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Non-Tech : RAINFOREST CAFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Vail who wrote (3813)	1/12/1998 10:44:00 PM
From: Dylan	Respond to of 4704

Hey Dennis, This is probably more than you wanted to know: I've just done some research on what you said and also talked to my South Coast Plaza expert (my girlfriend). Some of what that person is saying is true and some is not. The main part of SCP is two mall areas. The more crowded one is the one which has RAIN. It is laid out in a two story, distorted x-shape with a carousel in the middle and department stores at the end of each of the 4 corridors: Sears, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Robinson's-May. Sears is the least desirable of the four, as is that corridor. There are not nearly as many nice stores in that corridor, although there are some such as Bombay Company. RAIN is on the first level. During the holiday season, it was crowded throughout the mall and even more so at RAIN. The wait was over 2 hours, so she did not eat there. She says that while that section of the mall is not as nice as the other parts, it is not dead space and has improved quite a bit over the past couple of years. South Coast Plaza is a very large, upscale mall and is a shopping destination for much of Southern California. In addition to the part with RAIN, there is another 3 story area which has a Macy's and another department store, an Edward's Satium Cinema, Nordstom Rack (their outlet chain), and several small strip mall areas (where Planet Hollywood is located). She says that they really couldn't have picked a better location within the mall because the other sections are full, and they probably got a really good deal on the rent since it isn't at capacity. The Sears is not a new one like at Woodfield. It is probably more comparable to the Sear's at Golf Mill, although the rest of the mall is as nice if not nicer than Woodfield. The mall itself is within five miles of the ocean, surrounded by Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and many other areas. There are many small malls near there, but the only serious competition for nice, upscale malls is Fashion Island in Newport Beach. However, that location already has CAKE and Hard Rock Cafe, with CAKE inside the frame of the open-air mall and Hard Rock in a detached unit like Planet Hollywood is at SCP. Also, the Irvine Spectrum, which is located 10 miles south along the freeway is getting a CAKE later this year, and a City Mills mall is opening within 15 miles of SCP sometime next year. Disneyland, one of their future planned locations, is about 20 miles north of SCP. With the three planned locations of SCP, Disneyland, and Ontario Mills, they have spread themselves out about as much as possible except for having a location on the westside where I live. CAKE has 7 locations and is adding one more in Irvine. All are in either upscale of oceanside communities, whereas only the SCP location is located in an expensive area. I get the feeling that they really don't understand the demographics of the areas where they are expanding. Their successful locations seem to be lucky guesses or so obvious that they'd have to be really dumb to not work. If I had known about the Stratosphere plans, I could have told you that was a bad idea because the location is horrible. It is in a bad neighborhood and it costs moeny to get up the tower. The MGM location is presently the best possible location in Las Vegas and is probably the most crowded foot traffic intersection in the world. That intersection has escalators up to bridges so pedestrians don't delay traffic. Also, I said awhile ago on a post that the retail merchandise sold in RAIN and Natural Wonders and The Store of Knowledge is not nearly as desired or as exciting as it was a few years ago. These stores are having trouble getting items that are different and still interesting. I think that retail sales will struggle until they either develop their own line of successful items or scale back many of the unpopular items. Their clothing seemed very boring when I visited. I think I've exhausted the subject and myself, so I'll end it here... -Dylan