Give me the holiday experience, or not

With holiday shopping now hitting a fever pitch, shopping centers are doing everything they can to lure consumers and get them to stay and shop longer. Examples include the ubiquitous Santa’s Villages and traditional dressings of the season.

Baltimore-based marketing firm the Becker Group takes it one step further and gives its clients everything from 70-foot trees to interactive 20-foot high snow globes, with the goal of making a mall’s common space an immersive holiday experience for busy families.

How important is this to you? Sure, you can pop in and out of free-standing Target or Best Buy, but would it be a better experience to trundle the family up and head to the mall to enjoy the atmosphere instead?

-BEN MOOK, Assistant Business Editor