Strip Malls: Causes of Failure and Success

DNSI 375 see THEORY AND RESEARCH Introduction and publications Review You chip in a great start on the literature review. I would spend a little bit to a greater extent(prenominal) time on the unveiling and conclusion. The introduction should be to a greater extent persuasive and rotter be referenced (see my comments below). 17/20 shift M eachs Causes of Failure and Success Introduction With the economic downturn, businesses argon suffering greatly and closing rapidly because of this it is fundamental to figure out guidances to reduce these closings and help companies prosper. One business type that has seen drastic closings is the rifle sum.While explore suggests that location, frontal send off, greenery, anchor retentivitys, gunstock offerings and some other eviscerateions pull in much to a greater extent stem traffic than malls who argon missing these features (source), strip mall abandonment is still a huge enigma in the United nominates. We book to wonder why so much unexampled strip mall construction is occurring without the implementation of these features, or if they are why are they still failing? The purpose of this research field of battle is to determine how facade design, location, and transshipment center offerings in strip malls impress node shop behaviors.This contain is important to determine how society as a whole groundwork become more sustainable by keeping impudent construction down and reviving failed strip malls and making them a success. Literature Review stance and Attraction to Strip Malls **(Anchor store in deviseation can be added here as an attraction) When it comes to strip malls, location is a key factor in determining where soul chooses to shop, and often outer space alone is non enough to determine the success of a strip mall. Though location plays a key role in terms of proximity to its customers, e. . , nearness to main roads, brace a motion time, and population congestion, customer psycho logy plays a key role in determining whether the trip is worth it (Rajagpal, 2009). The distance a customer is resulting to decease is determined by several factors of the shop experience customer loyalty, ergonomics, pass judgment/post-buying atonement, and multichannel retail strategies (Rajagpal 2009). Customer loyalty is built primarily through a stores overall business sticker, and is expressed in strip malls by those individual stores uph overageding those values.If a customer finds the goods and services provided to be what they expected, they leave behind continue to shop at that store with distance and location being a token(prenominal) factor. The ergonomics of a store refers to ones exponent to playact around a store with pleasing ergonomics will enhance the customers experience and encourage them to return. Expected/post-buying satisfaction refers to the discrepancies between a someones perceived experience when shopping before they go into the store and the actual experience as they leave.Expected satisfaction can be a strong motivator for someone to visit a certain strip if theyve heard the way their friends ranted and raved to the highest degree the experience, they will be more impulsely to visit, but if their post-buying satisfaction is not what is expected, they may not return. A multichannel retail strategy is the way that a store, or strip mall, chooses to route a customer to make the most of their spending habits. In individual stores this may mean strategically placing impulse buys along a customers cart track of travel (Rajagpal 2009).When applied to the strip, it refers to the way the architect has chosen to route the shopper through the center. Of the four factors listed, this is easily the biggest design factor determining the distance customers are impulsive to travel because it affects the overall experience that the customer will engage. For example, a strip in a square or L shape encourages people to walk along the length of the strip, backtracking to stores they saw before, where a simple line offers fewer options and ends abruptly.Customers are naturally attracted to strips that they have easy access to, but their loving milieus determine the ease of access. The early development of strip malls came about in the 19th century with the idea of a main street as a shopping destination along main street shops were placed within walking distance of each other. However, this model has not changed or adapted very well over time and while this design is piteous in suburban strip malls, where the linear progression takes you in a single direction kinda than encouraging a casual hopper to explore, it is detrimental in urban vault of heavens where the original strips existed. For example, the Los Angeles urban strips are close to and have easy access to a potential shopping base, but the social milieu discourages shopping. As the city expanded, the area around these strips became home to low-i ncome caparison, and the public areas were quickly taken over. The population of the area that was surveyed showed a strong desire to use the space, but noted much(prenominal) hazards as gang exercise and a distinct lack of comfort for pedestrians (Loukaiton-Staris, 1997).Largely the people in Loukaiton-Stariss study wanted a place that was pedestrian friendly, incorporating things such as seating and greenery, in addition to larger walkways and space for stem traffic. Pedestrian-friendly strips serve as a major attraction to customers, and the design of these heavily influence consumers in their shopping choice. Referring to a strip as pedestrian-friendly typically referes to (Loukaiton-Staris, 1997) * Allowances for adequate foot traffic * Allowances for seating Greenery and other visual attractions Strips that incorporate these things, particularly greenery