Who says "regionalism" can't work? Just consider the success of the Snowden Square retail-restaurant complex in Columbia, the Rouse Co. project that lures shoppers from all around the Baltimore metropolitan region with "category killer" stores offering deep discounts.
Even the word "mall" seems too tame a description for the massive complex at Route 175 and Snowden River Parkway. Rouse has dubbed it a "power center," which connotes the powerful magnetic effect it has had on area consumers. That effect is likely to increase since two other large retail chains recently opened their first Maryland stores at Snowden Square -- Best Buy, a top consumer electronics company gunning for Circuit City, and Zany Brainy, which sells high-tech toys and games. They join other "power center" occupants that include Hechinger, PETsMART, Bed, Bath & Beyond and BJ Wholesale Club.
Not only has Snowden Square held onto Howard shoppers who once ventured afar in search of deep-discount stores, it also has attracted bargain-hunters from throughout the metro area. A regional shopping center in Howard County was precisely what Rouse officials had in mind last year when Snowden Square debuted at the site of the old General Electric industrial park.
At the time the GE facility opened, nearly 25 years ago, Columbia was envisioned as a manufacturing hub. But a funny thing happened on the way to the assembly line: Howard developed the kind of demographics that makes retailers salivate. It boasts one of the highest median household incomes in the nation and a well-educated populace that has been busy producing lots of little consumers. According to census figures, roughly a quarter of the county's citizens are under 19; of those, almost 10 percent are under 5.
In addition to Snowden Square, Rouse owns two other major Columbia shopping centers, The Mall and Dobbin Center. Yet overlap among the three is said to be insignificant. The greater negative impact is probably on local "mom and pop" operations and perhaps even on Main Street establishments in Ellicott City. These businesses will need to hustle to avoid getting stomped by the big new "category killers." Bad news for them, but good news for choosy consumers, in Howard and beyond.