1. Sarah E. Chestnut
Dallas Tour Mall assignment
April 20, 2015
Study Tour 2015
The study tour to Dallas for 2015 consisted of three malls. These three malls are
all owned by the same parent company. Simon Property Group has three wonderful
malls and each is very different and has unique service to offer. The Galleria is a main
attraction for not only for the citizens of Texas, but people all over the United States and
World. Grapevine Mills attracts many people looking for great deal. The Firewheel Town
Center is the last one and is also my favorite. It offers a great environment for shopping.
Each of the malls has things in common and things that make the m different.
The First stop on our trip was the Firewheel Town Center. This mall is considered
an open air and has a strong target market. After walking around observing, eating at
one of the food places, and shopping, I came to the conclusion their target market is for
older and wealthier people. They cater tothe couples that have the money to go out on
dates and buy expensive gifts afterwards. The atmosphere is great, its open and offers
the flexibility to drive up and just go where you want to spend the most money. Since
this mall is open air, it is only one story. The Visual Merchandising and store layouts
were on their top game. They laid out a floor plan with target items that you would run
in to and want to buy. Some of the Positioning trends Firewheel offered was they had a

2. bar and different food places located in the center; so if you wanted to eat you would
have to pass by different shopping locations.
Our next mall was the Galleria; this is an upscale shopping center. They offer a
variety of stores and entertainment. I feel like they have a very large target market
considering it’s so large, but I feel like they cater to upper class family the most. They
have every store todress any age of your family and store that mom can find good deals
and stores dad will enjoy, while their huge attraction is an ice skating rink. This attracts
all ages, but specially the kids and as the parents sit and watch they look around and see
lights flashing of stores they enjoy and have an open area to feel welcomed to shop and a
safe environment for their kids. It host over 375 stores and has three levels. Their visual
merchandising is very technically; they place certain signs and set ups for the family to
run into and fall into their buying trap. The layout of each store is different, but for the
mall it’s like a huge hallway as you wind up and down from one end to the next.
The last mall to stop at was Grapevine Mills. This mall is an outlet mall. They doa
good job of targeting the middle class family shopping on a budget. They offer fun
activities for kids like eating at the rainforest café. They kids are entertained while mom
can make quick dives in and out of stores trying to get the best deal either on kids
clothing or her own. Many stores offer a wide variety of home goods and appliances.
They also provide a theater for the people who don’t want to shop. This is a diverse
upscale outlet. For example, they offer a large Niemen Marcus outlet store. They
lightening in this mall are very dim and really doesn’t give off the welcoming come shop
with us feel. Some of their positing skills are how they place two stores side by side that
the same type of person would like to go into both and then placing the rainforest café

3. near Gap and Gap kids knowing parents will dive into those stores. This mall is only one
level, but has a large length.
As you go to each of these malls, you pick up on different feels and find each on
every different. One of the greatest observations I had on this trip would be the lighting.
In the Galleria it was very bright, welcoming feeling. However in Grapevine Mills there
was not much light, the place was very dim and had a non-interaction feel. Firewheel
being an open air was different kind of lighting; of course, during the day depending on
the weather it is bright, but even at night they took extra measures tokeep it well-light
and have a safe environment feel. Another contrast would be the levels; the Galleria had
a wealthier, inviting as you traveled through the levels. It made me excited to spend as I
travelled from the levels. Whereas Grapevine Mills was only one level and very long, it
made me feel like it was a burden to go throughout to outlets. My favorite was Firewheel
and they are open air and have one level but you have the ability to park wherever you
like to shop. As you walk outside, different entertainment is going on and window
shopping is very popular and you are lured to the eating places with yummy smells.
The malls share many similarities. They all offer precise layouts for you to walk
through and designed for you to run into each store and view their merechandsing
techniques. One similarity they all had was neutral colors were used in the exterior of
the malls when you weren’t in the stores. Grapevine Mills and Galleria share the
similarity of being under a roof. They offer indoor shopping and even some of the same
store chains. I went into the Niemen Marcus of both malls; the Galleria one was bright,
welcoming, organized, screaming personality, and has wonderful customer service and
catered to each department. The one at Grapevine was a Niemen Marcus outlet and it

4. lacked so much. They had better mark downs and deals, but it was so hard to find sizes
and department divisions. They seemed just to not to even carry a positioning strategy,
because everything was grouped and marked down. The Galleria and Firewheel share
the richer feel and more welcoming feeling to shop.
The Dallas Study tour for 2015 featured the three malls and also offered the
knowledge I needed to compare and contrast. For the three to be owned by the same
group, they each were very different. They all offered clothing stores, department, and
home goods that you could purchase from each of the malls. The catch is which
environment you like the best and unknowingly where you fit in their target market is
where you will most likely feel the most comfortable. The Galleria, Grapevine Mills, and
Firewheel Town Center are great places to visit on your next trip to Dallas.
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