A Mall With Different Offerings Would Be Nice

So with its $133-million expansion, Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita in Arcadia now boasts an AMC movie theater complex, a Borders Books & Music Cafe and a Dave & Busters (“Westfield Spending to Let Visitors Shop in ‘Hy-Style,’ ” Nov. 3).

Ho hum. Now it’s even more indistinguishable from the legion of shopping centers that have the very same thing.

Why didn’t its owner, Westfield Group, break the chain, so to speak? Surely, there must be an appetite out there for a shopping center that doesn’t replicate a merchant offering that exists in some form just about anywhere else.

My bet is that a shopping center -- enclosed or open air -- that features only unique mom-and-pop specialty shops is a way to separate from the pack.

Yes, continue to offer amenities such as spacious family restrooms and concierges, but really drive traffic with something very few competitors offer -- compelling, attractive stores that families will find nowhere else. We can do better than this endless sameness.

Rob Blackwell

Yorba Linda