In the post-pandemic era, mall owners have been embracing experiential retail to bring foot traffic back to their properties. Many are now scrambling to fill large spaces left by retail chains that have closed under-performing outlets.
The need for unique and entertaining attractions to bring people to malls will keep growing this year, especially if the recent projection from Coresight Research anticipating 15,000 retail store closings in the U.S. in 2025 is on target.
In Los Angeles, malls are experimenting with new ways to draw in crowds and expand the definition of experiential retail.
One of the largest of these new attractions is an immersive theater called Cosm, which opened last year at Inglewood’s Hollywood Park. Cosm features plush stadium seating and a wraparound screen that is 87 feet in diameter with life-like resolution, a scaled-down version of the Las Vegas Sphere.
Visitors at the venue can experience what it’s like to sit on the edge of a red-hot river of lava flowing out of the crater of an erupting volcano or vibes during the World Series, like watching a live broadcast of Freddie Freeman breaking the home-run record from the best seats in Dodger Stadium behind home plate.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, landlords are filling spaces left by large stores with smaller experiential offerings, including tenants they might have once deemed unsuitable for a shopping mall.
In Santa Monica, the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Place shopping destinations have embraced the experiential strategy with venues that allow “competitive socializing” and entertainment along with shopping.
Pickle Pop, where pickleball players can reserve court time in a former Adidas store, is mixed between a sports club, a clothing retailer, and a restaurant. Another hybrid outlet, Splatter Studio on 4th Street near the Promenade, is part bar, and art studio, where customers suited in coveralls paint “masterpieces” on canvas as they sip cocktails.
On the Third Street Promenade, a former clothing store has been transformed into Outlandish, where young entrepreneurs stand in small booths and hawk their wares live on TikTok in sessions that can last for hours. Fans and customers can watch them work and sample their offerings, which include everything from nutritional supplements, workout gear and clothes to chewing gum.
Nearby is Holey Moley Golf Club, a former food court that has been converted into a miniature golf course where the holes are designed as tiny movie sets that are “Instagrammable,” intentionally made for Instagram to boost customers’ social media feeds.
Holey Moley is popular with kids in the daytime. After 8 p.m., only adults can play, cocktails are served to the dating crowd in ceramic unicorns and miniature bathtubs, and the karaoke lounge is busy, the LA Times reported.
The venue is designed as “a multisensory labyrinth” that includes neon signs with slogans and hand-painted murals. DJs and strolling magicians perform on weekend nights.
At Topanga Village mall in Warner Center, visitors to Sandbox VR don virtual reality gear on their heads and bodies to battle virtual zombies or compete with each other in a “Squid Game” simulation.
Later this month, visitors to the Beverly Center mall will put on VR headsets and immerse themselves in a vertical reality tour of the Titanic.
The participants will virtually descend to the wreckage of the ship as it exists today at the bottom of the ocean and then are transported to the ship before it sank, where they can virtually walk around the deck, dining rooms and the Grand Staircase.
Meanwhile, in downtown Los Angeles, the growing national epidemic of store closings sank another victim this week with the news that Macy’s 250K SF store at 750 West 7th Street, known as Downtown LA Plaza, is preparing to shut down.
Last year, Macy’s announced that it would close 150 stores by 2026.