please please helpand Why would a mall charge speciality stores a variable rent that depends on sales revenue.--Answer1:Supply and demand. Theres not much demand for large department store spaces in any given mall, yet the smaller specialty stores are hot items. The mall itself is going to squeeze every penny they can out of those places, and if a store cant make the payments, theyll happily replace it with another, more profitable store..--Answer2:Malls need to attract at least a couple of "anchor tenants" -- well known names that will take a lot of space for a long time, and are sufficiently solid financially to be reliable, and will attract traffic for all of its stores, food court and services. Anchor tenants are money-spinners and traffic-generators. Smaller tenants pay more per square foot because they take small spaces. They are more risky financially. Theres more turnover, therefore more costs to replace one which leaves.Variable rent based on sales helps keep mall space per sq ft more competitive with strip-malls and other retail spaces. It also offers "incentive compensation" for the mall to do a good job advertising, promoting, and generating more traffic flows for their tenants..--Answer3:1) Department stores are much larger than specialty stores. They can command lower rent because of economies of scale and they can "attract" other tenants to a shopping mall. 2) Specialty stores pay higher rent because they are more likely to go out of business. The higher rent is a form of "risk premium" they pay to make up for the times a storefront is empty with no lease-paying tenent.3) A department store may actually own the real estate occupied by a specialty retailer. The higher rent paid by the specialty store is additional revenue for the department store in exchange for being an "anchor tenant" in the mall..--Answer4:It is usually a "benefit" for a specialty store to be located near a larger retail store to drive traffic. In essence, they are helping the specialty stores stay in business by being in the mall. Some smaller store leases will have a clause that will allow them to leave or have reduced rent if the larger retailers move or go out of business.