In
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger
tenant
Tenant may refer to:
Real estate
*Tenant, the holder of a leasehold estate in real estate
*Tenant-in-chief, in feudal land law
*Tenement (law), the holder of a legal interest in real estate
*Tenant farmer
*Anchor tenant, one of the larger stores ...
in a
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
, often a
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
or
retail chain
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...
. They are typically located at the ends of malls. With their broad appeal, they are intended to attract a significant cross-section of the shopping public to the center. They are often offered steep discounts on rent in exchange for signing long-term leases in order to provide steady cash flows for the mall owners. Some examples of anchor stores in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
are
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
,
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
,
JCPenney
Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...
,
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...
,
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
,
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...
.
Origins
When the planned shopping centre format was developed by
Victor Gruen
Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum
retrieved 25 February 2012 (July 18, 1903 – February 1 ...
in the early to mid-1950s, signing larger department stores was necessary for the financial stability of the projects, and to draw retail traffic that would result in visits to the smaller shops in the centre as well. Anchors generally have their rents heavily discounted, and may even receive cash inducements from the centre to remain open.
Early on,
grocery store
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
s were a common type of anchor store, since they are visited often. However, research on
consumer behavior revealed that most trips to the grocery store did not result in visits to surrounding shops . Large
supermarkets
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...
remain common anchor stores within
power centers however.
As of 2005, the declining popularity of old-line department stores makes it necessary for mall management companies to consider re-anchoring with other retail alternatives, or mix commercial development with residential development to guarantee a captive clientele.
The challenges faced by the traditional large department stores have led to a resurgence in the use of supermarkets and even
gyms
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...
as anchors.
Classification
The
International Council of Shopping Centers
The International Council of Shopping Centers, doing business as ICSC, is the global trade association of what it calls the "Marketplaces Industry" (i.e., shopping centers, shopping malls, and all other retail real estate). Founded in 1957, it fe ...
makes the presence of anchors one of the main defining characteristics of the two largest categories of centres, the ''regional center'' with 400,000 to in
gross leasable area
In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...
, and the ''superregional center'' with more than of space.
The ''regional center'' typically has two or more anchors, while the superregional typically has three or more.
In each case, the anchors account for 50–70% of the centre's leasable space.
Culture
Shopping centres with anchor stores have consistently outperformed those without one, as the anchor helps draw shoppers initially attracted to the anchor to shop at other shops in the mall.
[Stoffel, Jennifer]
"WHAT'S NEW IN SHOPPING MALLS; Putting a Bloomingdale's in Towns Big and Small"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', August 7, 1988. Accessed July 10, 2008. "Even as department stores have lost ground to smaller specialty shops, shopping centers with national retailers as anchors continue to outperform those that have only local tenants.... The anchor store has substantial influence - mall plans have been held up until an anchor is firmly in place, and a successful anchor can inspire new development or continued expansion." Thus, a mall which loses its last anchor is often considered to be a
dead mall.
See also
*
Retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
*
Shopping centre
A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
The first known collec ...
*
Supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
References
{{Reflist
Retail formats
Commercial real estate
Department stores