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Finding Bobby
Fischer — at the mall
by
Karl Rhodes
For Virginia Business
October 2003
The
entertainment/retail trend has evolved from the earliest
mechanical kiddie rides to the latest electronic simulators,
but The Shops at Willow Lawn is adapting this retail
tactic to a game that goes back at least 15 centuries
— chess.
The
game has long been popular in cafes and coffeehouses
— including several in Charlottesville — but
now it’s popping up in mainstream malls and shopping
centers.
Willow
Lawn, a Richmond mall owned by Federal Realty Investment
Trust of Rockville, Md., has embraced the game since
the Kaissa Chess Club started meeting there about two
years ago. The mall’s marketing staff produced
posters to promote the club’s weekly chess nights,
and it printed up chess night cards that are good for
discounts at participating stores and restaurants.
“Merchants,
especially food court eateries, who participate in the
chess club card program have reported a direct impact
on sales,” says Theresa Stenger, the mall’s
marketing manager. “There’s also a very important
secondary audience associated with chess club programs
— the parents, spouses and friends who accompany
chess players to the mall. This audience is of special
interest because they tend to spend two to three hours
shopping or dining.”
Other
retail complexes in Virginia that routinely welcome
chess players include Waterside Festival Marketplace
in Norfolk and Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottes-ville.
But Willow Lawn has gone far beyond making room for
weekly chess games. This summer the mall hosted five
week-long chess camps for kids, a fundraiser for the
Virginia Scholastic Chess Association, and a tournament
sanctioned by the U.S. Chess Federation. Also, in September,
the mall scheduled a lecture and two simultaneous chess
exhibitions by Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, the top-rated
player in the United States.
“It’s been great,” Stenger says. “It
builds traffic. … It creates community goodwill,
and it supports Willow Lawn’s community outreach
initiatives.”
Given
the longevity of the game and its growing popularity
in Virginia, chess appears to be more than just another
entertain-ment/retail fad. But — just in case —
Willow Lawn is hanging on to its mechanical kiddie rides.
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