00:00Well, Jasmine Bertels is a personal finance expert and founder and director of Money Magpie.
00:05Jasmine, great to speak to you again.
00:07How important do you think it is for malls to give people a reason to visit beyond just shopping?
00:13Oh, I think it's huge, particularly, as you say, in these times when you can just shop on your laptop,
00:20you know, in your pyjamas, in the perfect comfort of your own home.
00:23There has to be a reason to go to these places.
00:26I often look, for example, at the Apple Store, which has pioneered a lot of activities.
00:32It sort of turned its store not so much into a shop, but more of an experience place where you
00:38can learn things.
00:39And I think the idea of having sports, activities for children, very good food,
00:45and it does need to be good food and a good range of eateries, and certain forms of entertainment,
00:51not all forms of entertainment work, but certain forms of entertainment work,
00:55all of these things will absolutely help shopping malls across the world to bring in more footfall.
01:03Do retail stores actually feel the benefit of this,
01:06or is it just that the way people are shopping in the shopping malls is changing?
01:10They're putting their money into these experiences instead.
01:14Well, that's a very good point.
01:15I think quite a few people would be putting more money into the experiences,
01:19but as you're walking past a shop, if there's enough that's enticing in the window,
01:25you could find more and more people popping in who had no intention of buying
01:30and certainly didn't think they needed a particular pair of trousers or a new gadget,
01:34and they see it in the window and they just buy it.
01:37So that type of spontaneous shopping, I think, would be increased simply by having the people in the mall
01:45and actually physically having them there.
01:47Once they're there, it's up to the shops, up to the retail units to then attract them in
01:52and actually get a sale from them.
01:54China is further ahead in having these shopping malls as entertainment and social destinations.
02:00What can European shopping malls learn from the Chinese model?
02:05Well, from what you've mentioned, I mean, having a running track on the top of a shopping mall,
02:09that's genius. I think it's a question of thinking creatively,
02:13and this is clearly what the Chinese shop owners are, well, if you call them shop owners,
02:19mall owners are doing. They are thinking out of the box, and that's what we need to do.
02:24It depends, of course, on weather, but the great things about malls is that
02:28when the weather is very cold and unpleasant or far too hot, you can go into the mall,
02:33and they need to think about what people would like to do.
02:35What is it that the 30 to 60-year-olds, the bulk of the people who are going in,
02:41what is it that they want? Do they want activities that are good for children or teenagers,
02:45or would they actually like classes?
02:48You know, it's quite possible that something like pottery classes would work well,
02:53or those Build-A-Bear classes.
02:56You know, again, taking the idea from the Apple store,
03:00where they have free courses, as well as paid ones,
03:04where you can learn how to do all sorts of things with your phone.
03:07So I think, you know, it depends on the activities.
03:10For example, there have been malls that have had cinemas in them.
03:13Those haven't done too well. Cinema is not doing so well,
03:17but other types of entertainment, other types of activities,
03:20would be very attractive to the sort of people who'd like to go to malls.
03:25Thanks, Jasmine. Jasmine Bertels, personal finance expert.
03:28And back to you, Juliette.
