Malls Are Returning to New York, Home of Department Stores and Boutiques
By Joe Piscina
Columbia University Daily Spectator
April 25, 2005
In a city bustling with bodegas and boutiques, New York, a self-described nation within a nation, may have more in common with mall-laden America than it lets on.
The city’s several malls sometimes get overlooked—maybe because of the city’s other options or attitudes—or maybe because they aren’t recognizable as traditional mid-American staples. When asked if she had ever been to a mall in the city, Kim Lau, CC ’08, asked, “Where are there malls in New York?”
The Shops at Columbus Circle, New York’s newest mall, opened in February 2004 in the much-heralded Time Warner Center. Its name omits the word “mall” and offers an experience shoppers in Ohio won’t find, but the indoor retail center is not a new concept to New York.
Malls have had a role in sculpting the city’s shopping culture for the last half-century. Beginning in the early 20th century, New York became known as one of the world’s premiere destinations for shopping. Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, among others, helped make New York one of a few places where shopping was more of an activity than an errand.
During this period, stores such as Tiffany’s and FAO Schwarz moved from Union Square up to 23rd Street, forming what became known as the “Ladies’ Mile,” complete with the department store Siegel-Cooper, whose pet department sold actual panther cubs.
Over the next several decades, the retail landscape, much like the rest of the city, was eclipsed by the allure of the increasingly popular suburban lifestyle. The suburban shopping mall, with its convenience and variety, became a welcome alternative to the hustle and bustle of the city’s large department stores.
Retail in the city bounced back during the ’90s with the advent of high-end boutique shopping in SoHo, the Upper West Side, and along Madison Avenue. And despite a post-Sept. 11, 2001 dip, the retail industry has found its second wind with the increasing presence of chain and big-box stores from the suburbs.
The West Side of Manhattan could be called a hotspot in this revolution. Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences and the author of numerous pieces on the American shopping center, said, “Someone once said, ‘If you were to put a roof over the Upper West Side, you would have one large shopping mall.’”
Beyond the proliferation of chain stores, the West Side is home to three of the city’s actual shopping malls. The Manhattan Mall, located on 6th Avenue and 33rd Street, with neon accents, an extensive food court, and a roster of stores such as Aeropostale, Sunglass Hut, and The Body Shop, seems straight out of the suburbs. It fits the profile of the every-mall so perfectly, in fact, that one may be surprised to walk outside the confines of the building and into the shadow of the Empire State Building, which lies just a block east.
A series of chain stores including Old Navy and The Disney Store accompany a nine-theater movie complex in the Harlem USA mall on 125th street. Originally lauded for its potential to reinvent Harlem economically and socially, the mall provides low-cost chain shopping to the neighborhood, despite concerns that it has destroyed some of Harlem’s distinct historic fabric.
Though The Shops at Columbus Circle is not only the only shopping center on the West Side to conveniently exclude the word “mall” from its title, it has the most uniquely New York flair. With a two story J. Crew, high-end shoe designer Stuart Weitzman’s outlet, and a Whole Foods that fills the entire lower level, the stores are of a decidedly different, more affluent strain.
The trend continues in what may be the world’s most sophisticated and expensive food court. In addition to Masa, home of sushi god Masa Takamaya’s $300-$500 dinner, Per Se features chef-legend Thomas Keller’s $350 prix fixe dinner, while Cafe Grey and Level V steak house offer their own culinary creations.
And while the other malls in the city seem more tailored to a typical student’s budget, The Shops at Columbus Circle probably receives the most name recognition from students on campus. Julian Fox, SEAS ’08, said, “Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s not a typical mall at all. Nothing like the ones I grew up around [in New Jersey].”
But New York seems unlikely to give up its individuality and give in entirely to mid-America’s sprawl across the rest of the country.
“New York has most definitely changed over the past 50 years, but not as significantly as a number of other American cities,” Jackson said, adding, “New York is one of the last bastions of the small, independent store. The city offers you an opportunity to go again.”
He said that chains generally fill the high-rent spaces in malls, while independent stores mostly survive in lower-rent areas.
The Meatpacking District on the Lower West Side, he explained, is a perfect example.
“It has a raw edge that attracts the younger New Yorkers,” he said. ”The mall has advantages for children and the old, but it is a very regimented environment. The mall is controlled and at 22, controlled is the last thing you want.”
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