Here's how Columbia Mall is working to stay relevant as some shopping malls struggle

Columbia Mall owner Brookfield Properties is doing the work to ensure shopping malls like Columbia's "stay relevant (and) interesting to our customers and retailers," says general manager Rusty Strodtman in a message to the Tribune.

After pandemic years, shopping in brick-and-mortar locations continues to grow, he wrote. The Columbia Mall, in fact, just recently celebrated the opening of Be Yourself Styles Boutique, a women's clothing retailer across from Panera and near Target.

Other unique offerings are expected in roughly the next 30 days, Strodtman wrote.

"Bubble House is under construction in Café Court. ... (It) will sell bubble tea, acai, rolled ice cream, and dipped ice cream, smoothies, shakes and crepes," he wrote, adding it will be located between Taco John's and Subway.

Those with Rivian electric sport utility vehicles also soon will have a dedicated charging station west of Target in the mall's parking lot along Fairview Road.

"There will be multiple electric vehicle charging stations and one for a truck and trailer once construction is completed," Strodtman wrote, noting Rivian markets its vehicles for outdoor enthusiasts aiming to preserve the natural world for today's generations and beyond.

Mall events also are a significant draw for the community, including highlighting smaller community retailers, Strodtman wrote.

Upward of 60 local artisans and other makers will participate in the Curated, Crafted, Created Spring Makers Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m April 21 as part of Earth Day celebrations in the common areas of the mall outside Dillard's. A vendor list is available on the mall's website.

There also are events in which people can give back to the community.

The mall will play host to American Red Cross Blood Drives through at least June. If a person visits redcrossblood.org and searches COMOMALL, it will bring up all events at the mall. The soonest available event is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 19.

Bringing people, stores to the mall

Brookfield Properties has two locations in St. Louis, which helps with enticing national and other retailers to Missouri.

"We have a small team of people working on attracting businesses to Columbia Mall," Strodtman wrote. "Retailers will decide on Columbia based on their internet sales and of their existing Missouri-based brick-and-mortar store volumes."

Columbia Mall leadership works with economic development groups like Regional Economic Development Inc. and the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Retail recruitment typically is done via Columbia's private development community, though, Strodtman wrote.

When national retailers are ranking choices for where to set up shop in Missouri, Columbia usually comes in fourth place behind Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis, he noted.

Columbia mall generally has 90% of its retail spaces occupied at any one time, he added, noting shopping traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels.

"For many people, shopping is part entertainment, and the experience of trying on and touching new products is a very important part of the shopping process," Strodtman wrote. "... Over 75% of national shopping still occurs in brick-and-mortar locations and the time spent at our property continues to grow.

"We continue to look for restaurants and services that are not able to be recreated online to keep the mall's traffic growing."

U.S. in-person shopping continues to bounce back

As the U.S. started to come out of the pandemic in 2022 and restrictions were eased, people again started shopping at physical locations over online.

In fact, more stores opened than closed in 2022 and sales at malls increased 11% to roughly $819 billion, according to The State of the American Mall report from Coresight Research published in June.

Mall occupancy was roughly 95% by the end of 2022 and malls generally want to be in the at least 90% occupied range because it allows for "flex space," Coresight Research founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig told USA TODAY.

"Anything over 92% is a full mall," she said. "You need constant turn, in a good way, in a mall because you need new tenants."

When it comes to customer foot traffic at non top-tier malls, like in Columbia, that is up 10%, even at malls that may have an empty anchor store. Columbia Mall still has anchor stores of Dillard's, JCPenney and Target. A top-tier mall has luxury retailers. Think Gucci, Prada, Dior.

"The death of the mall is wildly exaggerated," Weinswig said.

Changing shopping patterns of consumers has led malls to develop adaptations. This has included mixed uses as retail and office spaces; name brand clothiers also conducting resales of gently used items, in the similar vein of thrift stores; and the recasting of malls as community spaces leading to a consumer-focused, rather than retail-focused model.

USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider contributed to this report. Columbia Daily Tribune is part of the USA TODAY Network.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia Mall works to stay relevant as shopping traffic rebounds