A 1980s study of the typical Lakeside Mall shopper yielded fascinating findings

The developer and former owner of Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights – its last day of business will be Sunday – wanted to learn the preferences and habits of its customers.

So in the mid-1980s, Taubman Co.’s market research department conducted a study to find out who the typical Lakeside Mall customer was.

Forty years later, the study is something of a mini time capsule for the cultural obsessions of the Reagan era and is a testament to the popularity of that decade’s “Yuppie” and “Preppy” textbooks and the late commentator Christopher Lasch.

Here are some findings from the study. That Lakeside shopper:

• Is not a “yuppie” and does not long for a Volvo or a Porsche.

• He is likely the child of blue-collar parents and retains blue-collar values.

• Falls into the upper middle income bracket and is likely to be a family person.

• Prefers ‘Entertainment Tonight’ on TV over ‘Masterpiece Theatre’.

• Does not buy art as an investment, preferring framed family photos as wall decorations.

• Dislikes tax havens.

• Lives close to in-laws.

• If you wear a bowler hat, you prefer a custom hat.

Other quick facts about Lakeside Mall

• The mall opened on March 2, 1976, the same day as Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn.

• The name Lakeside is derived from the man-made ponds just east of the shopping center.

• To help shoppers find their way, the mall initially had a team of uniformed female information guides, known as ‘Lakesiders’.

• The shopping center was developed by A. Alfred Taubman and was originally owned by a partnership consisting of Taubman Co. and subsidiaries of Sears Roebuck and Dayton-Hudson.

• It once had no fewer than 175 shops.

• An indoor water slide — the Hydrotube — was added in 1984 at the southwest entrance. This consisted of two winding 350-foot-long tubes that started on the roof of the mall and ended in a swimming pool 40 feet below ground level.

• A food court was added in 1999, near where Tilt, a two-level video game arcade, once stood.

• The last major renovation took place in 2007.

• The mall was acquired in 2019 by Out of the Box Ventures, a subsidiary of Miami-based Lionheart Capital, after the previous owner, General Growth Properties, defaulted on the mortgage on the property.

• At the end of 2025, the first pile will be driven for the successor to Lakeside: Lakeside Town Center, a project in the form of a city square with apartments, shops, restaurants, offices, a hotel and public recreation space.

• A public sale of Lakeside Mall fixtures and furnishings will be held at a date to be announced, with proceeds going to a local charity.

• Three sculptures in the mall, created by artists Bruce Beasley, Buky Schwartz and Fletcher Benton, will be removed and later reinstalled in the public space of the mall’s successor.

This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: 1980s Survey of Typical Lakeside Mall Customers Yields Fascinating Findings