The road to the inevitable digital lifestyle is a rocky one. Retailers are rightfully fearing for their lives while sellers are stuck in the middle between retailers wanting exclusives and online shoppers demanding more access to content. The most interesting battle in this arena is actually happening with comic books. Publishers are finding rapidly growing success with digital books on tablets and smartphones, but the customer base isn’t yet big enough to support the publishers so they still have to appease brick and mortar retail.

This battle was lost years ago by music publishers. Record labels fought hard, but the truly dynamic and reigning method for acquiring music now is via iTunes, the Amazon Mp3 store, and streaming options. That’s not to say CDs don’t still sell because they do, but that business has lost its attractiveness and feels like a necessity now to make sure music is available to those that haven’t quiet jumped online yet. The statistics may still show a majority of sales happening in “classic” CD format, but it’s a given that the nail is in that coffin.

The same fight is now finally starting with film and TV. It’s a much slower fight due to the limitations of technology. The file sizes for high quality film and television are quite large making it difficult to download these items as easily as grabbing a song or even an entire album of music from Amazon or iTunes. The studios of course would still rather you by physical media anyway. For those that are still fans of the old disc format the trouble now is shopping for that Blu-ray or DVD. Im many places you may only have Best Buy and Wal-Mart to choose from. Mail ordering online, especially if you have Amazon Prime, is the most obvious option. You can shop and browse at home on the sofa and the item will be delivered in one or two days.

Well, now 20th Century Fox and Taubman Malls have partnered for the next 12 months to try and get us off our butts and back into malls. The premise is that in select malls around the country there will be movie walls showing off the latest 20th Century Fox properties. If you see something you like, then you can just scan the QR code with a special free 20th Century Fox app on your smartphone and the item will immediately be dropped in the mail for you. These areas are called Fox Movie Mall Virtual Storefronts. Buying a film or television show in this way will also open up access to exclusive games, clips, and trailers on the app as well.

Along with the “wallscapes” there will be state of the art home entertainment lounges centrally located in the malls featuring family friendly 20th Century Fox releases on HDTV’s including the upcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked coming to DVD and Blu-Ray.

Malls that will be receiving this special shot of 20th Century Fox include Beverly Center, Los Angeles, CA; Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Denver, Colo; Dolphin Mall, Miami, Fla; Fairlane Town Center, Dearborn, Mich.; Fair Oaks Mall, Fairfax, Va.; Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, Mich.; International Plaza and Bay Street, Tampa, Fla.; MacArthur Center, Norfolk, Va.; The Mall at Green Hills, Nashville, Tenn.; The Mall at Short Hills, Short Hills, N.J.; The Mall at Wellington Green, Wellington, Fla.; Northlake Mall, Charlotte, N.C.; Stamford Town Center, Stamford, Conn.; Sunvalley Shopping Center, Concord, Calif.; Twelve Oaks Mall, Novi, Mich.; Westfarms Mall, Farmington, Conn.; The Shops at Willow Bend, Plano, Texas and Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, Ill.

These storefronts don’t feel like they are meant to draw consumers to the mall as much as they are meant to be sort of spur of the moment purchasing, kind of like buying that pack of gum or magazine at the checkout line at the grocery store. Let’s say you are at the mall for some other reason and you notice the “wallscape” and something looks cool, so you just click and buy it while you’re standing there. Will it work? This seems like just another odd gimmick to try and comfort retailers while still offering the convenience of mail order to consumers.

Will you buy form the Virtual Storefront?