Planet Fitness replacing multiple storefronts at mall

[cjd]

Local mall here has Planet Fitness replacing around 6 storefronts. Part of the space was a long closed Lubys Cafeteria that had been a laser tag arcade for a shorter time and since vacant. Also a GNC which recently vacated and moved across the corridor, some other shop, a larger empty storefront that had been leased by a few places recently and two smaller vacant fronts.

I don't expect PF to bring much business to the mall (expect it to be similar to the theater where people come for workout or to watch movie and then leave). But it will fill spaces.

Somewhat surprised it didn't move into the vacant Kmart which has been gone for two years or the Sears which closed late last year. I suppose those locations were far too large however.

It does seem to make the mall seem more empty in that section, with those storefronts now just very long empty expanses of floor to ceiling drywall.

[Super S]

Local mall here has Planet Fitness replacing around 6 storefronts. Part of the space was a long closed Lubys Cafeteria that had been a laser tag arcade for a shorter time and since vacant. Also a GNC which recently vacated and moved across the corridor, some other shop, a larger empty storefront that had been leased by a few places recently and two smaller vacant fronts.

I don't expect PF to bring much business to the mall (expect it to be similar to the theater where people come for workout or to watch movie and then leave). But it will fill spaces.

Somewhat surprised it didn't move into the vacant Kmart which has been gone for two years or the Sears which closed late last year. I suppose those locations were far too large however.

It does seem to make the mall seem more empty in that section, with those storefronts now just very long empty expanses of floor to ceiling drywall.

They did something similar at Kelso's Three Rivers Mall. They took over a space which was a buffet restaurant, later Chuck E. Cheese, and some additional spaces. They have windows facing the mall corridor, which stretches from the food court to JCPenney, but the only entrance is on the outside, as it was with the restaurants that were there. With an outside entrance it doesn't really bring people inside the mall. As to the corridor this is in, the other side consists mostly of the Kelso Public Library (which you do access from inside the mall) and a couple small shops.

[bayford]

Planet Fitness entered my local market by moving into a nearby mall that lost an anchor following Bon-Ton's bankruptcy. However, the new Planet Fitness only moved into a portion of the available space and, unlike the old store, is only accessible from the mall's exterior.

[Alpha8472]

Fitness centers make parking at the mall much worse. When 24 Hour Fitness opened at Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California the once empty parking lot became packed nearly 24 hours a day. Now parking is a pain for everyone. It has driven customers away from the other stores as it is impossible to get a good parking space near any of the mall entrances facing the street. They put the fitness center right on the main road so that it is visible to everyone, but now the prime parking is taken up by people using the fitness center. The mall just wants to make money by getting anyone to take up empty storefronts. The mall should put the fitness center out in the parking lot away from the mall. If people want to shop after getting a workout, they can drive a little farther in their cars to get to the mall. The fitness center people take up all the good parking spaces, just because they do not want to walk farther to the doors.

The fitness center once had an interior mall entrance with a little store that sold fitness equipment. However, they closed that shop and now the only entrance to the fitness center is on the outside of the mall. People have no enticement to walk out of their way to go back inside the mall to shop.

[Brian Lutz]

Everett Mall has an LA Fitness that took over part of what used to be the mall's Mervyn's store, although this is in the back of the mall so it doesn't have much effect on parking. It's also next to a movie theater, which probably generates more traffic than it does.

[cjd]

I'm not sure whether this location will have an interior entrance or not. It is right next to one of the exterior entrances, but there's really nothing else on either side of that entry. Rack Room had long since relocated and a pretzel shop, barber shop and organ shop that were there as well had since closed, leaving that entry corridor empty.