’’Honestly, it’s for no other reason than to acknowledge tradition,’’ said Jennifer Kearney, the mall’s general manager. ’’Many of our shoppers who have grown up here and shopped here have always referred to us as the Natick Mall.’’
It had been called the Natick Mall since opening in 1966. But when it was renovated and expanded several years ago, becoming one of the first suburban Massachusetts malls to attract so many luxury stores, the corporate owners wanted a distinguished new name to match. First they decided to call it simply Natick.
That annoyed local officials, who spent their days running the place that had previously been the only Natick in town. So General Growth retreated, and the retail complex became the Natick Mall again for about a month. But in February 2007, General Growth announced it had decided on the mall’s new, new name: the Natick Collection. And it stuck, if sometimes mocked, for four years.
Until this spring. The change will be gradual, Kearney said. The rectangular orange sign on Route 9 sill announces the Natick Collection, and retailers still use the name as their address. The website www.natickcollection.com still works, though it quickly sends users to www.natickmall.com, where the new — old — name prevails once again.
’’It’s been kind of quiet,’’ Kearney said. ’’We weren’t going to make a huge announcement about it.’’
She said the name change had nothing to do with the state of the economy, which crashed the year after the mall opened. Many of the luxury condos attached to the mall were later sold at auction.
But Jason Damas, a search engine marketing executive in San Francisco, was dubious that the name change was unrelated to the economic meltdown. Damas, a Rhode Island native who lived in Boston for eight years, also thinks the name might have backfired in a region that adheres to what he calls the ’’religion of bargains'’ — something he doesn’t see on the West Coast.
’’It makes sense that something as simple as a name would really resonate,’’ he said. ’’You don’t necessarily need to change the stores. Just change the image. That Yankee practicality is alive and well.’’
