Mall Operator Adds Defibrillators

At shopping centers, customer service means . . . installing defibrillators?

After a report revealed that shopping centers are one of the places where folks are most likely to suffer heart attacks, at least one big mall developer, General Growth Properties of Chicago, says it will be installing automated external defibrillators at its properties to resuscitate customers who collapse from cardiac arrests.

General Growth, which has about 140 malls in the nation, including Northridge Fashion Plaza and Montclair Plaza, says it has bought 400 defibrillators and is training security and mall management on how to use these devices.

General Growth didn’t say how much it was spending for the program. Automated external defibrillators run about $3,000 each.

David Levenberg, corporate security director, says that putting in defibrillators is just one way shopping centers can make customers feel safer.

“We want them to feel as if our [malls] provide a reasonable amount of personal safety and comfort,” he said. Eventually, he predicted, the devices will be as commonplace as fire extinguishers.

Leslie Earnest covers retail for The Times. She can be reached at leslie.earnest@latimes.com