The changing face of retail malls

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MANILA, Philippines — It has been quite clear for some time that our malls are no longer “shopping” malls, with the closure since the pandemic of small fashion retail boutiques and the proliferation of more restaurants, cafes and food related establishments taking over, as well as by gaming and video arcades, and the increasingly popular claw machines popularized by K-dramas, and entertainment-related establishments such as skating or ice rinks.

In fact, most malls are now actually community malls — complete with aesthetic and medical clinics, hair salons, wellness and massage salons, even 24-hour fitness centers, convenience stores, a variety of hobbyist stores, and now even sports related training areas for martial arts, ping-pong and even go-kart racing.

Banks now also secure branches within the shopping malls and adjust their working hours for the convenience of weekend mall-goers.

Likewise, chapels have also been established for religious-minded mall visitors.

Ayala Malls Manila Bay, for one, leases out its parking lot on some weekends for car enthusiasts who park, display and hold an event for their souped-up cars.

Likewise, it also collaborates with the still popular cosplay community on some weekends, driving a lot of related commercial photography business, as the cosplayers strut and pose in their varied, colorful and detailed costume characters, providing entertainment for weekend mall goers, and definitely churning good business for the restaurants, cafes, and food outlets.

Even the independent restaurant buffets are now doing good business in the malls, so much so that on weekends, parking can be a big problem.

I guess Filipinos will easily shell out their money for food and specialty drinks nowadays more than they will for shopping for clothes.

For me personally, and as I’ve noticed of several similarly aged persons, it is also a safe, air conditioned space to do my regular walking exercise, especially now that one of my favorite malls — SM’s Mall of Asia — has built a series of bridgeways to connect almost all of their malls and office buildings, allowing me to easily log in as much as four kilometers.

Ayala Malls Manila Bay is also another favorite in that area, especially on weekdays when the crowd is much less.

However, while I thought that the transformation of our shopping malls was unique to the Philippines, apparently not.

During my recent visit to Singapore, I was surprised that a lot of the malls that I normally visit have also changed to accommodate more restaurants, replacing what in the past were mostly fashion boutiques.

The centrally located underground Citylink mall that also serves as the underground hub for the MRT City Hall link, now offers more restaurants, with more noticeably Chinese mainland restaurants.

Even more surprising was the Marina Square between Singapore’s Suntec City ( which used to be mostly an electronic and tech shopping mall) but now has a better varied mix of restaurants, electronic and fashion boutiques) and Millenia Walk that is connected to the Mandarin Hotel.

Marina Square used to be a modest strip mall with a small food center. I was thus surprised that it now has an expanded restaurant area that offers more variety and less fashion boutiques.

The same goes for the once upscale Millenia Walk that used to house only luxury fashion boutiques. Actually, all of the upscale luxury stores are gone, replaced by restaurants and some stores.

If one really wants to look for the luxury items, the go-to luxury fashion mall is now at the Marina Bay Sands, where the iconic Louis Vuitton boutique still reigns supreme alongside 170-plus luxury brands, and where some of the famous name brand restaurants of Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck and Gordon Ramsay and Mott 32 are located.

But the one main difference that we perhaps will not be able to see anytime soon in our country because of climate change and poor infrastructure is the underground malls that are also making walking connectivity easier and healthier.

During my visit, I easily logged in 15,000 steps, mainly enjoying the underground connectivity, instead of having to walk in the sweltering heat of the island nation, in spite of it efforts to green the island with trees and a variety of plants and bushes.

I have always been amazed and envious of the underground malls of Japan and Singapore, providing relief from the heat during summer, and in Japan — from the freezing temperature in winter.

Unfortunately, for us, because of our location within the typhoon belt, underground malls would be prohibitively expensive to build to ensure that they do not flood.

That is one aspect that I am wondering how the Japanese-led Metro Manila subway is addressing. I really hope that sometime in the future, but perhaps not in my lifetime, we will have the capability to construct underground facilities to shield us from the increasingly warm climate during summer.

Makati has so far been able to construct walkways from the Makati Commercial Center up to the Makati Medical Center. But I guess the cost has been a deterrent to building a similar short connectivity from Legaspi Village to Salcedo Village.

There has also been some short underground connection along Ayala Avenue, but I guess security is now a concern since the underground passageways are closed at night time when the security detail are gone.

I have been hearing stories from some of the Makati condo residents about an increase in criminality in some areas.

I guess that is also one factor against underground passageways in the Philippines or even above ground passageways.

I must admit that at the MOA complex, their passageways are all adequately manned by security guards to ensure that criminals do not take advantage of the easy access to parking garages and the office buildings.