在邁阿密海灘著名的沙洲島北端，曾經(jīng)的一片長滿紅樹林的沼澤地，現(xiàn)在已變成了一座占地46.6萬平方英尺的三層樓的購物天堂。這里是富豪們的勝地。兩個穿著淺色亞麻時裝的模特趾高氣揚地從駐足的路人身邊走過，好像是在T臺上走貓步一般。購物的人們掏出30美金小費讓服務(wù)生代他們泊車，順便炫耀一下自己的超跑。微風徐來，陽光明媚，真是個風景如畫的周一下午。不過如果外面下雨了，工作人員也會跑出來打著傘將購物者們畢恭畢敬地迎接進去。

跟美國各大城市郊區(qū)的1100多家其他室內(nèi)商場相比，巴爾港購物中心倒更像一個豪華度假村。這里最引人注意的不是燈光和假植物，而是隨處可見的熱帶植物以及池塘里的烏龜和錦鯉。它和普通商場還有一些不同之處。比如這家商場的地租極少降價，商場根本不愁招不到商，很多商家排著隊等著進駐。就在一些商場連生存都成問題時，這家商場卻打算再投資4億美元進行擴張。

這一天，巴爾港購物中心的開發(fā)商馬修·惠特曼·拉曾比在商場二樓的餐廳里咬著一個蔬菜三明治。映入眼簾的沒有一件便宜東西，樓下的棕櫚樹間停著的都是路虎和保時捷。今年40歲的拉曾比剛從南美洲出差回來，他此行去了那里的幾家商場，其中有一家圣保羅的商場幾乎就是他這家商場的翻版。他是這家商場的已故創(chuàng)始人斯擔利·惠特曼的孫子。拉曾比表示，他已經(jīng)充分認識到行業(yè)存在的問題，以及這些問題對巴爾港購物中心的影響。

“一進去就讓人感覺‘這里真糟糕’的豪華商場并不多。也許有一些，但絕對不是我們這里。”

美國的所有商場都面臨著“零售業(yè)末日”的問題。隨著消費者購物習慣的變化，無法跟上變革腳步的傳統(tǒng)零售業(yè)已現(xiàn)出行將就木之相。很多家庭都把支出的大頭放在了旅游、在外就餐和其他休閑活動上，賣衣服的零售店幾千家?guī)浊Ъ业氐归]。更重要的是，隨著人們?nèi)找嫦硎芫W(wǎng)購的便利性，傳統(tǒng)商場的人流量也江河日下。據(jù)福雷斯特研究公司的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，到2022年，美國的電商銷量將占所有零售業(yè)銷量的17%，遠高于2017年的12.7％，而亞馬遜公司則將成為主要推動力。

對于美國商場來說，更糟糕的消息是，據(jù)瑞士信貸預(yù)測，未來五年，有20%到25%的商業(yè)綜合體將關(guān)門大吉。這不啻于一種文化的大革命，對傳統(tǒng)零售業(yè)的打擊是致命的。美國已經(jīng)有一些所謂的“郊區(qū)探險家”扛著攝像機在荒廢的郊區(qū)商場里探險了，仿佛是在探尋什么古代蹤跡一般。

那些給“70后”的青春留下了美好回憶的傳統(tǒng)商場都已經(jīng)到了風燭殘年，然而一些豪華商場卻依然呈現(xiàn)出勃勃生機。比如紐約長島的美國購物中心，拉斯維加斯的凱撒宮購物中心，洛杉磯的格羅夫購物中心，經(jīng)常擠滿了生活滋潤的本地人和大把撒錢的外地游客。不過即便和這些商場相比，巴爾港購物中心的表現(xiàn)也算是最好的。它經(jīng)常被評排美國效益最高的購物中心。不過巴爾港購物中心拒絕發(fā)布詳細收益數(shù)字，只承認自己是盈利的。

要吸引富人前來購物，光是把商場開在富人區(qū)里是不夠的，但“近水樓臺先得月”依然是個樸素的真理。咨詢機構(gòu)A.T. Kearney的零售業(yè)務(wù)合伙人邁克爾·布朗表示：“在人口密集和高收入者聚居區(qū)域的商場仍然保持了較好的增長勢頭。”巴爾港購物中心顯然是其中之一。很多消費者的確是從其他地方慕名而來的，但是住在附近的購物客也有不少。從商場的二樓，你可以看到馬路對面的圣瑞吉斯酒店的兩座大樓。順路步行不遠便是麗思卡爾頓酒店，每晚房價經(jīng)常高達1000美元以上。在這片著名的海灘上還矗立著七八座豪華公寓樓。

