Why don't shopping centers take down signs for stores that close?

October 25, 2023 3:41 PM

Local shopping center near me houses a Tuesday Morning store that closed several months ago when the chain went kaput. The space is empty and is for lease. But the large sign above the store is still there, as well as the one that's on the giant marquee near the road. Why would they not take those down? They just don't want to pay money for someone to complete the task? Or is there some science-of-shopping-centers logic about it? Seems like you'd not want to confuse people about what stores are actually available to them.
posted by mccxxiii to Shopping (8 answers total)

In the one case I have actual knowledge about, the signage was entirely paid for by the tenant. If that's standard, I imagine the landlords just do nothing because the next tenant will pay for it, and why pay the labor twice?
posted by restless_nomad at 3:50 PM on October 25, 2023 [18 favorites]

It would cost them money and make the shopping centre look more obviously empty and forlorn. No benefit to them of taking it down, and in fact (at least) two drawbacks.
posted by penguin pie at 4:01 PM on October 25, 2023 [6 favorites]

Also, when you take the sign down, you get a weathered outline of the sign and some holes in the façade where the sign was hung and supported. Many will take down the panel on the marguee by the road and slide in a blank.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:20 PM on October 25, 2023

If someone comes into the shopping centre because they want to visit [closed store whose sign is still up] they might end up spending money at a different store instead.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:55 PM on October 25, 2023

That's actually a city regulation (or actually a lack thereof). Like people have said, the shop owner has incentive to keep it up (not even to mention the cost) and the city has no regulation to remove closed store signs. Some cities do.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:20 AM on October 26, 2023

Shopping centres want you enter the shopping centre and stay long enough to buy things. They don’t care if you’re confused or even disappointed that a certain shop isn’t there. A person who accidentally goes to a shopping centre that doesn’t have the store they need will probably still buy an imperfect substitute item at that shopping centre.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:17 AM on October 26, 2023

This can also help finding a new tenant who wants to save money on signage. Locally for me, there's a restaurant called "Sushi Chalet" -- they chose that name after taking over the space from "Ski Chalet." There's a dry cleaners called "Romance Laundry" -- they took over the space from "Romanos Laundry."
posted by OrangeDisk at 9:32 AM on October 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

I don't have anything to cite directly, but I've heard there can also be situations where the signage in place may no longer conform to more recent laws/requirements, so taking it down would mean something similar couldn't be put up again in the future, but leaving it up and just changing it in the future may still be grandfathered in.
posted by jimw at 12:22 PM on October 26, 2023 [2 favorites]