Introduction
A Berlin-based fashion and apparel consulting group argues that struggling shopping malls can reposition themselves as local centers for returns, repair, rental, and resale, turning unused retail space into a practical “circularity” engine. The proposal comes from the 202030 Think & Do Tank at Studio MM04, which released a white paper titled “Don’t call it circular society mall”. The core claim is that malls already have the management structure, foot traffic logic, and physical infrastructure to coordinate circular commerce at scale, if property owners and retailers adopt workable business models and pricing.
Why Malls Are Being Targeted for Circular Commerce
Many malls and shopping centers are dealing with declining traffic and a weaker tenant mix, leaving more empty units and fewer compelling reasons for repeat visits. Studio MM04 argues the same factors that hurt traditional retail can create a new opportunity. Mainstream consumers increasingly want to repair items, rent instead of buy, and shop second-hand, but these services are often inconvenient, fragmented, and hard to access. The mismatch is structural: demand exists, but the user experience is scattered and frequently too costly or time-consuming.
Malls, by contrast, provide central locations, parking, predictable opening hours, and large footprints that can host multiple services in one place. The firm suggests that vacant anchors, unused corridors, and former big-box spaces are well suited to accommodate sorting, storage, repair workshops, resale floors, and reverse logistics operations.
A Built-In Management Advantage
A key part of the proposal is organizational rather than architectural. Studio MM04 points out that malls already operate with an overarching management structure that connects landlords, tenants, service providers, and customers. That governance layer can be repurposed to coordinate a local circular economy system. In this model, the mall acts as a hub that links product redistribution, reverse logistics and material flows, and data collection needed for internal tracking and external reporting. The same centralized coordination can also create synergies between tenants inside the property and partners in the surrounding community.
Making It Work Requires New Pricing and Partnerships
The report stresses that circular services only scale when they are accessible and competitively priced. Repair, rental, and second-hand options can fail to attract broad adoption if they remain positioned as premium or inconvenient alternatives. Studio MM04 argues that successful retrofits will require new business models that enable different pricing systems, supported by the right partners working together as a circular ecosystem. Collaboration among property owners, current tenants, former tenants, retailers, and customers is presented as feasible and potentially profitable for all parties when incentives are aligned.
From the mall owner’s perspective, these services can be designed to drive repeat visits, increase customer loyalty, and create longer-term value in properties that are already under pressure to evolve. Instead of treating vacant space as a liability, the approach reframes it as capacity for high-frequency, service-driven retail activity.
Lessons From Existing European Examples
To support the concept, the white paper highlights seven circular-economy retail centers already operating in Europe, with examples drawn from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The goal is to move beyond branding and provide practical takeaways about how these models operate and what can be replicated. The report’s authors emphasize that a successful tenant mix and marketing strategy must appeal to mainstream shoppers, not only to niche sustainability audiences.
That means the experience has to be affordable, convenient, and desirable, while also being engaging enough to compete with other reasons people leave home. Circularity, in this framing, is not a separate category of retail but an upgraded service layer that can make a shopping center feel useful again.
Conclusion
Studio MM04’s central argument is that malls have the physical capacity and operational structure to become return and resale hubs that consolidate services consumers already want but struggle to access easily. The implication is that circular commerce could offer a credible path to stabilize challenged retail properties, provided stakeholders build partner networks, redesign pricing, and package the concept for mainstream adoption rather than a narrow sustainability niche.
Keywords: circular economy retail, mall redevelopment, retail returns hub, resale center, repair rental services, reverse logistics, tenant mix strategy, retail circularity, shopping center transformation, Studio MM04
