The Augusta Mall may smell a little sweeter thanks to its new tenant, a UK-based cosmetics retailer known for its colorful bath bombs and other handmade bath products.
Lush Cosmetics is expected to open in August and will offer glittery bath bombs, shower gels, scrubs, skincare and more.
The retailer will compete with Bath and Body Works, a long-time tenant in the mall.
Lush is known for its strong stance on using ethically-sourced ingredients and for quitting all social media channels in 2021 because of concerns about its impact on users’ mental health.
The mall will also welcome Daily Thread, an affordable women’s store that offers clothing in sizes S through 3X.
The retailer has been growing quickly in the past year, boasting more than 150 stores in the U.S., up from about 50 locations last fall.
Malls across America are eager to attract newer, more modern tenants like Lush and Daily Thread to fight against becoming obsolete in the age of online shopping.
One prediction suggests there will be just 150 malls left in the U.S. in ten years, down from around 700 today and 2,500 in the 1980s, according to SiteWorks president Nick Egelanian, who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
Similarly, in 2020, Coresight Research estimated that 25% of the around 1,000 U.S. malls would shut down by 2025.
Despite the wave of abandoned malls, 94% of Americans have an open mall within one hour of where they live, according to a recent survey from IPX1031. However, 24% of respondents hadn’t visited a mall in the past year, and nearly one-third said they didn’t feel safe at malls.
The top reasons shoppers still go to malls are to shop at a particular store, for the convenience of visiting multiple stores in the same spot, to see items in person and to visit restaurants or a movie theater.
