Cumberland mall question (Atlanta, Smyrna, North Atlanta: appliances, buy, movie theater)

[primaltech]

I think malls in general are just sort of outdated in concept. They should do what they're doing to Colony Square, to every mall in the area. Tear off the roof, make it like an outdoor mixed use pedestrian shopping plaza like Atlantic Station. In that faux-urban-street style, with apartments or offices built in, over the retail. Then it will be new/cool/interesting enough for the white folk crowds to be interested in Cumberland again. Another factor too is the retail store offerings in there. It's just not geared for that crowd.

[ATLTJL]

I just don't do brick and mortar stores (for the most part) except for food and auto repairs.

You know what? It's the same exact thing for me!

If there is something I need, I generally order it off Amazon. The reason is because with Prime, it is generally at my door way sooner than I could ever make it to the store to buy it, and with less hassle. Brick and mortar has A LOT to figure out to compete. It's really not a pricing thing, they need to figure out how to:

1) Be open the hours people actually shop (closing at 9pm in this day and age is ludicrous, and at 6pm on Sunday, when you waited until noon to even open? Asinine, you DESERVE to go out of business by artificially restricting your house on one of the only 2 days most people have to fart around in retail stores).

2) Streamline the checkout process. I'd rather wait two days for something to show up in my mailbox than stand in a stupid checkout line for 10 minutes. They've got to sort that out.

You know what I'd like to see? Demographic data on Amazon Prime membership. I'll lay out a hypothesis that minority shoppers are severely underrepresented, and that explains their heavier reliance on brick and mortar retail. If Amazon could figure out how to get more minorities aboard, I wonder what that would do. And an even bigger question: Will brick and mortar as a whole EVER figure it out, or will they someday become more or less completely edged out by Amazon and online competitors?

[TheTravelinMan]

Originally Posted by dark_knight08

I'm a regular at Cumberland Mall, and I've noticed that 80% to 90% of people who shop there are black, compared to Perimeter and Lenox, which has shoppers of all races. However, the nearby movie theater, restaurants, and apartments are pretty diverse. Before you call me out on being a racist or self hater, I'm black as well, and was just making an observation over my last few visits there.

Cumberland is the closest mall to the Westside/Bankhead areas and so that is where a lot of people in those communities shop/hang out.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

When I was a teenager in the 1980s it was mostly white teens hanging out at both Cumberland and Lenox. I don't know where the white kids hang out now. Starbucks? At their schools? On Instagram? You've got me!

I think they're too busy playing Pokemon Go.

[arjay57]

Apropos nothing, I always thought it would be great to open a formal wear shop there called "Cumberland Cummerbund."

[wasel]

Nielsen research states that African-Americans make 8-10* more shopping trips a year than the rest of the population. So it makes sense that there would be a higher presence of the demographic at a mall. I also consistently see more African-American shoppers at Perimeter Mall than whites, the few times I'm actually at the mall.

* I've seen it stated as 8, 9 and 10 depending on the year.

[brownhornet]

Well, i'm black and honestly I noticed the same thing. It doesn't seem to fit the diversity of the area but i'm going to guess it's because most of the other people go to Perimeter or Lennox due to the store selection differences.

[demonta4]

As long as its receiving business I don't see why they have to change. Malls should cater to everyone, not just upper middle class whites. I think Southlake Mall does this well as they always have a diverse crowd (Black, Hispanics and Asians), while remaining busy unlike Gwinnett Place. Cumberland and Southlake are the future of the suburbs in Atlanta. There's no longer a white majority in Cobb and the mall is evolving to fit more diverse crowds.

[David1502]

The evolution of Cumberland Mall to the demographics you see there now actually began back in 1985 with the opening of Town Center Mall in Kennesaw. At that time, the buyers for Rich's and Davison's (the predecessors to Macy's) made the decision to cut back on the merchandise they would sell at their Cumberland Mall stores - I know this because of a conversation I had with a buyer for Rich's in the early 1990's - she said that "The problem with Cumberland Mall is that it doesn't have a good base of shoppers. They are basically the apartment dwellers along Cobb Parkway who don't have high incomes, so we cut back on the selection at that Rich's store." She in fact lived in Smyrna. The result of this decision led to a downward spiral as higher income shoppers went to shop at the Davidson's and Rich's and couldn't find brands they were seeing at the Lenox and Perimeter stores, they got frustrated and quit shopping there.


At the same time that this was going on, the demographics of the apartments of the surrounding community were changing as these apartments were getting older. The best example of this is Franklin Road in Marietta. Even in the late 1980's, Miss Kitty's a Country-Western bar was still in business on Franklin Rd. because there had been a white population which frequented it. Likewise, there was a 1950's themed club on Windy Hill Rd. which catered to a similar demographic of young apartment dwellers. Both clubs went out of business as the white population in the neighboring apartments declined.


In the late 1990's/early 2000's, when Rich's and Macy's merged and decided to eliminate the duplication of stores they had in Metro Atlanta malls, Cumberland was left with a big empty box on its front door as the Macy's store was soon to be abandoned. J.C. Penney's had closed their store, too, as their target demo of middle class households had declined in the area. At that time the owners (General Growth Properties) decided to build the collection of restaurants (Maggiano's, Cheesecake Factory, Ted's Montana Grill, and Stoney River) to fill up the empty space where Macy's had been and to try to appeal to the professionals working in the high rise office buildings nearby. With this construction, the mall did a major renovation inside to reposition the mall to appeal to a higher income demographic, however, by this time, the mall had lost its attractiveness to the higher income (and mostly white) shoppers who resided nearby whether they were in Vinings, far west Buckhead or parts of Smyrna. Essentially, it was too little to late.


What you now see is a mostly black and Hispanic demographic in the interior of the mall, yet a lot more mixed, maybe even majority white in the restaurants in the front. Recently, the mall has had some success in repositioning itself with the opening of the Apple Store and Michael Kors and a few others, (Macy's has remodeled its store and begun carrying some higher end brands) but it is a far cry from the higher end selection found nearby at Perimeter Mall. People forget that Perimeter is just 6 miles down 285, so it's not that difficult to make the trip for people in the Smyrna area.


Sears had recently considered giving up half of their floor space and consolidating to the first floor, but decided not to. So when you look at it, Cumberland Mall is unique in Atlanta in that it has only two anchors.


In summation, the reason for the demographics of Cumberland Mall have been caused by the change in merchandise carried as well as a limited selection which might appeal to higher income whites; and a change in the demographics of the surrounding apartments.

[lorilove]

Thanks David1502

There have been several other problems with Cumberland Mall over the years. I remember when Dillard's first came to town, they wanted to move into Cumberland but Macy's was able to stop them because of some long standing contract clause.

Also, I met a Rich's (or was it Macy's) buyer many years ago that mentioned the mall was originally built small because there was not a great deal of confidence - it was considered high risk. It was quite successful before Town Center but when they looked at expanding it there were tons of construction issues that limited their options.