RECon expo sends message that shopping centers may not be dying after all
The reports of retail’s death — to borrow from Mark Twain — are greatly exaggerated.
Real estate professionals gathered in Las Vegas this week agreed that while failed business models like the department store will die, shopping centers will remain valuable.
“The mall continues to be a central gathering place for most of the community,” said Sharon Loeff of the Shopworks specialty retail consultancy, based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
This was the central message at this year’s RECon expo, which ended Wednesday and drew 37,000 to the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate.
Apparel, cosmetics and houseware continue to dominate the U.S. retail sector, said Nick Egelanian, president of SiteWorks Retail consulting firm of Annapolis, Maryland.
The narrative about the death of department stores has been focused on online’s sapping of sales. But the packaging of goods bought online and shipping them to customers is much more expensive than delivering goods to a shopping center, Egelanian said.
This will always keep online companies interested in brick-and-mortar unless they deal in a product where a physical copy is unnecessary, like music, he said.
For confirmation on Egelanian’s words, look to Aaron Sanandres.
The CEO of online shirt seller Untuckit said the company opened about 20 brick-and-mortar stores last year — including one at the Fashion Show shopping center on the Las Vegas Strip.
Untuckit has plans for another 22 stores before 2019.
While building a store is expensive, a brick-and-mortar store markets the company to new customers, generates new sales and even drives customers to the website, Sanandres said.
Plus, the costs of distributing shirts is reduced to pennies with a physical store, he said.
Contact Wade Tyler Millward at (702) 383-4602 or wmillward @reviewjournal.com. Follow @wademillward on Twitter
