Main Street versus Shopping Mall

Robert Gibbs uses many things to evaluate a "Main Street". Those include:

• the placement and color of the trash cans, benches.
• how clean the area is
• the material for the pavement
• how secure the area is
• placement of specific retailers
  
• the type of retailers
• The left turn rule

I do not believe that Main Street should be a mall, for the fact that consumers would not have as many options in terms of environments to shop in. While shopping in a mall, customers have a different mindset than when shopping on the Main Street. Also, the whole point of the Main Street is to attract tourism and to make people want to walk all around the city, and if the Main Street would be made into a mall, it would take away from it.

For my own checklist, I would include cleanliness, type of retailers and security as the main points for a successful main street. Consumers must feel safe around where they shop, so they would be comfortable to spend large sums of money. Also, there should be a variation of type in terms of retail, so that there is a competition between many stores.