開在富人區(qū)的商場當然也有一個難處，那就是他們總是得進行升級，好不斷滿足挑剔的消費者對最熱品牌的渴求。

如果你的商場開錯了地方，你就是賣遍全世界的潮牌也沒有用，不管你賣的是什么。

遠的不看，只看離巴爾港購物中心僅有15分鐘路程的一座傳統(tǒng)商場就知道了。這座商場位于北邁阿密海灣163街，它幾乎只剩了一具空殼。它的衰弱持續(xù)了整整20年，很多主打的品牌紛紛撤柜，搬到了附近的一家更高端的商場。它的唯一選擇就是走低端路線，它的很大一部分已經(jīng)被拆了，變成了一家沃爾瑪?shù)某壻徫镏行摹＝裉爝€能看到的只有一個高大的拱形大廳，有五個店面左右的空間完全是平地，大多數(shù)店面也早被廢棄了。

在工作日，走進這家茍延殘喘的老商場的人寥寥無幾，僅有的幾個購物者也是來買便宜衣服的。墻上的一張標語還在強行打雞血：“新店馬上開張！”

巴爾港購物中心的商家不是慢慢升級來的，它從一開始走的就是豪華路線。1965年斯坦利·惠特曼剛開辦這家商場時，他就希望引來最高端的品牌。當時多數(shù)歐洲豪華品牌還沒有入侵美國，全美潮牌云集的城市也就只有紐約。早期巴爾港購物中心的商家里就有FAO Schwartz、Martha Phillips等頗有知名度的潮牌，但惠特曼好幾年都能沒能招來一個經(jīng)營一線品牌的商家。直到1971年，內(nèi)曼馬庫斯在這里開設(shè)了在德州以外開設(shè)第一家門店。紐約的薩克斯第五大道很快也進駐了這里。

拉曾比2003年進入了他的家族企業(yè)，2013年接任CEO。他比祖父更有進取心，他不甘心做一個守成之主，而是投資在市中心開設(shè)了第二家商場。拉曾比表示：“現(xiàn)在我們也在關(guān)注能不能做些其他事情?！彼硎荆麑Ω嗑唧w的項目都持開放態(tài)度，不過他目前并不打算在全國范圍內(nèi)擴張?！耙?guī)模并不是最重要的?！?

對于美國大部分零售業(yè)者，“商場”一詞已經(jīng)成了后零售時代人人避之唯恐不及的詛咒。業(yè)者們現(xiàn)在更喜歡“聚合體”、“城鎮(zhèn)中心”和“休閑區(qū)”這樣的字眼。拉曾比雖然不情愿地承認巴爾港購物中心確實是一家商場，但轉(zhuǎn)眼又拋出了“商店聚合體”和“購物環(huán)境”之類的詞來形容它。

拉曾比坦承，即便是專門面向富人的高端商場，也不能完全避免電商的沖擊，他們無非是能比傳統(tǒng)商場招架得更久一些，畢竟奢侈品很大程度上還沒有邁進電商時代——要說服消費者光憑網(wǎng)上的幾張照片，去掏10000美元買名貴首飾、買名牌鞋包，顯然還是很有難度的。盡管如此，不少一度拒絕電商的高端品牌現(xiàn)在也向電商投降了。Net-A-Porter和Farfetch等電商的火爆已經(jīng)證明，消費者對在線購買高端產(chǎn)品是有需求的。

有些奢侈品牌直到現(xiàn)在仍不肯“觸網(wǎng)”，拉曾比表示，他們應(yīng)該實體線上同時發(fā)展。他表示：“一方面的發(fā)展，不一定要以犧牲另一方面為代價。”

在巴爾港購物中心，珠光寶氣的珠寶店時常會吸引路人駐足，連那些見過世面的富豪們也不會例外。寶格麗、海瑞溫斯頓、蕭邦等都在這里設(shè)有門店。在格拉芙珠寶店中，最引人注目的是一枚鑲有指甲蓋大祖母綠型鉆石的戒指。為了營造高端感，這些珠寶店的門一般是掩著的。但有時就連這些珠寶店里也人聲鼎沸。不過總體上，這個商業(yè)綜合體依然是一個奢華、愉悅的物質(zhì)天堂。

