An Open Letter to the Westfield Group

This blog is not affiliated with, managed, sponsored, or written by Westfield. The logo above was linked from another blog to support the reader's regarding Westfield's influence on shopping.


Dear Westfield,

For the sake of discussion, call me "Franchise".  For the sake of demographics, I'm in my 30's, and fairly well traveled.  I consider myself a fan of technology and everything it grants a person, and I am not afraid to try new things.  That said, I don't like when good things change.  In those cases I am a strong resistor until I see that what has happened ends up better than what came before.  It is this that I want to speak to you about, and I hope this letter finds its way into the right hands of those who can make a difference.

I grew up in Southern California, San Diego.  As a young kid there were three main staples of the area: Plaza Bonita Mall, the 54 Freeway, and Horton Plaza in Downtown.  At the time, this is around early-to-mid 90's, Plaza Bonita Mall was buried down a back road off of 54 and surrounded by open land.  It was a single, L-shaped building that had Robinsons May at one end and Nordstroms at the other.  There was a small kid park near Nordstroms and a GTE stand near Robinsons May.  There was a small survey room off to the left when you entered from the Robinsons May side, a Babbages on the upper floor across from Toys-R-Us, a rEvolution urban store, Wherehouse, and jewelry stores.  At the far end was a Sam Goody, across from that a Suncoast, and a few photo places.

It was a largely unremarkable mall.  But as you can tell from my summary above, a memorable one.

One day, we started seeing television ads that proclaimed that "Westfield...it's a wonderful town!" and indicating plans to buyout and eventually remake the mall.  My first reaction was one of anger: I did not want this mall to "go corporate" and lose the friendly appeal that it had at the time.  I was mentally resisting the change that was about to come, and I started to hear that other malls were to follow suit: Fashion Valley, Mission Valley, North County Fair, and many others that I had not frequented, but on occasion had need to visit.  Fashion Valley in particular used to be a ghost town: vivid memories of walking into an Apple store back during the time they were about to go out of business; store sales men sitting around trying to sell overpriced hardware to nobody in particular.

I won't bore you with details, but once the acquisitions had settled down and the dust cleared, what I was was essentially an improvement on the mall experience.  Instead of just a random scattering of stores with no real synergy, there were now opportunities to use central gift cards that could be used at any store; the Westfield red jackets became a staple.  There was a formality but yet not a loss of the friendly demeanor that I'd become accustomed to.  I was still somewhat resistant, but open.  As I moved away from the area, I didn't get a chance to see what happened with Plaza Bonita until many years later, when I went to visit family and stopped by the mall.  What a difference.  Instead of the small L-shaped building it once was, it was now a spiraling, glass-encased beast of a place with ample parking and tons of traffic.  Some might balk at this change, but I found it refreshing for many reasons, the most central being the addition of jobs and opportunity as well as increased land value for that area that once was very low in value.

This change is consistent with every Westfield mall in San Diego from my experience and I think I've visited them all at least once.  While I don't care for the parking at Fashion Valley (I've never been a fan of parking "structures"), nor do I care for the poorly designed entry/exit system at North County, The general appeal of each mall has increased tenfold.  The design of each mall has become more conducive to people trying to get stuff done.  It is for this reason and acknowledge that I'm reaching out to you now.

I've been living in Seattle area, Washington State, for nearly two years now.  In a nutshell, I find this place to be what San Diego was around 20 years ago.  That's not a compliment, by the way, given that Seattle and its neighboring cities are home to some of the largest companies in the United States.  There is a blatant disregard for its residents, and in some cases certain residents resist change and do not accept anything that is different from what is currently here, even if the change results in a better overall experience.  You do have Westfield Southcenter and Tukwila here, and I find Southcenter to be a very good mall akin to the ones in San Diego.  However, there are a LOT of malls that you haven't touched.  Everett Mall, Northgate Mall, Bellevue Square, Tacoma Mall, Alderwood Mall...if nothing else, Alderwood Mall is in DESPERATE need of your help and guidance.

None of these malls are bad, but they do not have the clean design and organization that you bring to the table.

Please consider this my request for you to do something about these malls in the interest of spurring positive change in the area.  The design methodology you brought in San Diego went a long way towards kickstarting progress in the area, and now San Diego boasts one of the most efficient freeway systems in the country.  I've got no doubt that were you to do the same throughout Washington State, it would force the government to prioritize changes more than they do currently.  

Please.  Make this a "wonderful town".