Newswise — The presence of large, well-known "anchor stores" in a mall may be important to adults but it's a turnoff for teenage girls.
That's one finding from a study of adolescent girls and their mall shopping experiences done by researchers at Texas Christian University and Southwest Missouri State University.
"Most of the middle school and high school girls we surveyed expressed strong dislike of anchor stores, claiming they only visited them when their mothers forced them to or when the mall was only accessible through a large anchor store," says Dr. Julie Baker, associate professor of marketing in TCU's M.J. Neeley School of Business.
Baker is co-author, with Diana L. Haytko of Southwest Missouri State, of "It's All at the Mall: Exploring Adolescent Girls' Experiences," that appeared in The Journal of Retailing. (Vol. 80, No. 1).
Teenage girls, they found, tend to shop at the specialty stories within malls.
Baker and Haytko conducted separate in-depth, hour-long interviews with 24 adolescent Caucasian, Hispanic and African-American females ranging in age from 12 to 19. They found that five characteristics impacted the girls' perceptions of their mall experience. They included safety, comfort, the retail mix, accessibility, and atmosphere.
Two other factors also influenced the mall experience for the girls: their grade-level in school and how trend conscious they were. Another variable included who they went to the mall with.
"Adolescents who visited the mall with their parents tended to purchase more products compared to those who visited the mall with their friends," says Baker.
She notes, however, that ""¦young girls represent significant sales even if it is not obvious on a given mall visit." That's because teenage girls often use mall excursions with friends to scout for purchases that are later made with mom's credit card.
The mall retailers who benefit every time teenage girls set foot inside appear to be the vendors in the food court.
"Our findings suggest that adolescents across all cohorts eat and drink at the food court on nearly every mall visit," says Baker. "They also choose and evaluate malls on the number of choices available in the food court."
Why the focus on teenage girls? Because they appear to be the future of the mall.
"While mall patronage in the United States has been declining for several years, it has risen sharply among adolescents, especially girls," says Baker.
That could signal nervous moments for retailers who find their economic stars hitched to a notoriously hard-to-please segment of consumers.
"Adolescents follow trends more than other age groups, latching on to them quickly and tiring of them just as quickly," confirms Baker.
A segment of the teenage female mall-shopping cohort consists of what Baker and Haytko call the "trend-conscious" who go to the mall primarily to learn what's new and "cool." Middle-schoolers and high school students tend to fall into this group.
Among the study's other findings about teenage girls and their mall experiences:
"¢ Dirt is a big turnoff. The mall must be clean."¢ The perception of safety is extremely important."¢ Older teens want places to sit down. Middle-schoolers don't care about that as much."¢ The more stores the better."¢ The perception of brightness and open space is important."¢ It's a plus if girls have friends who work at the mall.
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