不過商場租戶的日子卻并非都非常好過，他們的經(jīng)營環(huán)境可謂弱肉強食、優(yōu)勝劣汰。由于商場空間有限，業(yè)績不佳的商家經(jīng)常會被掃地出門，騰地方給新品牌入駐（只有三層的一家書店獲得了永久開店權(quán)）。大廳周圍的那一圈店面更是經(jīng)常改換門頭。目前，香奈兒、古馳和戈雅是該商店效益最好的三大店面。

巴爾港購物中心也有一些中端商場常見的品牌，但即便是這些平價品牌，在這里也走的是比較高端的路線。比如這里雖然有拉夫勞倫的專賣店，但這家店面主要賣的是品牌旗下的紫標系列，也就是拉夫勞倫的最高端產(chǎn)品，比如5000美元一件的絲綢晚禮服，500美元一個的皮帶扣等。但這里更多的還是你平時在一般商場里難得一見的奢侈品品牌。比如作為商場里最大的商家之一，香奈兒在這里專門有一個VIP廳。這家香奈兒賣的進口皮包，比市面上的已經(jīng)很貴的一般香奈包皮包還要貴上好幾倍。

雖然巴爾港購物中心已經(jīng)很成功了，但拉曾比并沒有就此滿足。2015年，一支拆遷隊將商場停車場后面的一座擁有70年歷史的教堂夷為平地。當推土機開始推墻的時候，教堂的墻上還寫著“本周日來作禮拜吧”的字樣。其實早在幾十年前，拉曾比的祖父（于去年過世）就曾談判購買教堂的地，但直到去年，巴爾港購物中心才以3000萬美元的價格將這塊地皮買下。這筆交易也在當?shù)匾鹆塑幦淮蟛ā?

“他們在基督教的圣日來拆遷，簡直是封了，而且拆的還是這樣有歷史意義的教堂?！币粚Ρ镜鼐用駥Α哆~阿密先驅(qū)報》表示：“對于巴爾港的居民和信教群眾，這算是一份什么圣誕節(jié)禮物！”

拉曾比卻不為所動，他稱這些唱反調(diào)的人都是“激進否定分子?！?

在這片教堂上建起的商場附樓預(yù)計將于2023年開放。巴爾港購物中心還宣布，它在紐約建成的一座占地5.3萬平方英尺的三層建筑將成為它的新旗艦店。

在最近一個陽光普照的下午，拉曾比打算從商場回到馬路對面的辦公室。剛吃完午飯的購物者們漫不經(jīng)心地看著旁邊的櫥窗。一個穿著T恤衫和籃球短褲的男人走出了一家叫Le Zoo的餐廳，這家餐廳的一個漢堡大概賣18美元。他的朋友問他，巴爾港購物中心里都有哪些商店。他回答：“幾乎所有小資的東西這里都有?！比缓笏麄円黄鹣蛏虉龉淙?。

幾分鐘后他們轉(zhuǎn)了回來，手里提著范思哲的購物袋，跳進一臺50萬美元的蘭博基尼。開車的男人大腳轟了幾次油門，車子的噪音讓附近的食客紛紛皺眉。

“他是誰？”等泊車的服務(wù)生回來時，一個商場工作人員問他。

服務(wù)生聳聳肩：“某個富二代?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng)）

譯者：樸成奎?

At the northern tip of Miami Beach’s famed barrier island, atop what was once a tangle of mangrove-filled swamps, sits a three-story, 466,000-square-foot sanctum for the super-rich. A pair of models dressed in beige linen outfits strut silently past onlookers like a wandering catwalk ad. Outside, shoppers shell out $30 for valet parking and the right to show off their supercars near the main entryway. It’s sunny and breezy on this picturesque Monday afternoon, but when it does rain, mall workers will scurry out front with umbrellas to escort shoppers to shelter.

Bal Harbour Shops looks like a posh resort compared with the 1,100 or so indoor malls sprinkled throughout America’s suburbs. Instead of the glare of fluorescent lights and fake plants, the main drag here is lined with tropical greenery and ponds with turtles and koi. It’s different from your run-of-the-mill mall in other ways, too: This one isn’t constantly cutting deals on rent to get stores to stay. In fact, there’s a waitlist. And while some malls are desperately seeking financial lifelines, this one is planning a $400 million expansion.

