SEATTLE – Apple doesn’t refer to its locations as stores anymore—the tech company calls them “town squares.” Apple envisions its stores as gathering places with classes on music, photography and coding, The Atlantic reports.

Apple isn’t the only retailer reimagining the store as something different. Nordstrom announced earlier this week that it would be launching Nordstrom Local concept in Los Angeles, which will not have clothes but will offer personal stylists, a tailor, spa and a wine-beer-coffee-juice bar.

Retailers are beginning to promote in-store experiences, at least at their flagship locations in large metropolitan areas. “There is no question that people are trying to get away from the use of the word ‘store,’ as well as ‘mall,’” said Leonard Schlesinger, a professor of management at Harvard Business School. “They are increasingly perceived as remnants of a retail world which is increasingly under siege.”

What’s interesting is that this talk of experience and gathering places harkens back to the not-so-distant past of American shopping. “Apple might be interested to know that the first post-WWII malls often used similar rhetoric about public squares,” said Tracey Deutsch, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. “Victor Gruen, who designed Southdale (the first indoor mall) and who really created the look for many of these shopping centers, saw himself as creating a new public space. That's surprising in retrospect, but not if you understand retail the way he did—as a key site for public encounters.”