What: In the US, malls are increasingly injecting high-end food operators in their retail sections in order to generate interest and spread traffic.

Why it is important: Department stores have taken this road a few years ago, but now, they might have difficulties to convince the top players to join them, if the latter have the possibility to go big and direct in malls offering them AAA locations.

Specialty food retailers and cafés are increasingly going higher-end and for that reason, tend to favour mall locations over food courts in the US. As a luxury cake brand puts it, their idea location would be between Louis Vuitton and Hermés, and not near a Subway restaurant. This trend is favoured by the fact that mall owners see F&B as a way to draw people in and differentiate themselves from the competition. As a consequence, they try to lure in influencer-owned restaurants, celebrity chefs and luxury food brands, which means giving these newcomers retail locations, possibly and paradoxically at the expense of the good old food court in the very same malls.

This is a way for developers to make sure that the whole mall becomes interesting again, by dotting it with locations worth to be checked out by customers, including the younger generations. In some ways, while in the past retail supported for dining category, the trend tends to be the reverse these days.

Food courts are dying, but mall food is thriving