Past: When Uptown Square was constructed, the setting of the Uptown Mall, it was aimed to be the centre of Waterloo. The photos below shows development plans for uptown square in 1960.
Present: Today, the uptown mall is surrounded by shops, a community centre, banks and much more activity than it saw in the past. It bears a completely different feel and tone.
Future
According to the strategic direction for city planning and economic development, Uptown Waterloo is planning to integrate “more stores, unique services, businesses open extended hours, free parking…” (source) and more. It is not stated specifically if upgrades will be made to the Shops at Uptown Waterloo, but improvements like more stores and unique services could create a larger attraction for “Waterlooians,” and thus increase the traffic at or around the shops. It is interesting to note that even starbucks, and the stores across the street are considered part of the SHOPS branding on the website.
Who is their clientele
- University Students, (mostly for grocery store and shoppers drug mart)
- Families, (Baby store, shoppers drug mart,
- Groups of people (Beertown, Cora’s, diner beside Shoppers drug mart)
- Elderlies (clothing stores, grocery stores)
We noticed a variety of people around the mall, but the stores inside (expensive clothing, vape lounge) seem to be catering to a more high-class audience, with enough capital to make expensive purchases.
What is their city context?
The shops at Uptown Waterloo has the listed address: 75 to 115 King Street South, Waterloo, Ontario, N2T 2Z7. Therefore the mall is contained within a city square and located right onto the main street that runs through downtown. The mall is contained by edges. The north side of the mall is bordered by train-tracks, the east side of the mall by King St, the south side of the mall is edged by Willis Way, and the west side of the mall by caroline st north. Located across the street from the mall is a RBC. There also is a main bus stop both for the 200 express buses and regular buses. In fact, the shops in Uptown Waterloo are located in an ideal spot for generating traffic.
How does their signage work?
The signage works in curious ways at the Shops at Waterloo. The signage seems to be more focused on the outside stores, bordering the edge. Shoppers Drug Mart, ZOUP, Beertown, Cora’s, all have LARGE, prominent and colourful signs. While the “Shops at Waterloo” sign, is almost in the background, situated over the main entrance. The main sign to enter the mall, is overpowered by all the external shops and signage. Therefore, it can be argued that traffic is generated only via the external edges of the mall, not via the centre.
Are they really dead?
I would argue that his mall is in-fact not-dead. A dead mall can be defined as, “a mall with dead, or a low consumer traffic level.” The shops at Uptown Waterloo actually have a pretty large consumer traffic level. It is irrelevant if the consumer is only coming to the mall for one thing, such as a grocery store. The mall has enough consumer attraction to keep traffic up to an acceptable level.
I would argue that this mall is at a stand-still and not fully “alive”, because it is failing to attract consumers to the centre of the location (where the most contemplation on purchasing decisions will occur). If they don’t change the strategy of the signage, they won’t be able to lure people into the centre of the mall, the stores within the mall will die, allowing only the businesses on the edge to flourish.
Our strategy would make the signage for Shops at Waterloo much more colorful and position it in the foreground of the layout. Also, we would invoke a consistent branding system for the rest of the signage, creating restrictions for size, colour and placement. That way, the stores on the outside of the mall will be branded together, and look to be part of a larger more complete shopping experience, while the signage for the actual mall will stand-out.
Conclusion
Overall, they put a “face lift” on the mall by creating stores in the perimeter of The Shops → which ultimately are the stores that are generating consumers. It’s getting customers via the outer stores, which may lead them towards the inside of the mall, but it’s not creating enough traffic to be really fully “alive”.
- SIDE NOTE: based on the website The Shops seems to include the plaza right beside it http://waterlootownsquare.com/directory/, which has Channer’s, LCBO, and Starbucks
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