On this day, Matthew Whitman Lazenby, the Bal Harbour Shops’ developer, is biting into a veggie club sandwich at the mall’s second-floor grill. The view is expensive: Range Rovers and Porsches sit outside amid the palm trees. Lazenby, 40, has just returned from a business trip to South America, where he visited several malls, including one in Sao Paolo that’s a virtual duplicate of his. The grandson of the mall’s late founder, Stanley Whitman, Lazenby says he’s fully cognizant of the industry’s troubles—and how they don’t really affect Bal Harbour.

“There’s not many luxury stores you go into and say, ‘Ugh, this is terrible,’” he says. “There are some, though. Not here.”

Malls across America are dealing with what’s been called the “retail apocalypse:” the looming death of an industry unable to cope with the shifting shopping habits of consumers. Clothing retailers close stores by the thousands as households shift spending to travel, eating out and other leisure activities. More importantly, foot traffic continues to slow as customers abandon the suburban mall for the ease of online shopping. U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to account for 17 percent of all retail by 2022, up from 12.7 percent in 2017, with Amazon.com Inc. the main driver, according to Forrester Research.

Even worse for the American mall, Credit Suisse has predicted that from 20 percent to 25 percent of the complexes will shut their doors within the next five years. It’s the kind of cultural cataclysm so total that suburban explorers now trek through dead malls with their cameras, chronicling decay as if they were ancient ruins.

While the malls Generation X came of age in are on death row, luxurious versions of those dinosaurs are doing just fine. Malls such as Americana Manhasset on the wealthy north shore of New York’s Long Island, the Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas, and the Grove in Los Angeles, often teeming with a healthy mix of wealthy locals and spendthrift tourists. But even among these successful swanky malls, Bal Harbour Shops stands tallest. It regularly tops the annual list of the most productive shopping centers in America, according to real estate research firm Green Street Advisors. Bal Harbour Shops declined to share revenue numbers, conceding only that it’s profitable.

Though it’s not enough for a mall to simply be near rich folks, it sure does help, says Michael Brown, a partner in the retail practice of consulting firm A.T. Kearney. “Those malls in the densely populated, high-income sectors are continuing to thrive,” he says. Bal Harbour is certainly among them. Many shoppers do come here from afar, but some live right next door. The two towers of the equally decadent St. Regis Hotel across the street are visible from the mall’s second floor. The Ritz-Carlton is just down the road, with one-bedroom suites that can run more than $1,000 a night. Between them sits more than a half-dozen luxury high-rise condominiums lining that famous beach.

One downside for luxury malls located among the well-to-do, however, is that they constantly need to update their offerings to appease all those discerning buyers searching for the hottest brands.

But if your mall’s in the wrong place, all the hot stores in the world won’t save you—no matter what you’re selling.

Look no farther than a traditional mall located just 15 minutes from Bal Harbour. The Mall at 163rd Street in North Miami Beach is a desolate shell of its former self. Its decline took decades, as department store anchors slowly departed for a more upscale mall nearby. The only direction to go was downmarket, as a chunk of it was demolished and replaced by a Walmart Inc. Supercenter. What remains today is a tall, arched hallway where blocks of five storefronts or more remain vacant. Most kiosks are abandoned, too.

The few shoppers walking through on a weekday were headed to the discount racks at Marshall’s or Ross Dress for Less. A hopeful sign on the wall promises: “New stores coming soon!”

There is no Sears-to-Chanel story for the mall in Bal Harbour. It sought to be ostentatious from the start. When Stanley Finch Whitman opened the doors in 1965, he hoped to attract the poshest stores. Most European luxury brands had yet to invade the U.S., which left New York as the nation’s sole home for the glitziest names. Early shops and boutiques at Bal Harbour included FAO Schwartz and a Martha Phillips dress salon, but Whitman was unable to lure a major anchor for years. Then, in 1971, Neiman Marcus agreed to open its first department store outside its home state of Texas. New York’s Saks Fifth Avenue soon followed.

