The Very Latest in Hanging Out at the Mall
Enter the Zone, a surreal indoor aquarium. The floor is terrazzo with a fluid-like look and texture inspired by Los Angeles pop artist David Hockney’s poolside paintings. There are twisted columns to resemble seaweed waving in the ocean water and colored glass handrails in shades of the deep blue-green Pacific. Here teens fish for the latest looks.
The opening of this teen-driven entertainment and shopping area at the Glendale Galleria attracted 6,000 pre-adolescent and teenage girls and boys wearing in cool outfits and oozing cool attitudes. After all, the Zone was designed for and by teens. When they’re not shopping at the cluster of six new stores on the second floor, they can kick back with friends in a lounge on cushy circular couches or leave messages for friends on a chalkboard. They can log on to computers in special kiosks or--natch--zone out on televisions blasting music videos of Britney, Christina and the boy group du jour.
The $2.5-million retail concept is all about coolness--and cash. Generation Y-ers know how to spend money. Last year, the nation’s 60 million 8- to 18-year-olds dropped $140 billion. And in their lingo, they’ll keep on spending bank at a rate of 5% to 10% more a year through 2010, according to Sharon Lee, co-founder of Look-Look, a Hollywood-based teen trend and consumer research firm. Look-Look was not involved in the Zone’s development, but Lee, a teenologist (if we may), said the Zone “is all about the lifestyle of a teenager.”
Already, mall representatives from around the country are checking out the Zone. Catering to the teen set is no easy task because this fickle lot is always searching for the next big thing--a trend, a band, a hair color--which can be as often as every two weeks.
The turnout at the Zone’s opening two weeks ago--with entertainment by BBMak, an up-and-coming trio of boy singers--clearly demonstrated the appeal for teeny-boppers who like to hang out, be entertained and shop. After all, teens have deep pockets: their parents’ credit cards. With stores such as Urban Outfitters, today’s teens are reshaping the retail market, much like their baby boomer parents did when malls popped up in the 1960s and certain stores became hangout magnets for teens.
But unlike the ‘60s, the teens of 2000 don’t only want to hang out, they want to, well, party while they shop or even drop an e-mail to a pal between store stops. “Not less than 35 years ago, most store owners didn’t want kids in their stores. Shopping was a necessity, not about being entertained,” Lee said. “Now, with an area like the Zone, not only is the mall inviting kids to shop, but to hang out as long as they want in a place designed just for them, be entertained and have an emotional connection with a brand beyond the purchase. Retailers want to provide an enjoyable experience even if it’s just to buy a pair of socks.”
Lee attributes the change to a power shift in many homes, largely resulting from the Internet wave of the last three to five years and parents’ dependence on their cyberspace-savvy kids to access information when it comes to family purchases from furniture to cars. “The teenager has become the chief technology officer of the house. These kids were born with the mouse in their hands,” Lee said.
Indeed, a Galleria marketing study found that 40% of teenagers under 16 help decide on family purchases such as automobiles, computers and anything travel, entertainment or technology-related. They also visit the mall 54 times a year, and one in nine have a credit card--ka-ching!--authorized by a parent. “When you look at these staggering numbers, it’s hard to believe that shopping centers haven’t catered more to Gen Y,” said Cindy Chong, the Galleria’s vice president and general manager.
One year ago, the Galleria put together a Z team, or focus group, composed of 146 teens from public Glendale High School and La Can~ada-Flintridge’s private Flintridge Preparatory School. For the advice, each kid was given a $20 mall gift certificate. But of course.
The teenagers were put in several groups of five and six. They discussed names for the retail space, the type of stores they wanted and the kind of hangout that would appeal to kids.
Christine Wang, a 17-year-old consultant, said that some of the ideas included marbled columns, disco balls, dance rooms and waterfalls. A winding river like the kind featured at water parks was suggested but didn’t make the final cut. “The idea was to make it for us and not just for the mall,” said Christina, now a senior at Flintridge Preparatory.
That’s exactly what the Zone officials did. David Glover, the project’s architect, loved the water theme. The president of the Glendale design firm Adventure Studios was vice president of WalkerGroup, another design company, when he worked on the Zone.
The indoor aquarium motif gives the shopping area an artificial look, much like that from the flick “The Truman Show” which featured a fake sky. Glover, who also designed Universal City’s CityWalk as well as the one in Orlando, Fla., said the Zone’s design gives off “a rawness and certain theatricalness to it, like stage sets.”
The underwater decor theme was carried out in the stores, including Vans, No Fear, Premium, Catwalk, Juxtapose (which has a juice bar) and Boarders, designed by Glover. Lee said more retailers “need to listen to their consumers”--especially teenagers--because the competition for that market is fierce. “Teen consumers have gotten sophisticated about companies and style. Trends move so quickly, and there are so many choices. Manufacturers and retailers have to listen to get the competitive edge,” Lee said.
Too often, she said, “a lot of business decisions are made in a boardroom with five people who never talk to teenagers.”
The trick with teenagers is to establish loyalty: Catch them while they are young and impressible.
Cassandra Herren, 15, who was a Zone consultant, seems to agree. “Teens hang out in the malls all the time, and finally they were giving us a say in what the mall would look like. I was so excited,” said Cassandra, a Glendale High junior.
Before the Zone, “this side of the mall was so dead,” said shopper Alison Schermerhorn, 17, a South Pasadena High School senior. “Before, I would never come over here. Now the parking lot around here is full, and it’s so crowded at the Zone. The whole area is now our side of the mall.”
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Quintanilla covers fashion; his e-mail is Michael.Quintanilla@latimes.com; Liu’s e-mail isMarian.Liu@Latimes.com.
