Mall Anchors Evolve With Visit-Focused Strategies In 2025

Mall anchors are shifting in 2025 as visit-focused strategies boost traffic through dining, fitness, and experiential retail.

June 2, 2025

Nina Dale

Mall anchors in 2025 include niche retailers, restaurants, and fitness centers that consistently drive strong foot traffic.
Smaller tenants like Barnes & Noble and In-N-Out are outperforming traditional anchors in both visits and spend demographics.
A visit-focused strategy helps balance daily and weekly traffic by aligning tenant types with consumer patterns and behaviors.

Key Takeaways

Shifting Anchor Strategies

The traditional mall anchor—a large-format department store drawing broad audiences—is no longer the sole driver of foot traffic, reports The Anchor. In 2025, malls are taking a more dynamic, visit-focused approach. The rise of niche retailers, popular dining chains, fitness centers, and strategic pop-ups is redefining how retail destinations think about anchoring.

Experiential Retail Reigns

At Towne East Square Mall in Wichita, KS, Scheels has proven how experiential retail can deliver anchor-level traffic. Since opening in 2023, the destination has drawn a wider geographic customer base, with 42% of visitors traveling over 50 miles—up from 36% when Sears previously occupied the space.

Scheels drives major foot traffic at Towne East Square Mall, increasing long-distance visits from 35.8% in 2018 to 41.9% in 2024.

Niche Brands, Big Pull

Barnes & Noble’s Coronado Center location in Albuquerque illustrates how niche can be mighty. Drawing 7.9% of mall visits in 2024—more than Macy’s or JCPenney—the bookseller has re-emerged as a magnet for affluent shoppers, lifting overall foot traffic despite its smaller footprint.

Barnes & Noble drives higher mall visits and attracts the most affluent shoppers at Coronado Center, surpassing traditional anchors in foot traffic and income.

Dining Drives Daily Visits

Food-focused tenants are also proving their anchor potential. In-N-Out at Glendale Galleria captured 8.6% of mall traffic in 2024, while Porto’s Bakery at Northridge Fashion Center drew an outsized 15.6%—beating out larger anchors. These examples underscore how dining chains can serve as compact, high-impact traffic drivers.

Restaurants like Porto’s and In-N-Out outperform anchors like Macy’s in visit share at Glendale Galleria and Northridge Fashion Center in 2024.

Daypart And Day-Of-Week Targeting

Anchor planning is becoming more granular. At Jordan Creek Town Center in Iowa, Scheels drives weekend visits while Costco dominates weekdays—helping smooth out foot traffic. Chick-fil-A locations, despite their Sunday closures, shift visit patterns toward weekdays. Meanwhile, early-opening gyms are helping malls capture morning traffic previously left untapped.

Costco leads weekday visits while Scheels wins weekends at Jordan Creek Town Center, showing how anchors vary by day.

Malls with Chick-fil-A locations, such as Northridge and Miller Hill, saw lower Sunday visit shares after store openings.

Fitness centers at Northshore and Jackson Crossing drive early-day visits, expanding malls' morning foot traffic potential.

Pop-Ups As Anchor Alternatives

Temporary activations, like the Barbie Dreamhouse Living Truck Tour, are delivering big foot traffic boosts. These events can outperform regular weekend traffic and serve as short-term anchors. Malls offering flexible leases and visibility perks to such pop-ups can fill seasonal or experiential gaps.

The Barbie Dreamhouse Tour increased mall visits by up to 11.5% on event days across various US locations in 2025.

Collaborative Category Impact

Adding tenants with overlapping customer bases can create positive spillovers. At Green Acres Commons in NY, Aldi’s 2020 debut boosted visits to the adjacent BJ’s, showing that similar retailers can grow the overall traffic pie rather than cannibalize it.

BJ’s visits surged after Aldi opened at Green Acres Commons, with nearly 45% of Aldi shoppers also visiting BJ’s in 2024.

Beyond Square Footage

In 2025, success in mall anchor strategy is measured less by size and more by impact. From experiential concepts to boutique eateries, a tenant’s ability to drive consistent, quality visits matters most. Mall operators embracing this visit-focused model are well-positioned to meet shifting consumer preferences—and to turn their centers into must-visit destinations.