Parks, Beaches and Movies All Take a Back Seat to This Magnet: Malls

Tali Kaviani of Irvine goes to South Coast Plaza because her children love riding the carrousel and think the McDonald’s there is the best in the chain.

Dixie Schnaible of Anaheim visits the Orange Mall for art and antique shows.

Peg Gorman of Orange likes hopping a freeway and having her choice of several malls from Brea to Newport Beach.

Orange County’s major shopping centers, it seems, are many things to many people.

But one thing is certain, according to The Times Orange County Poll: The malls are popular.

Orange County residents gave them resoundingly high marks, with more than 90% pleased with the county’s shopping and stores--higher satisfaction levels than those given for more traditional leisure pursuits such as movies, parks and beaches.

Buoyed by the weather, continued buying power and spacious malls, Orange County is a shopper’s paradise. Enthusiasts come by tour bus to spend.

And the malls’ success feeds on itself, experts say. The public’s demand lures retailers who, in turn, must provide quality products to stay competitive.

It isn’t surprising that residents like their malls, said Orange County developers and shopping industry observers. In recent years, they say, many regional malls have evolved from mere retail outlets into friendly outposts where families can spend hours of leisure time.

Sarah Stack, a retail analyst with the Los Angeles securities firm of Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards, Inc., said relatively suburban areas such as Orange County often have no focal point. “The mall is the center of town, so shopping and socializing take place in the same place,” she said. “There is no Main Street.”

As a result, people go to malls to shop, eat, be entertained and meet other people, Stack said.

Mark Baldassare, whose firm conducted the Times Orange County Poll, said the survey found that residents prefer the malls to the beaches. That’s noteworthy, Baldassare said, because Orange County is a place “that prides itself on being an outdoor, beach-oriented county.”

“We have a lot of money, and we’ve built great shopping centers for all ages,” Baldassare said. “When people are bored and have time on their hands, they go to South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island or Brea Mall and have the suburban experience there,” Baldassare said.

Poll response varied slightly from north to south. Sixty-four percent of North County residents said they were very satisfied with shopping, compared to 57% in the south. In the north, malls and stores ranked No. 1, beating restaurants, movies, job opportunities, parks and beaches. South Coast Plaza, the nation’s leading mall last year with $650 million in sales, was included in North County for polling purposes because it is north of the Costa Mesa Freeway.

In the south, however, residents rated parks and beaches above the malls.

Orange County shoppers have a dozen major malls to choose from, but only three are in the south: Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Mission Viejo Mall and Laguna Hills Mall.

Nationally, Orange County is recognized as a “hot market,” according to Don Pendley, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York.

Big regional centers here typify the mall evolution over the past 30 years.

“In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, the idea was to make malls as stark as possible so you could get people in and out as quickly as possible to get more turnover in the parking lot,” Pendley said. “Now the idea is to get people to spend as much time as possible. That has fueled the presence of entertainment and recreation functions to make it more than just a retail facility--to make it a life-style facility, if such things exist.

“When you come right down to it, and we don’t have specific answers, my inevitable question is where, other than homes and places of work and schools, do people spend more time than in a shopping center? Nobody comes up with a decent answer.”

Pendley said his organization’s national surveys have shown that 94% of adults go to a shopping center at least once a month and that the average person visits a mall about once a week.

Jim Henwood, general manager at South Coast Plaza, said county malls thrive partly because the economy and population base have grown. South Coast is planning a 12-store expansion for this fall, he added.

While conceding that people come to malls for many reasons, Henwood said South Coast’s strength lies in its stores.

“Shopping is a great pastime. People enjoy looking nice, and they like to go to nice stores,” he said.

“I think people are in Orange County because they enjoy a special place to live and have taste levels that go with this unique area. That extends to clothing. We think the customer is a very intelligent shopper. They know what they want. We’re not trying to create an environment that moves us too far from what we are, which is a retail center.”

Michael Daley, a shopping center developer with the Costa Mesa firm of Laventhol & Horwath, said economic stability and steady buying power are strong reasons for Orange County’s appeal as a shoppers’ haven.

While some major malls, like Westminster Plaza and South Coast Plaza, are in the midst of expansion, new malls are an iffy proposition, Daley said.

“We’re getting pretty close to the saturation point, if we’re not already there.”

Stack agreed. “Malls are very popular, but you’re going to see fewer built nationwide, because we’ve hit the saturation point in the country. California is one of the few places that holds out the possibility for further major mall development.”

Kaviani, a mother of two, said she hits the malls maybe once a week, “but not always for shopping.”

In fact, she said, she looks for malls that have a wide range of features for children. “We don’t go as much to malls that don’t have them, that have just straight shopping, because the kids get bored real fast.”

Rusty Guinther, a Costa Mesa real estate investor who was polled, believes the county is a trend setter: “You look around and you see lime-green or phosphorescent shorts, you’ve got to say we’re starting something new. It’s a really competitive area, so you can walk into Saks or Nordstrom’s or any of those places and really have a pretty good selection.”