Former Boscov’s stores up for sale at 2 area malls

The former Boscov’s department stores at the Oxford Valley and Montgomery malls are up for sheriff’s sale.  Boscov’s filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and the locations closed soon after that.

Barbara Kahn, the incoming director of Wharton’s Retail Center, said anchor stores set the tone for malls.  So if one is boarded up, Kahn said, it’s bad news for the mall. 

“The anchors definitely help form the personality of the mall going forward,” Kahn said.  “Now you’re saying what happens if that personality’s established but one anchor is missing, it can’t help but have a negative perception on the mall.”

Kahn said with more people hitting the web to do their shopping, people in the industry are trying to find new ways to attract shoppers to malls: including establishing supermarkets as anchor stores — and building specialty corners of malls packed with kids stores or retailers of luxury goods.

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