How big is it ? Well, at over 2 200 000 square feet
[21 hectares] it could split in two and each half could just about be
Vallco (‘super-regional’ mall of over 150 stores
near San José, California), wood floors and all …
and each half would get its own food court.
The Target store is so big, there are twenty-six checkout lanes.
The Gap Outlet is so big, the employees wear headset
walkie-talkies to communicate. (I don’t know what the mall
security patrols use; the place is ten minutes’ jog from end to end.)
Savvy shoppers rent SmartCartes (part scooter, part luggage cart) to haul
their booty, then have a ball careening around on them like kids.
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But to focus on sheer size misses the real point of Sawgrass. The place
isn’t a shopping mall, it’s a bloody casino: it
swallows you up, entices you down endless meandering passageways and caverns
of dancing lights, and spits you out several hours later (most likely
many dollars lighter), not even within sight of
where you entered. | |
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| We are not the official
SGM site, we’re a para-site. Heh. |
Not to say that it fails as a shopping mall. Au contraire, mon ami.
How does a gross of US$440
per square foot sound ? Besides the “usual suspects”
seen in any decent-sized outlet center, Sawgrass has an intoxicating
array of small specialty stands. There’s a Harley-Davidson gear
kiosk, a Judaica kiosk, 
a Rastafari kiosk (tfffft). [On my first visit to Sawgrass I
even thought I saw a cybercafe kiosk, but it turned out to be your basic
tacky T-shirt stand with a resourceful young employee using the computer
to dial in to an Internet provider rather than the credit-card
authorization center.] And, unique among outlet centers I’ve
shopped, Sawgrass has salespeople who know their stuff. (You may not
expect that in an outlet mall, but it sure makes the trip more
pleasant and productive.)
And it’s a nice space: the aforementioned wood floors (watch the crew attend to them
at closing time — several men in a line wielding push mops, followed by a Zamboni-like
machine to dress the surface), real trees, varied textures,
excellent sound quality on the in-house video systems, plenty of
photo opportunities [as you walk toward BrandsMart, look up at the twin 7-foot
(2.1 m) exhaust fans] and well-behaved clientele.
So enough is enough, right ? Wrong. The mall just broke
ground on a 300K sqft [2.8 hectare], US$30 000 000
entertainment expansion.
By Fall ’98
your options at the Mills will include a
RonJon Surf Shop, a Steven Spielberg arcade,
a Wolfgang Puck cafe, five or six
new movie screens (to go with the 18 already there),
and — further proof that life is a circle —
an “Everglades Experience”
recreating in effigy the wetlands they drained years ago to build the mall.
According to the mall promoters, it isn’t easy coming up with new concepts that will
draw crowds without bleeding sales from existing tenants. (But wait!
There’s more.
White tablecloth restaurants ??)
I’d say they’re pushing
awfully close to the point of diminishing returns. But I’d also say there are far less
pleasant ways to waste a day (or two) in South Florida. Give Sawgrass a try; see what
you think.
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