Bay Area malls drawing customers back with interactive entertainment
Stonestown Galleria Mall in San Francisco still has the usual suspects, escalators, a food court, and plenty of storefronts to tempt your wallet. But at one business, it's not just your credit card that's getting a workout; it's your heart rate.
"We're coming up the escalator. Everyone else was like, 'Oh, I got to get their errands done.' And we're coming here to play," said Nathan McCall, from Santa Cruz.
Nathan, his wife Jill, their kids Saleh and Dorian, and family friend Autumn Burchell, drove two hours for a mall trip that was less about shopping and more about strategy.
Inside, they found , a high-tech, team-based arena that's equal parts laser tag, brain teaser, and cardio blast.
"This particular game, I'm sweating. There's so much that is required to be online, the screen and getting us to move our bodies is so great," he said.
The floors light up. The walls throw challenges. And the scoreboard keeps you humble, especially when you're playing catch-up with a 12-year-old.
A one-hour session costs $35 per person or $45 for 90 minutes. Jill McCall said she's not usually a fan of malls, but this one was a slam dunk.
"I typically try to avoid malls as much as possible for a very long time," she said. "It's just an overstimulating place typically and this is definitely something that brought us back into a mall environment."
Across the country, malls are in a slump. According to , up to 87% of large shopping malls are predicted to close over the next decade.
Paco Underhill, author of Call of the Mall, who has been tracking these trends for decades, said malls are now shifting from retail hubs to experience-driven destinations — places that blend entertainment, dining and even housing.
"The larger context of the shopping mall is, 'Can I make it a real city?' It's what we call placemaking," he said.
As for the McCalls, they made it to the top of the scoreboard, but that, said Nathan, was never the point.
"The score is great, but we don't spend a lot of time looking (at the score); the place we spend a lot of time looking at is each other," Nathan McCall said.
