Strange bed-fellows
Strange bed-fellows in the pic above: a roof shop, sandwiched between traditional fashion and furniture retailers.
These sights are becoming more and more familiar as landlords turn to non-traditional tenants to:
pragmatically fill vacancies
meet a more basic set of shopper needs.
Abraham Maslow would approve.
He was the psychologist that came up with the "hierarchy of needs" in the 1940's, to try and explain human behaviour and striving. We apparently have to get our basic needs sorted out first (food, sex, shelter, security) before we can move onwards and upwards to achieve higher goals like friendship, self esteem and even self actualisation.
How does a psychologist help explain shopping centre tenant mix?
Well we've seen spectacular growth in the limited-line / protein-heavy grocer category (food) as OBC, Roots, Jwayelani, Eskort and Econofood amongst others have collectively opened 100's of stores in the past 10 years. And 2nd supermarkets are routinely being added to many existing malls, due to a combo of developer pragmatism and competition commission interference.
Hardware stores (shelter) are now secondary anchors at many malls, and no self-respecting Pakistani cellphone shop is without an array of self-defense gadgets (security). Multi-disciplinary medical suites are also an excellent addition to shopping centre tenant mixes.
Small wholesalers, aircon shops, solar showrooms, funeral-related businesses, even motor showrooms are great space fillers on the periphery of a mall, addressing basic needs. But where do we stand on those ultimate purveyors of hope & salvation: betting shops, political party offices and start-up churches?
Human psychology is an interesting filter to add to your decision-making process when faced with a vacancy on the far side of your mall, by asking the question "What would Maslow do?"
