‘Hanging out’ down, sales up at Fairview Heights mall going into Christmas
Retailers and shoppers describe St. Clair Square as quieter and emptier than before COVID-19, but the mall’s general manager says stores are ending 2021 with some of the best sales figures in a decade.
What gives?
One possible explanation comes from All Things Girly owner Andrea Hunt. She said more people are coming to the Fairview Heights mall with a purpose, going straight to certain stores, often to buy specific items, then leaving instead of wandering around for extended periods.
“Some people are still nervous about being out, and we still sell a lot of masks,” said Hunt, 52, of Belleville. “We give out a lot of masks.”
Hunt remembers a time when senior citizens got exercise by walking the mall’s corridors, and teenagers met to “hang out,” especially on weekends. That activity has decreased dramatically, she said.
St. Clair Square no longer has storefront restaurants or coffee shops, only the food court, and one of its main vendors, Panda Express, is temporarily closed, apparently due to the national employee shortage.
“Bring orange chicken back,” reads a giant handwritten sign where the menu board use to be. “Now hiring. Starting from $14.19.”
Other COVID-19 reminders range from bottles of hand-sanitizer at store entrances to signs on windows notifying people of capacity limits. Many shoppers and most clerks wear masks.
On the other hand, it’s Christmas, and mall traditions help create a sense of normalcy: Bright lights, gleaming floors, festive decorations, window displays with winter fashions and kiosk shelves full of calendars for the new year.
Elizabeth Lee, 47, of St. Louis, is just glad she can come and shop in her favorite stores, Rue 21, Rainbow and Charlotte Russe. The latter closed its South County Center location.
Lee likes the atmosphere at St. Clair Square.
“They don’t have a lot of young kids running around acting crazy like you do in St. Louis,” she said. “They’re hanging on the banisters and spitting on people. They think it’s funny. I don’t see that here. It’s like people are coming in and getting what they need and leaving.”
Dire predictions for stores
There’s plenty of gloom and doom among retail-industry experts, who point out that tens of thousands of brick-and-mortar stores have closed in the United States due to online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. They also predict the trend will continue.
Hunt is just focused on doing her best with All Things Girly, which sells women’s jewelry, accessories, purses and clothing, including fraternity, sorority and Afrocentric items.
Hunt moved the store from downtown Belleville to St. Clair Square in January 2020, two months before COVID-19 hit. The year before, she operated a pop-up at the mall.
Hunt remains optimistic, despite pandemic-related setbacks. Her sales for January through November of this year are up 17% over last year, and last month showed a 13% increase from October.
“On Black Friday (Nov. 26), the mall was packed,” Hunt said. “It really felt like old times. It felt like pre-COVID. The children were waiting in line for photos with Santa. There were women carrying on the tradition of shopping with their daughters or groups of friends. It was really good.”
By the following Thursday, the mall was back to quiet mode. Shoppers trickled in and out the main entrance, past a pop-up that sells colorful linens. Several people called it “dead” inside.
But Santa Claus was working, perched on a green loveseat next to a giant Christmas tree on the lower level. He read a book to pass time between visits from children with wish lists.
“It’s definitely less crowded (than before COVID-19),” said Celeste Fries, 40, of Edwardsville, who had brought her two children, Sydney and Jackson, to shop at the Hot Topic store. “But it’s Thursday afternoon. That’s why I came at this time. I’m not a big fan of crowds.”
Of course, different people bring different perspectives.
St. Clair Square had more foot traffic than Hoyleton resident Megan Moore, 30, and her husband, Wes, expected on a weekday. They’ve been largely holed up at home for the past year and a half due to COVID-19 and wanted to get out of the house with their 2-year-old daughter.
The Moores ended up buying a coin counter at Dillard’s and a stuffed bear at Build-A-Bear Workshop, which now operates from a kiosk instead of a storefront, one of several changes since their last mall visit.
Shopper Jolie Neal, 45, of Belleville, noted that some stores close on certain days or early in the evening, a departure from the old days, when everyone kept the same hours, except for anchors that stayed open later.
“With changing market conditions, retailers may adjust their hours as necessary,” according to an email from Priscilla Visintine, who handles public relations for the mall’s owner, Tennessee-based CBL Properties.
Macy Allen and Jessica Brown, both 16, of Fairview Heights, left the mall after going straight to a salon for eyebrow shaping earlier this month. They wear masks all day at school and don’t care to spend evenings wearing them.
130 businesses at mall
St Clair Square has about 130 businesses in operation, according to Visintine. That ranges from those with kiosks in corridors to the 20,000-square-foot H&M location that opened in 2019..
Michael Hagen, the mall’s general manager, was upbeat last month.
“We’re poised to finish this year out as one of the best years in a decade,” he said. “Our numbers over 2019 are incredible. I’m talking about the store sales performances.”
That follows a rough 2020, when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered a statewide shutdown in March due to COVID-19. Stores in St. Clair Square gradually began reopening in June with pandemic-related capacity limits, other restrictions and shortened hours.
Today, the mall has about 20 vacant storefronts and kiosks, similar to last spring. That includes Sears, which closed in 2019 after 44 years. JCPenney is open, despite the company’s bankruptcy filing in May 2020. CBL filed for bankruptcy the following November.
Hagen said the number of vacancies at St. Clair Square isn’t “alarming,” particularly given its size, and he pointed out that CBL doesn’t own the two-story Sears building that connects to it.
“We don’t have any control over the leasing,” Hagen said. “If we had control, it would have been leased by now.”
Paul Ellis, economic development director for the city of Fairview Heights, said St. Clair Square’s success is a source of community pride, considering some malls in the United States are struggling.
Scott Gauch, 49, of Swansea, stopped by on a recent weekday with a single goal in mind: Returning an item to Hollister that his family ordered online. He also made a run through JCPenney.
Gauch senses that most local brick-and-mortar stores are operating at about 60% of “normal.”
“I don’t think it’s ever going to return totally,” he said. “Everybody’s ordering online now. Stores just aren’t as full as they used to be.”
Regular hours at St. Clair Square are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Special holiday hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, and Monday through Thursday, Dec. 20-23; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 24; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 26, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The mall is closed on Christmas.
Photos with Santa are available 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 23 with breaks for lunch and dinner; and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. Dec. 24. Reservations are recommended at www.stclairsquare.com.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
