Just imagine: you go to buy a suit, then walk twenty paces and are at your local grocer, able to buy food for supper. You don’t need to go to your local butcher or fishmonger because they’re both in there, and the locksmiths and dry cleaners can be reached in less than five minutes’ walking. You can even pick up some cat food.
After all that, you’re even able to sit down to tea, right there, almost without moving!
You don’t have to imagine very hard, do you? Because malls are part of our everyday lives, yet this kind of convenience was a pipe dream less than a hundred years ago.
1922 was the first time a single building sought to mimic a shopping district, with enclosed space for cars – unsurprisingly, in America. Then 1928 saw Grandview Avenue Shopping Center in Ohio open, which included a never-before-seen 30 shops in one centre. But 1931 was the year of the first building that was recognisably one of the ‘malls’ we know today, with shops in Dallas’ revolutionary Highland Park Shopping Centre accessed internally instead of off the street. At the time, it caused a total sensation – convenience like never before, but only available to the very few, living in Dallas and affluent enough to have cars.
The financial services market today is a bit like how people in the early 1930’s were still trekking from the post office to the fishmonger to the baker and then tailor (often still with horses) without knowing that there was a far more convenient solution. They select, or their employer selects, a retirement annuity for them. Every six months or so, they need to go and check that annuity, if they even remember to do so, but then must go to an entirely different place to review how their Satrix shares are doing, often with some rigmarole. They scratch their heads, trying to remember what each were worth the last time they checked. What do the current figures actually mean in today’s market? Do they have enough in their RA so that, if all stays completely the same, they’ll be able to retire comfortably? Who knows? What if they’ve bought a property they believe to be an investment? What is that worth right now, today? Who knows?
Luckily, someone knows, and that is the ‘shopping mall’ of financial services that most people overlook. At WellsFaber we have hand-selected the best options, from boutique to franchise level; giving you the convenience to choose for yourself, but keeping it all under one roof.
As independent financial advisors, we can correlate all of your assets and financial endeavours, worries and musings into a single feedback that takes as long as it takes to have coffee with a friend, or less. And we can provide meaningful insights into how you’re doing, based on your personal goals.
Also, there are myriad different financial products to ‘shop’ from nowadays, from insurance offerings to investment solutions. Our team essentially acts like ‘personal shoppers’ – meaning that you don’t always have to keep your eye out for better deals, or risky trading.
How’s that for a mall full of confidence?
The drawback with malls, of course, is the relationship and the quality can often be considerably less personal. Where people got amazing cuts of meat from their local butcher once, we’ve now replaced that quality and symbiosis with an instant, freeze-dried culture of convenience. Sure, you can buy a dress at the mall – that looks just like a thousand other people’s. But how good is the quality?
In Paris the law prohibits more than a certain number of shopping malls, but there are marketplaces or ‘marchés’ on just about every street. There, the residents still go to the same provider they’ve had for decades. He or she will ask thoughtful questions (what do they want the jambon for? A specific occasion on a specific day?) and will pick out by hand the exact selection that will be perfectly ‘ripe’ on the exact day needed.
With our team, you’re able to enjoy this level of financial advice and combine it with the convenience of an ‘all under one roof’ mall. At WellsFaber we advise, you thrive.