Oviedo Mall<\/a>, Adam Brown, owner of Wizards and Lizards, said the mall still plays an important role in the community.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is, like, one of the last standing community centers, really,” Brown said. “It\u2019s one of the last places where people can just get together and exist for free without having to pay. So, it was somewhere that we just felt like it would be a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wizards and Lizards is a family-owned shop that has leased space inside Oviedo Mall for nearly four years, selling items ranging from tie-dye shirts to candles and wooden signs. But Brown said it has become harder to stay afloat as foot traffic declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraffic gets slower every day, unfortunately,\u201d Brown said, adding that rising rent has added to the strain. \u201cI mean, from where we started to where we are today, we\u2019ve gone up at least probably 20%, 30% from our original rent when we signed our first lease.\u201d<\/p>\n
To bring people into the store, Brown said Wizards and Lizards has started hosting free events and workshops, including tie-dye classes.<\/p>\n
Customer Nicole Fullagar said she discovered the business while searching online for local experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found here specifically because we were trying to find some local places online that do these different activities, like we\u2019ve done a bunch of different ones, and this is the only tie-dye one we saw, which is really cool because I really like the tie-dye style for shirts and everything,\u201d Fullagar said.<\/p>\n
She said losing stores like Wizards and Lizards would be a blow to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ll be a huge loss to the community because, as I said, this is like the only tie-dye one I found,” Fullagar said. “And I\u2019m all the way from Tampa, and it\u2019s the only one I found around. So that\u2019ll be one less thing that there\u2019s nothing really else like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oviedo Mall management says it is working to adapt to changing consumer habits. Josh Gunderson, the mall\u2019s director of marketing and events, said the property is transitioning into a mixed-use destination.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re constantly in a state of reinvention, of finding out what it means to be a mall in the year 2026, which means not looking back, but looking forward and trying new and different things, taking risks and becoming just a good central hub for our community,\u201d Gunderson said.<\/p>\n
Gunderson said many of the mall\u2019s tenants are locally owned small businesses, and management works closely with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work very closely with them. We\u2019ll take meetings with them to help them with their marketing. We\u2019ll sit down and walk them through the basics of social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Brown said seeing neighboring shops close has made it harder to draw customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we moved in, there were two or three vacant spots in the mall. And I mean, now there\u2019s at least 12. So, it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gunderson said occupancy is higher than it has been in recent years, even though some spaces remain vacant.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we still have some empty spaces? Absolutely, but not as many as we\u2019ve had in the past. And it\u2019s sometimes just a sign of the times,\u201d Gunderson said.<\/p>\n
Brown said the pressure is shared by many small business owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody here is a little nervous. I mean, it\u2019s, it gets harder, and harder, and it\u2019s harder for everybody. I mean, we\u2019re at a point where most people are having to have those budget conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said watching other businesses close is difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all in the same position. We\u2019re all fighting the same fight.” Brown said. “We\u2019re all trying to engage with our community, and we want to support the people who support us. And to see those people just not be able to fight anymore is heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OVIEDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The traditional role of American shopping malls has shifted dramatically over the past decade as consumers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2031,274,558,766,115,139,141,140,1014,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-154159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-local-business","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-massiel-leyva","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news","16":"tag-seminole-county","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}