I've been reading Paco Underhill's Call of the Mall. The book so far provides mostly obvious observations about the problems and opportunities present in the American shopping mall. He focuses a great deal on the widely held belief that increasing length of visit increases revenue for stores and therefore revenue for the mall owners and get a cut of the sales from the stores. Toward that end come reports that more and more malls are installing WiFi access to provide shoppers web access for their PDAs and laptops while they or companions shop. The thinking here is that providing net access will make malls attractive to business people and idle spouses accompanying shoppers.

It won't take net savvy shoppers long to figure out that this provides a perfect vehicle to comparison shop between brick and mortar prices and online retailer prices. This already the case with bookstores that provide WiFi Hotspots. I have been known to browse a bookstore, select a book, sit down, log in and buy it for less from Amazon.

Will widely available WiFi hurt or held brick and mortar retailers?

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Comments

[Yvonne DiVita]

Regarding wi-fi in the malls...will it hurt or help? I'm ready for it. Get it installed right now, please. Have laptop, will travel. Oh...I bet the mall thinks while I'm there I'll buy something...hmmmmm...being a woman, and being a woman who studies the shopping habits of other women...online and off...the short answer is maybe (anyone with a Mother knows what that means--usually yes; when it's a Dad saying it, it means, I have to ask your Mother.) The long answer is that women are not only flocking to the net to shop, they're setting up business there. Do we want wi-fi in the malls? Yes, for when we're traveling...some of our friends and older relatives are still stuck in the Dick and Jane world of the 20th century so we need wi-fi access when visiting them. Otherwise, I'm going to sit back and watch the malls become...emptier and emptier. Even teens are eschewing them as gathering places. But, I wax on...let me sum up: mousing it is the best way to shop today. Anyone on the global-edge knows that--and wi-fi makes that easy to do no matter where we are. Even at the mall.