Shopping malls have always operated by an inherently unequal economic formula. The anchor tenants–well-heeled department stores–paid little or nothing for their space while the specialty stores that filled the rest of the mall paid hefty rents. The theory: Specialty retailers benefited from the presence of the department stores, which acted as magnets for shoppers.
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Not anymore. With department store chains such as Marshall Field’s and Lord & Taylor continuing to lose market share to discounters, it no longer makes sense to pay a premium to be in a mall, says Gordon Segal, founder and chief executive of Crate & Barrel.
Graphic evidence of Segal’s thinking: a new freestanding Crate & Barrel store on the parking lot of Northbrook Court. The store is three times bigger than the Crate & Barrel that was inside the mall, making it the size of the chain’s flagship on Michigan Avenue.
“In the mall, you’re another blur as shoppers go by,” Segal said as he greeted guests at the store’s opening party Tuesday. “How do you create a personality?”
Segal is practicing what he preaches. Already, Crate & Barrel has pulled its stores out of two of Dallas’ best-known malls and built new stores nearby. It also has decamped from malls in Boston and Palo Alto, Calif.
On the schedule for this summer, Crate & Barrel is moving out of a San Jose, Calif., mall and opening a store across the street.
“Gordon was at the forefront of thinking not that malls are dead, but that they have changed. They aren’t differentiated,” explains Bette Kahn, Crate & Barrel spokeswoman. “It’s also a time issue. People don’t spend time walking around malls anymore.”
Crate & Barrel will continue to exit mall stores when its leases expire, Kahn says.
And that should be a wake-up call for the nation’s retail developers.
New look: Stacy Wallace-Albert has resigned as fashion editor of Chicago Magazine after a 4 1/2 year run. Wallace-Albert, who produced five major fashion spreads a year as well as a monthly “Style Sheet” of trendy items, has opted for the only slightly less hectic pace of TV fashion reporting.
“It was the best gig in town,” she says of her old job. “But I didn’t want to go to all the events, get the mail and phone calls. Being a fashion editor is an incredibly time-consuming job.”
Instead, Wallace-Albert will continue to develop a weekly style show for WBBM-Ch. 2 that airs during the 11 a.m. Wednesday broadcasts with Mary Ann Childers and Michael Ayala. And she will still be a consultant for Chicago Magazine, producing the Style Sheet.
Replacing her is Stacey Jones, an experienced stylist who worked with Wallace-Albert on the magazine’s fashion spreads for the past year. Jones, 32, is thrilled about her new post and promises to “deliver compelling, fresh and exciting fashion editorial. As the times change in fashion, we’ll make sure we stay ahead of the game.”
There was never a debate about filling the position, says Richard Babcock, Chicago Magazine’s editor.
“We’ve had a wonderful run with fashion under Stacy and I’m sure it will continue. Just as fashion has boomed in Chicago, it’s boomed at Chicago Magazine,” he says.
In fact, fashion ad pages have grown 20 percent since Wallace-Albert came on board.
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E-mail schandler@tribune .com.