It’s hard out there for a mall.
With millennials doing so much of their buying online, the recent recession and hot competition from newer and bigger malls, success can be elusive.
Country Club Plaza has seen better days.
But the beleaguered mall is still in the ring, despite setbacks. Last year, just as Winco was preparing to open at one end of the sparsely occupied mall, Macy’s department store was closing at the other. Sports Chalet went bankrupt, and Off Broadway shoe store moved out.
With the new Winco grocery store, Planet Fitness, a multiplex cinema in the works and two new restaurants opening, things are looking up again, said operations manager Seth Pearl.
“The theater will assist in jump starting the rest of the mall,” Pearl said. “I think that’s why some of the restaurants are starting to look our way.”
The building permit for Cinema West 13, which will occupy the northeast wing of the mall where Off Broadway shoes once was, should be issued by next month and Pearl hopes the theater will be completed by early next year.
Makeovers are also planned for mall entrances and parking lots.
Country Club Plaza dates back to the 1950s, and began with a free-standing grocery store, according to Valley Community Newspapers. By 1961, Weinstock’s department store opened, anchoring an open air mall. In the early 1970s, the mall was enclosed and a JC Penney replaced the grocery store.
By the late 1970s, Country Club Mall was a bustling commercial hub, holding its own among the other area malls, including Arden Fair, Sunrise and Town and Country Village. But times changed and what worked in the ‘70s didn't fly in the ‘90s.
Perhaps the first blow came in 1989, when Arden Fair Mall got a complete makeover, going from a nondescript single story mall to a lavish two story affair with a food court and embellishments designed to entice shoppers away from other area malls. The Internet and recession also played a part in the mall's decline.
Now even the enticements of Arden Fair are being put to the test by the Roseville Galleria and “lifestyle centers” like the Fountains in Roseville and the Palladio at Broadstone in Folsom that offer a different vibe and mix of restaurants, grocery chains and boutiques, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Pearl said he didn't think Country Club will ever return to the model of the traditional mall.
Mall management strategy leans more towards services than goods: gyms, restaurants, theaters and in an age when most consumer goods can be purchased online, often more cheaply: “services – that’s what will bring people to the mall,” Pearl said.
Some of the services the mall now provides include a Saturday morning farmers market and a "Mall Walk" program. The Country Club Plaza opens at 6:30 a.m. daily to provide a safe, dry, comfortable place for neighborhood residents to walk.
