Retail Runway @ ICSC

Retail Runway @ ICSC
Spent an interesting couple of hours today at Retail Runway here at ICSC. Eight retailers (Auto Zone, Pinkberry, Dollar General, Dunkin Brands, Wal-Mart, Collective Brands, Panera, Darden Group) presented their "for consumption" strategies and plans to grow their store counts and businesses. For the most part - this was not what was interesting.
What was interesting was listening to what they - in general - didn't say. They didn't say they were concentrating on growth outside the US because they are overstored here. They didn't say that they were growing stores and cutting staff to reduce costs and improve margin.
Another very interesting dynamic was how Dana Telsey, retail analyst, was much more impressive than her co-host Jeff Newman(Esq). Especially in the last 5 minutes when Dana showed an impressive command of data points off the top of her head when Jeff freelanced questions.
Kate Anketill, GDR Creative Intelligence Ltd, presented a number of cutting edge retail concepts that included social websites such as YouTube and MySpace whom she suggested were seriously considering what she termed 3D stores to monitize their concepts. Free sites have a revenue problem it seems.
All things considered, you'd be smart to pay attention to Dana and Kate.

If It's ICSC Next Week - Will Anyone Hear?

If It's ICSC Next Week - Will Anyone Hear?
Yeah - it's a play off the tired old axiom but it's still appropriate. Next week is the big shopping center and commercial real estate conference in Las Vegas. Normally a huge deal for the developers who reel in national and regional retailers for new centers, new space, new stores. This year it's likely to be WAY down in attendance and even farther behind in deals. We've spent some time recently working with brokers and developers trying to find retailers for new projects, existing space, you name it. There is little happening.
Today's LA Times.com has a storyabout banks teetering on the edge due to commercial loans. The numbers are staggering. If we really are hitting bottom and starting back up this part of the business climate has to gain strength. If developers and by default banks start to fail because of commercial loans then we have hit only a plateau - and the bottom is still somewhere lower.
There are retailers out there expanding and several are looking to buy their dirt rather than lease it. Companies like In-N-Out have cash and strong sales and are now looking at markets that previously there were no vacancies. There are plenty now.

So - Who's Doing Well?

So - Who's Doing Well?
Retailers that sell stuff to repair, replace and rebuild are seeing strong business in this new economy. Take a look inside the numbers even at Home Depot and you'd see these categories doing well. How about repair services? Yep - they are blowing LY numbers out. I think you will see companies like Sears, Best Buy and others step up their marketing and sales efforts in these areas. Look for how and who they partner with to have big returns. And let's not forget - these are service categories with high margins in many cases.