Malls entice mom-and-pop stores
Kingston, MA — Shopping malls are laying out the welcome mat for mom-and-pop merchants to fill storefronts in the recession. Many of Massachusetts’ marquee shopping malls are aggressively recruiting independently-owned stores to occupy spaces left behind by national chains. They’re offering shorter leases, lower rents and pursuing non-traditional users such as offices and medical clinics.
“There’s an opportunity to talk to local retailers who are typically in a strip mall and think they can’t afford mall rents,” Hanover Mall General Manager Ed Callahan said.
In more bullish economic times, mall landlords might not have considered the Open Box Store as a tenant.
Owner John Santos buys overstocks and close-outs from chains such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy and resells them at discounts of 40 to 70 percent from a bare-bones storefront at Kingston’s Independence Mall.
With mall vacancies rising and few national chains in growth mode, stores such as Santos’ are suddenly a hot commodity among mall landlords.
