Word: sawgrass
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Unlike dreary discount stores or outlets of the past, which tended to be about as cozy as an airplane hangar, Sawgrass Mills has a Disneyesque ambiance that offers fun along with bargains. The innovative Coral Gables, Fla., firm Arquitectonica designed the mall in a wacky alligator shape, a nice touch considering its location at the edge of the Everglades. The Florida theme extends from the logo, a saw-toothed alligator, to parking-lot markers (a yellow toucan, a pink flamingo, etc.), to a windswept-looking Hurricane Food Court, complete with wind sounds and swirling banners. Shoppers stroll under palmetto trees...
Step into Florida's Sawgrass Mills, the world's biggest outlet-and-discount mall. Situated 15 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, it boasts 2.2 million sq. ft. of name-brand shopping at no-name prices. The parking lot alone covers 170 acres. Two miles of storefronts, 150 in all, include outlets for such status labels as Ann Taylor, Maidenform, Van Heusen, American Tourister and Athlete's Foot, plus such familiar discount stores as Brands Mart and Marshalls...
...that distinguishes such discount centers from ordinary malls. Try on a $218 Ann Taylor dress, slashed to $69.90. Reebok Sole Trainers that normally retail for $85, at $55. Anne Klein II perfume at $17.95 instead of the usual $32. More than 1.5 million shoppers , have done so since Sawgrass opened its doors in October. "Everybody is looking for bargains these days," says William Cohen, 36, waving a pair of jeans selling at $30 -- half-price -- at the jammed Guess? outlet...
...Sawgrass, perhaps the snazziest discount mall to date, was built by Western Development Corp. based on the firm's two earlier successes: Potomac Mills in suburban Virginia and Franklin Mills on the fringes of Philadelphia. Each attracts 1 million bargain-hunting shoppers a month. "Western is doing something daring and truly different, gambling that this might be the future of malls in America," says Terry Dunham, publisher of Value Retail News, which tracks the outlet industry from Clearwater, Fla. Western has plans for four more discount malls: near Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Ontario, Calif. Not to be outdone, Benderson Development...
...Allied Stores chain, which includes Bloomingdale's, Burdine's, A&S and Jordan Marsh. She may be wrong about that. "I'd much rather go to a fancy mall and shop a sale," admits Sheryl Rolnick, 39, of Coral Springs, but one day recently she drove out to Sawgrass to do a little bargain hunting. "The discount malls are having an effect," she says. "Lately, my local Lord & Taylor and Jordan Marsh are dead...