], reported record traffic and sales, thanks largely to the strength of luxury consumers. Actually, high-end department stores like Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom enjoyed an exceptionally strong 2011.
"I might have thought using the traffic at MOA, [Bloomingdale's] would be doing enough business to justify the place," said George Whalin,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], founding partner of Retail Management Consultants in Carlsbad, Calif. "Successful malls which have great traffic have experienced increasing rents during the last year. It's very possible the cost of operating that store is merely prohibitive."
But one local expert thinks Twin Cities shoppers and luxury retailing don't mix. Local consumers are not as fashion-forward and do not spend as much on clothing as shoppers on the coasts, said Dave Brennan, professor of marketing and co-director from the Institute for Retailing Excellence at the University of St. Thomas.
"If you look at Twin Cities retailing, there has been a fallback from upscale stores," Brennan said.
For example, Saks Fifth Avenue converted its downtown Minneapolis location into its lower-cost Off 5th format. Neiman Marcus has also struggled in downtown Minneapolis and doesn't open Sundays.
With all this environment, finding one retailer to occupy 210,000 sq ft, even in a retail property as prominent as the Mall of America, will be a tough sell. That's why the mall opted to recruit five smaller retailers to occupy the area, including four "fashion-forward" retailers that will be new to the region on levels one and two and a "destination value-priced" store on level three.
"The Mall of America has always been a trendsetter, this really is another chance to do that," said Jasper,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the Mall of America spokesperson. "This is really a blank canvas for us."
The mall can also be looking to convert nearby sub-level space for storage into a shopping area that will host a two-floor,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 90,000-square-foot retailer and an upscale restaurant.
Regardless of the store additions and renovations,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Bloomingdale's will be missed, shoppers say.
"This is really sad, I can't believe it," said Jasmine Plank of Eagan. A normal Bloomingdale's shopper, Plank said she favors its Ralph Lauren Polo men's selection and Chanel merchandise.
Paul and Terry Gottwaldt of Andover said these were disappointed although not surprised.
"I just attempted to purchase a Burberry purse and that i couldn't find a soul to help me and so i left," Terry said. "They can't hold a candle to Nordstrom."
"Lately, the merchandise looks just like Macy's,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," Paul Gottwaldt said.
James Tidwell, store manager of Ultra Diamonds about the first floor outside Bloomingdale's, said the department store's closing was rumored for many months. He wondered how the closing would affect his business.
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