Not directly related to the article, but single focus retail is disappearing from suburban/mixed areas as well. This trend has been going on for a decade at least. If you visit any growing area where new housing is being built, the "commercial/retail area" that is added is almost exclusively restaurants with some service business (dry cleaning, hair styling, etc.). Maybe one or two small niche retailers, but nothing like the nostalgic small towns they try to evoke. Even without theft, specialized retail is fading.
I live in a pretty boring upscale suburban area about 30 minutes outside a US top10 metro area.
We have tons of single focus retail and the LEGO store does bonkers business.
In the past 10 years there’s been an explosion in single focus retail as developers have built these sort of outdoor mall/fake main street retail hubs that only have stuff like lulu lemon and lego and Sephora and stuff. I haven’t seen a department store built in years.
These shopping districts are extremely packed all the time with wealthy yuppies and spawn and whatnot.
Of course, the private and city cops would probably execute you (or put you on a bus to somewhere) if you littered, much less did drugs, or pooped, or brandished a weapon. Shoplifting a stick of gum would probably result in swat team activation.
I wonder if the purpose of this store in a downtown location like this is more about promoting the brand for all the tourists that walk or ride by, rather than actually selling Legos.
