Mall Madness: Jupiter, Florida Had a Mall
U.S. Mall Vacancy Rate Has Hit a 7-Year-High!
If you’re reading this, chances are good you are a dedicated fan of malls (or my dad, hi dad!), and you will not be surprised to know they aren’t doing so hot! This Forbes story mostly consists of brief number/letter configurations like “Q3″ and “No.1” but here’s the gist: “…as losing malls are being weaned out, top-tier A malls are more coveted than ever,” Andria Cheng writes. “Some are being redesigned and expanded to outfit hotels and apartments to become mixed-used lifestyle centers.”
These days, everything’s a lifestyle — even your trip to the mall!
In this delightful flashback from the Palm Beach Post, Larry Aydlette writes about the time there was an indoor mall in Jupiter, Florida – the only indoor, air-conditioned shopping mall in that area of Florida. It was open from 1979 to 1987, and it was a veritable buffet of store names right out of an ‘80s teen movie. Mr. Grumpp’s steakhouse, the Wizard of Artt, a teen disco called Club Soda, clothing stores called Summer Daze and Z’s Body Shack were some of the names, and boy, would I love to have gotten weird at Z’s Body Shack.
“It was just as much a community center as an indoor shopping mall: There were home shows, auto shows, talent shows, a bed race in the parking lot,” Aydlette writes. “There were beauty pageants and a contest to win a free trip to Acapulco. Visits from Spiderman and Santa. A stage company did readings from a Broadway musical. A Michael Jackson look-alike performed.”
This was an interview with Rick Caruso, owner of LA’s The Grove, where dropped ice cream cones are replaced instantly and even the trash can lids are polished. “A practicing Catholic, he begins planning for Christmas a year in advance and started his own Santa staffing business because the agency options didn’t meet his north of the North Pole standards,” Forbes’ Samantha Sharf writes.
And that’s your mall news this week!
