Doug Stephens

Costco Goes to the Mall for Growth

August 25, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
In the past, Costco has opened the occasional club in a mall. Now, however, the company is making a push to put its stores in shopping center spaces that typically house department store anchors. What is your assessment of Costco's move into mall locations?      [more...]

As some of the panelists have pointed out, the weakness of traditional department store tenants has opened the door to stronger non-traditional players like Costco taking mall space.

But I think this goes deeper than that. I think this has more to do with Costco's anticipation of the decline of the power center model over the next 10 to 20 years. Trends in population, economics and environmentalism are all playing heavily against the power center and I believe Costco, Wal-Mart, and others are well aware of it.