Seth Ketron, assistant professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, recently spoke with the Minnesota Star Tribune about Southdale Center’s new dedicated wing for luxury stores.
From the story:
It’s a new era for the first enclosed mall in America.
Seven new luxury retailers are set to open for business this year at Southdale Center in Edina as a part of a high-end retail wing. ...
The luxury tenants are a part of a plan to add 50 new high-end stores to the mall as a whole over the next year, about a third of which don’t currently have a location in the Twin Cities. Other new additions include Aritzia, Reformation, Vuori and Ralph Lauren.
Seth Ketron, a professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas, said that many malls are reacting to the emergence of mixed-use spaces – buildings or areas that incorporate commercial, retail, residential and elements – by trying to make the mall a destination experience.
“There’s something we call the principle of cumulative attraction, so the more attractive things you add individually into a group, the more attractive the group as a whole is, beyond the sum of its parts,” he said. “I think a lot of retailers are trying to build on that principle, appealing to different kinds of consumers and even different kinds of experiences people are looking for.”
