Today, Memphis has 11 enclosed malls and one in the oven. When number 12 appears, experts say, the city will reach maximum retail saturation. Bye bye, building boom. The directors of existing malls will scurry about marking the trees around their market shares. They needn t worry too much.
Retail history favors malls.
Nationwide, they re now responsible for over 50 percent of all retail sales. Locally, over a quarter of a million people pay a visit to the Mall of Memphis in any given month. Other surveys show that teenagers spend more time in malls than anywhere else except home, school, and the workplace. I don t know. Pacco, the Rock Angel Twas not always thus in Memphis, or elsewhere.