Oct. 14—Older Valley residents might remember growing up in the 1980s when the mall was the place to be. For West Valley residents, that meant MetroCenter while folks in the East Valley flocked to Fiesta Mall.
Those malls were demolished in recent months, MetroCenter in May and Fiesta in July.
Tastes have changed and technology had a lot to do with that. The U.S. Commerce Department said Americans bought more retail goods online than they did in stores for the first time in February of 2019.
That was a year before the pandemic. COVID-19 accelerated that trend.
By the end of the 1980s, it's estimated there were more than 10,000 malls across the U.S. Some experts have predicted in the coming years that number will drop to a few hundred.
Chandler Fashion Center has defied the national trends, still serving the area. And city officials and the mall's owners hope the arrival of Scheels will keep them thriving in the years ahead.
Scheels opened its first Arizona location at the mall on Sept. 30.
The massive 250,000 square-foot center has 76 different shops, a Ferris wheel, an aquarium, shooting gallery and other attractions that drew hundreds on opening weekend.
The 33 other Scheels stores around the nation have proven to be tourist draws, bringing in shoppers from long distances away who spend hours inside the store.
Macerich, the owner of the Chandler Fashion Center, is hoping some of those new shoppers will check out the rest of the mall.
"Macerich is delighted to welcome Arizona's only Scheels to Chandler Fashion Center, our thriving regional town center in fast-growing suburban Phoenix," said Ed Coppola, president of Macerich.
"Scheels has proven at their other locations that their unique retail-entertainment concept is much more compelling than a standard retailer — in fact, they are a powerful regional attraction that drives sizable spending and engagement among their patrons," the company said in a written statement.
"Having the market's only Scheels, we anticipate visitors to come from all over Arizona, some that are not yet familiar with Chandler Fashion Center and the cross-shopping potential with the other stores and restaurants within the center."
One of the reasons Chandler Fashion Center is still open when other malls are struggling is that stores want to be in this market, the company said.
"Because of the residential and business growth, the demographics and psychographics have led to the natural elevation of the property's retail and restaurant mix over time," the company statement said.