Main street vs "lifestyle centers" vs shoppertainment

Image source

Just a quick update on the issue of Main Streets versus Malls, this time by the WSJ, just to put some business economics into it.

I'm so glad that "shoppertainment" may be reaching the end of its life!! It always felt funny that as a nation we would spend so much money and resources to create artificial "destination" experiences, like dining in faux rain forest restaurants. What both shoppertainment and lifestyle centers illustrate, to me anyway, is the deep appetite for genuine experiences, which can come from our traditional main streets and public markets, among other types of shopping typographies. That's still innovative (in the broad story of our civilization) and obviously still hard to get right! I still don't like the lifestyle center trend, which I think will also have its day of judgement, but at least it's a better reflection of where we want to end up.