Lazenby joined his family’s company in 2003 and took over as chief executive in 2013. He’s more expansion-minded than his predecessors, investing in a second mall property downtown rather than staying put in Bal Harbour, as his grandfather did. “Now we have an eye on possibly doing some other things,” says Lazenby, who adds that while he’s open to more individual projects, he doesn’t plan to expand nationally. “Size has never been what it’s about.”

For the bulk of the U.S. retail world, the word “mall” has become a curse, one inexorably tied to the aforementioned apocalypse. Owners prefer “collection” or “town center” or “promenade.” Lazenby grudgingly concedes that Bal Harbour Shops is indeed a mall, but goes on to refer to “store clusters” as “shopping environments” instead.

Malls for the rich aren’t immune to e-commerce, Lazenby acknowledges—they just have more time than normal malls before the online monster hits. Much of luxury hasn’t shifted there yet—it’s much harder to convince shoppers to dump $10,000 on a bejeweled necklace or alligator shoes without seeing the items up close. Nevertheless, elite labels that once spurned e-commerce are now moving some business online. Internet retailers such as Net-A-Porter and Farfetch have proven that there is an appetite for high-end online shopping.

Even the 1 percent sometimes have to get buzzed in.

There are luxury brands that still shun the internet, but Lazenby warns they should pursue both sides of the business. “One shouldn’t be at the expense of the other,” he says.

Inside Bal Harbour, a row of jewelry stores draws double-takes, even from well-appointed passersby. These shiny outposts include Bvlgari, Harry Winston and Chopard. At Graff, the biggest head-turner is a ring with an emerald-cut diamond the size of a fingernail. These are among the few shops at Bal Harbour whose doors are closed—even the 1 percent sometimes have to get buzzed in. Still, the complex is generally a plush, pleasant, materialistic paradise for shoppers with cash to burn.

Not so for the mall’s tenants, who operate in an environment best labeled as cutthroat. Space is limited, so underperforming stores are often culled to make room for up-and-comers (That is, except for a fancy bookstore that earned a permanent spot on the third level). Shops are often relocated around the mall’s main hall as they jockey to gain additional selling space. Fashion labels such as Chanel, Gucci and Goyard currently rank as three of the most productive stores at Bal Harbour, the mall says.

Bal Harbour does include some stores you would see at a middle-class mall, but their offerings are much fancier. Ralph Lauren is here, for example, but this one is full of the retailer’s Purple Label line, the highest-end merchandise it sells, including $5,000 silk dinner jackets and $500 bronco belt buckles. More often, though, Bal Harbour serves up boutiques you won’t see at your local turnpike shopping center. Chanel’s shop, one of the biggest in the mall, has a VIP lounge for the highest rollers. Its store here is known for a selection of exotic leather bags that cost many times those of the already pricey lambskin basics.

As successful as Bal Harbour is, Lazenby isn’t sitting still. In 2015, demolition crews descended on a 70-year-old Congregational church behind the mall’s parking garage. “Worship this Sunday,” the sign for the Church by the Sea still read as a Caterpillar excavator ripped down its walls. Bal Harbour Shops had purchased the land for $30 million after a decades-long negotiation begun by Lazenby’s grandfather, who died last year. The deal sparked an uproar in the community.

“It’s crazy that they would go ahead at Christmas time—a religious time of year—and start demolishing a historic church,” one local resident told the Miami Herald. “What a Christmas gift for the residents of Bal Harbour and the congregants.”

Lazenby was unmoved. “Activist naysayers,” he called his detractors.

The new wing of Bal Harbour Shops that will take the church’s place is expected to open in 2023. The mall recently announced that a three-floor, 53,000-square-foot Barneys New York would be its new anchor shop.

On a recent sun-soaked afternoon, Lazenby is about to head back to his corporate office across from the mall. Shoppers who just finished lunch look into a window or two on their way out. A man in a T-shirt and basketball shorts exits Le Zoo, a restaurant where a cheeseburger costs $18. His friend asks him what stores are inside Bal Harbour. “Pretty much anything bougie,” he replies, as they stroll toward the shops.

They’re back just a few minutes later, toting a Versace shopping bag, and hop into a yellow, half-million-dollar Lamborghini parked right in front. The driver revs the engine repeatedly as they roll away, leaving nearby diners annoyed.

“Who was that?” a mall worker asks as the valet returns to his post.

The valet shrugs. “Somebody’s son.”