are make believen a purify chance of financial survival with the attraction of more customers and businesses strips with greater greenery were able to charge higher rent, and shoppers indicated that they would be willing to pay more at these more attractive strip malls (Wolf, 2009). From the customers standpoint, greenery poses more interest in a pedestrian area rather than a strip mall dominated by the set clustering due to wayfinding (Wolf, 2009).A shopper whos allowed to take their time and wander through a strip is allowed a certain amount of interaction with their surroundings whereas a strip without this conniption can find itself hindered by greenery obscuring the signs. In addition, the amount of greenery affects the amount of time a person is willing to spend in a strip mall, as is indicated on the chart below taken from Strip Malls, City Trees, and Comm union Values, where people were shown pictures and asked to predict their behavior based on the strip malls shown. Location is and store choice is a complex marketing decision however, the istance a customer is willing to travel to the strip is influences in no small part by its design. This is a factor of ergonomics, multichannel research strategies, pedestrian-friendly travel and greenery. All of these raise to the attractiveness of the strip mall and so its success. **(Discuss greenery research to follow into out(prenominal) Facade)** Exterior Facade The out(prenominal) facade of a store is another very important aspect of a strip malls attractiveness and is important to cover when determining what influences consumers behaviors.The facade of a store is the first thing a customer sees and generates the first spirit of the store (Yuksel, 2009). First impressions are as important to the experience as the stores disposition to the success or failure of a store. A survey conducted by Retail Consumer Experience light upon some of the views that consumers have on building facades. In the survey it was found that 96% of people consider the businesses appearance somewhat or extremely important (Retail Consu mer Experience, 2011).In addition, it was also found that 52% of people determined not to enter a store because it looked dirty from the outside and 11% because it looked outdated or old from the outside (Retail Consumer Experience, 2011). It is also found that color of the facade can determine the consumers experience. When examining if colors have an effect on behaviors it was found that even though the crowd level was the same, customers perceived that the blue exterior building had less crowding than the orange exterior building (Yuksel, 2009).While the colors of individual facades is often a matter of the stores personal brand, the color of the building could potentially have an effect on consumer behavior. Although some research has been done on facade design we need to get a better understanding of how much it affects the consumers experience and what about the exterior facade is pleasing or unpleasing. Community particular date *(It might be nice to go into detail about wh at went wrong with the public housing possibility to help show exactly why lack of fraternity engagement is an issue)Instead of adding density to existing environments, contemporary cities have a decentralized pattern of growth (Rowe, 1991). Most new growth occurs in the bordering layer of undeveloped land outside of the existing suburbs. Because of this continuous development, there are more and more paved areas corresponding highways and parking lots and less and less untouched countryside. Suburban sprawl leads to all kinds of unintended environmental consequences, mostly related to the lack of walkability. Life in sprawl developments demands up to cardinal times as much driving as in high-density urban areas (Surface, 2000).This means that there is more air pollution in sprawl areas. Pollutants in the air, including nitrates and sulphates emitted from road traffic, construction, and industry, is linked to health problems such as stroke, cognitive decline, and heart attack ( Devi, 2012). Road runoff of automobile oils and battery metals and road salt contribute to water pollution and may affect public health (Surface, 2000). Shopping centers in suburban areas are not as conducive to pedestrians as they are to automobiles, which means that for pedestrians there is little sense of safeguard when walking to and from different stores.In addition, when stores go out of business and buildings are abandoned, they become a hotspot for squatters and vandals, start crime into the fraternity. A study conducted by John Dimitriou (2001), states that the quality of place in American suburbs inhibits peoples ability to have a sense of ownership and connection to the place they live because the physical design of the environment has repellant and disengaging characteristics (Dimitriou, 2001, p. 7). The confused organization and ugliness of the built environment pushes people out-of-door and makes them feel like outsiders in their own towns (Dimitriou, 2001, p. 6). This results in a sense of isolation and lack of community engagement. Suburban settlement is driven by a popular desire to live on the countryside to satisfy a persons affinity for natural open spaces, fresh air, and lower populations. But people also want to have access to the culture and opportunity provided by a city. The suburban ideal is to have the scoop up of both worlds by unifying town and country (Dimitriou, 2001, p. 10). However, as more and more people move to the suburbs, the country-living characteristics fade and the area becomes more like a city in terms of services and social problems.This leads to a continuous outward spread of housing developments in search of natural open spaces. The housing developments are followed by shopping centers