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Pittsburgh, PA 15222
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Happy Holidays from Pittsburgh Fashion Alert
Pittsburgh Fashion Alert
wishes all of our fellow fashionistas their best holiday ever! Our promise is that we will give everything we have to continue to lead and build the fashion community in 2020 and the next decade.
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Here's How Malls Are Finding New Tenants
Many retailers that populated the nation's malls have run into severe financial stress or gone out of business in recent years.
But the shopping mall isn't dead yet, as mall owners find creative ways to fill those vacancies. The giant spaces that once housed a single anchor tenant are being reconfigured to attract multiple smaller shops. Empty stores are being filled with new kinds of tenants--hospital offices, pop-up shops for digital brands and even sports centers.
"Every large retail owner is being faced with anchor closures," said Kurt Ivey, vice president of marketing for mall owner Macerich (
MAC). But he added that companies with A-list malls in top markets should have no problem finding new tenants.
Ivey said his company has numerous malls where what was once a giant anchor store is now divided among numerous tenants.
A former Sears in Macerich's Kings Plaza mall in Brooklyn is now filled with four different retailers: fast fashion chains Primark and Zara, a JCPenney (
JCP) and Burlington Stores (
BURL).
And what was once a Barney's in Scottsdale, Arizona is home to a co-working location from Industrious -- a competitor to struggling WeWork -- and an Apple Store.
More than 56,000 square feet in a shuttered Sears in the Wilton Mall in upstate New York will soon be home to the information technology division and other office support staff of Saratoga Hospital. The move frees up space at the hospital to offer more in-patient health care services.
"It's all about reusing space and finding the proper mix," Ivey said.
The mall is the new rec center
An executive at mall owner Washington Prime Group (
WPG) was exceptionally blunt in a recent earnings release, using a choice word to refer to such bankrupt retailers as Bon-Ton Stores, Sears, Toys R Us, Charlotte Russe, Gymboree, and Payless ShoeSource.
"While I am absolutely not defending these ne'er do wells or any of their crappy counterparts," said Washington Prime's CEO Louis Conforti, "there exists a disproportionate amount of negativity with respect to our sector as compared to other industries."
He noted that recreational sports center company Fieldhouse USA will take over as an anchor at Sears locations that Washington Prime Group owns in malls in Columbus, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado.
Experiences are proving to be just as important as hunting for bargains.
That's why Macerich and PREIT (
PEI), another real estate firm, opened a City Winery as a key tenant in their jointly-owned Fashion District Philadelphia, a new mall that replaced the former Gallery shopping center in the heart of the city. The venue also hosts live music events.
Consumers increasingly want to do more than shop when they head to the mall, added Randy Ruttenberg, founder and principal of Fairmount Properties. The company has more than 20 mixed-use shopping centers across the United States.
"With any projects we've developed, it's about how we get people to gather. It's not just about commerce," Ruttenberg said. "An equal amount of effort is need to make sure a project stays relevant and fresh."
Niche stores are the new black
The company's newest development, Pinecrest in Cleveland suburb Orange Village, is a good example. Ruttenberg said that Pinecrest, which opened last year, is home to such trendy retailers as eyeglass seller Warby Parker, custom suit maker Indochino as well as bowling and bocce venue Pinstripes.
"Our primary role as a developer is to drive traffic and make sure stores are productive enough so there is carryover traffic," Ruttenberg told CNN Business. "It's never easy when a tenant files for bankruptcy, but if a retailer is underperforming for any reason, it provides us the opportunity to bring in more relevant stores."
Shopping centers are also increasingly targeting digital brands. Macerich's Ivey said that the company even has a program called BrandBox that works with e-commerce companies to help them set up physical pop-up shops.
Macerich's Tyson's Corner Center in Virginia is home to stores from online retailers such as mattress company Nectar, braces and teeth aligner seller Candid and Gilly Hicks, the lingerie brand that has been resurrected by its owner Abercrombie & Fitch (
ANF).
It just goes to show that malls in 2019 can no longer survive on the single, giant retailer that has something for everybody.
"As consumer preferences change, we have to give people more reasons to visit and keep shopping," Ivey said.
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Vegan and Vegetarian Orders Balloon in 2019
Year-end trend lists from third-party delivery company Grubhub and online review platform Yelp indicate vegan and vegetarian options continue to grow in popularity.
Both companies on Wednesday released lists of culinary trends noted in 2019.
Chicago-based Grubhub's "Year in Food" report, which analyzed "tens of millions of orders placed by more than 21 million diners on its platform," found cauliflower pizza claimed the top spot, rising 650% in popularity throughout the year.
In 2018, cauliflower dishes had claimed the No. 7 and No. 10 spots in the Grubhub data. And vegan- and vegetarian-focused dishes claimed seven of the Top 10 spots, compared to three in 2018. Vegan orders rose 27% in popularity overall in 2019 as compared to 2018.
The remainder of the Top 10 ordering trends and the percentage increases included:
- Spicy brussels sprouts: 622%
- Portobello empanada: 601%
- Black bean & sweet potato taco: 513%
- Miso pork ramen: 413%
- Chicken burger: 318%
- Bone broth: 298%
- Brown sugar milk [bubble] tea: 281%
- Vegan pad thai: 280%
- Impossible burger: 203%
Meanwhile, Yelp, the San Francisco-based review platform, issued its first trends forecast.
Yelp also found increased popularity for cauliflower, calling it a "healthy-swap comfort food."
"If 2019 was the year of zucchini noodles, 2020 is the year of cauliflower," Yelp said on its blog. "People are increasingly searching for healthy-swaps for their favorite comfort foods - cauliflower mashed potatoes and cauliflower pizza are just two of the creative dishes we're seeing added to menus and searches."
Yelp created its list by reviewing data to find a list of words and phrases that were rising the fastest and most significantly between 2018 and 2019. Using three years of data mentions, the company forecast what trends were on the upswing.
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Cyber Monday Breaks All Records at $9.4 Billion
A late-night spending spree gave a big boost to Cyber Monday sales.
Based on data from Adobe Analytics, a record $9.4 billion was spent online by the end of Cyber Monday, an increase of 19.7% over last year, making it the largest online shopping day of all time in the U.S. and easily beating last year's record of $7.9 billion. Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET, consumers spent $2.9 billion online, which was nearly a third of the day's total revenue.
The day's tally also reflected the growing strength of mobile commerce: Mobile transactions on Cyber Monday hit $3.1 billion, representing the highest ever year-over-year dollar growth for this channel.
To date, a record $81.5 billion has been spent online so far this holiday season (11/1 - 12/2), compared to $71.5 billion spent during the same time period last year, according to Adobe. The company is forecasting that online sales for the entire holiday season will hit $143.8 billion.
"Cyber Monday sales surged late last night as consumers established new records both in overall purchases and purchases made via smartphones," said
Taylor Schreiner, principal analyst and head of Adobe Digital Insights. "A strong 14.0% growth through the holiday season so far has put to rest any concerns of a retail-led recession this quarter as well as more recent concerns that winter storms might dampen online sales. The coming days will reveal if retailers will extend their holiday sales more than years past due to the shortest possible remaining shopping season till Christmas."
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*Photography and media sourced from 3rd party sites in no way implies support or affiliation with the Downtown Community Development Corp., or any partners.
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