The American Love Affair With Shopping Centers (NAPSA)—With the opening of the first climate-controlled shopping center in 1956—Southdale in Edina, Minn.—Americans started shopping at shopping centers and never looked back. Consider the following: AIMERICAY’ ul In 2001, shopping centers rang up $1.18 trillion in sales. * In 2001, 199 million adults visited shopping centers every month ofthe year. 10.8 million people, or eight percent of the American workforce, are employed at shopping centers. A 1973 study by U.S. News and World Report showed that Americans ofall ages spent more time in shopping centers than anywhere but home, work and school. * Between 1970 and 1990, about 25,000 new shopping centers were built in the United States; during that time every seven hours a new center opened. * In 1998, outlet centers produced 4.4 billion in sales, a figure that would double within three years. These and other insights into the way Americans shop and live can be found in a new book by Nancy E. Cohen. An illustrated hardcover coffee table book, America’s Marketplace: The History of Shopping Centers (Greenwich Publishing, $39.95) shows how a retail concept was influenced by the changes in American demo- In 2001, almost 200 million adults visited a shopping center every month of the year, accord- ing to the new book America’s Marketplace: The History of Shopping Centers. graphics, lifestyles, the economy, and technology. “Given its prominence on the American landscape, surprisingly little has been written about how the modern shopping center came to be, about how it shaped and was shaped by consumers, and the role it plays in American culture,” Cohen explained. The book is a result of extensive research and more than 50 interviews Cohen conducted with shopping center executives, retailers, architects, investors, histori- ans and other industry observers. The book is available online at www.barnesandnoble.com. Greenwich Publishing publishes the book in affiliation with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