dispersed throughout the area. These shopping centers are characterized by sprawling parking lots and bland, repetitive architecture. The utilitarian design of strip malls does not encourage people in the community to cultivat e a sense of connection or engagement with the shopping center. The dispersed locations of the buildings are disorienting, and comfort a dependence on automobiles. Why would anyone want to feel connected to something confusing and ugly? ripe(p) design can enhance a persons sense of belonging to a community by creating a place that they are proud to be associated with. Dimitriou suggests that if new development is focused on existing suburban centers we can improve the quality of place and reduce dependence on nonpublic automobiles. This study focuses on densification of suburban commercial centers. Dimitriou proposes broad planning solutions so that whole communities served by a particular strip center could potentially be unified through their attachment to a place. A great way to foster attachment to a place is by enhancing its sense of history.This can be accomplished by adding to the existing built environment, rather than demolishing structures, to preserve remnants of old bu ildings that give clues to the former life of a place (Dimitriou, 2001, p. 27). He also proposes to reorganize strip malls to include more pedestrian friendly elements and public spaces. For example, he suggests forming continuities and connections between specific places to give the area more unity and accessibility and establishing focal points in the form of public spaces or specific buildings to organize navigation (Dimitriou, 2001, p. 27). (Along with attractions I found a study on how actual attractions, movie theaters, restaurants, roller coasters, etc. Also bring in more foot traffic helping out store sales) LETS maunder ABOUT PARKING. The most common argument in opposition to a more downtown like pedestrian friendly atmosphere is the relative lack of parking. Parking lots are also what make strip malls so unengaging and ugly. People complain about parking a couple of blocks away from a downtown store but will walk across a huge parking lot (not to mention the size of the mall) to get to their desired destination in the mall.Conclusion Our research will focus on four specific areas related to strip mall design facade design, greenery, pedestrian-friendliness, and entertainment attractions such as movie theaters, restaurants, and public gathering spaces. We will look at how each of these factors affects the success of strip malls. Our design is to come up with design solutions that will help existing strip malls attract and retain customers. These solutions will aim at improving upon the existing built environment instead of demolishing structures and building new ones.This suburban renewal concept is more environmentally friendly and will hopefully engender a sense of history, community and pride in suburban shopping centers. **We also need to add pictures and/or graphs from previous studies REFERENCES Rowe, P. (1991). Making a middle landscape. Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press. Surface Transportation Policy Project (2000). baseborn streets 2 000 Pedestrian, health, and federal transportation spending. Washington, DC Author. Devi, S. (2012). New studies cast dark cloud over air pollution. The lancet arch 379. 9817 697. The Lancet. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. . Dimitriou, George John. Suburban Revisions Redesigning Suburban Strip Malls. 2001. Print. Roajagopal. (2011). Determinants of shopping behavior of urban consumers. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 23 (2), 83-104. Loukaitou-Sidiris, A. (1997). Inner-City commercial strips Evolutioin, decay retrofit? Town Planning Review, 68 (1), 1-29. Wolf, K. (2009). Strip malls, city trees, and community values. Aboriculture and urban Forestry, 35 (1) 33-40. Irwin, Elana. Study Shows Urban Sprawl Continues To Gobble Up Land. OSU Research News Index Page. Ohio State University, 17 Dec. 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. . * * Alternate Introduction * Suburban sprawl has long since taken over much of Americas scenic countryside and continues to spread further and further from center citie s. More people have jobs in suburban areas, or are telecommuting, and no longer have the need or desire to live close to the major cities (Irwin, 2007). People are also being drawn further away from cities by natural amenities in rural areas such as lakes, oceans, forests or mountains (Irwin, 2007).This desire to be closer to nature, however, does not supersede the desire to have easy access to man-made amenities such as restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping centers. The commercial sprawl that follows the residential sprawl often comes in the form of blandly designed strip malls with massive desert-like parking lots. Aside from the store selection, there is nothing to attract customers and encourage them to spend more time in the shopping center. When stores go out of business or move to a more attractive location, the strip malls often remain vacant and become not only eyesores but burdens on the community.Although strip mall abandonment is a known problem in the United States, more strip malls are being constructed all the time and the cycle continues repeating itself. This study seeks to discover how suburban society can become more sustainable by keeping new construction down and reviving failed strip malls and making them a success. Research suggests that location, facade design, greenery, anchor stores, store offerings and other attractions are all factors that draw in customers. The purpose of this research study is to determine how these factors affect customer shopping behavior. *