Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – It’s a rumor that began as an offhand comment from one retail developer to another. But it took on a life of its own from there. The possibility of Nordstrom, the Seattle-based, high-end department store chain, coming to Sarasota County was too good to keep quiet for too long. But […]
Jeff Green Partners
Canned Ham Vintage hopes to fill Sarasota niche
Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – Ashley Rogers’ face lit up as she watched a young girl, maybe 10 years old, fawn over a pair of vintage ladies gloves she was selling at an indie craft fair in St. Petersburg. Rogers, the owner of Canned Ham Vintage in Sarasota’s Rosemary District, used to be that little […]
Retail Rap: You Win Some, You Lose Some
Overall holiday shopping season sales numbers have been rolling in, and the news confirms what many retail real estate analysts (including myself) suspected: 2014 holiday sales were strong. Nothing earth-shattering — but plenty good enough to chalk this one up as a win. As we chat about in this installment of Retail Rap, there were some bright and not-so-bright spots (December sales were weaker than expected, for example, and numbers didn’t hit some of the more optimistic overall projections), but the takeaway is that we did see the anticipated increase that the industry was looking for. The aggregate figures are generally all up above 3.5% for the period, and several reports came in closer to 4%. The National Retail Federation announced that sales were up 4% to a total of $616.1 billion — a figure which represents the biggest year over year increase since 2011.
The interesting story here is less about the headline number and more about what we see when we peel back the layers of the onion: the category- and brand-specific dynamics that tell us who were the holiday winners and who were the holiday losers in a few select areas including teen fashion and a mixture of popular department stores.
Join me in this edition of Retail Rap and as always, I’d love to hear what you have to say.
About 70 percent of the world’s chains are adding stores this year, offering a big endorsement of physical retail.
Steve McLinden / Shopping Centers Today – Not only are this year’s expanding retailers scrambling to keep pace with the fastest-changing industry landscape in history, they are also squaring off against increasing numbers of global competitors. Absent from most of today’s business models are any expansion-by-saturation strategies and the old cookie-cutter store formats; in their place are microdemographic site selection, creative use of smaller spaces and multichannel digital presentations.
Armed with these new approaches and working from a relatively robust 2014, retailers and restaurateurs are projecting their expansion visions and initiatives worldwide, observers say. “The world of retail is changing quite dramatically,” said Michael Hirschfeld, senior vice president of national retail tenant services at third-party mall management firm JLL. Improvements in distribution channels and web offerings are giving tenants broader geographic and branding opportunities, he says. “Some of our smaller, emerging clients may go into the U.S. West Coast with their first stores, but may choose London for their second, and Tokyo for their third.”
Florida icon Bealls is turning 100
Justine Griffin / Sarasota Herald – Tribune – BRADENTON, Fla. One hundred years ago, a man named Robert M. Beall opened a little establishment on Old Main Street in downtown “Bradentown.”
That small general store, which debuted in April 1915, would be the first of hundreds to open across the country under the name of that young entrepreneur.
Bealls, a retail company known for selling apparel and home goods in department and outlet stores in Florida and across the country, is celebrating its 100th year in business this year.
Staying in business for a century — and continuing to grow — has been no small feat. But the Bradenton-based retailer has managed to reinvent itself through the years without sacrificing its core image.
“Bealls really has an understanding of the marketplace and a good idea of what the consumer wants,” said Rick McAllister, CEO of the trade group the Florida Retail Federation, in which Bealls has been an active member since the 1950s. “They listen to their customers and know what Floridians are interested in, which has served them well over the years.”
If Kroger coming to Florida?
Justine Griffin / Herald-Tribune – Word on the street is that Midwest grocer chain Kroger Co. may be making its way into Florida soon.
The Cincinnati-based chain has been growing rapidly over the years, including a 2013 acquisition of another chain, Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc., and executives said this week that the company has a vested interest in expanding into a new market, though they weren’t specific about which.
One version of the theory has Kroger buying Bi-Lo/Winn-Dixie, the grocery chains held by Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers LLC since September 2013.
Florida makes sense for a Kroger expansion in a lot of ways, according to some retail analysts.
In 2014, the Sunshine State surpassed New York as the third-largest state by population. Florida is a top tourism destination, too, for part-time residents who are loyal to the chains they know from the Midwest, Northeast and elsewhere. Florida also is home to educated and savvy consumers who cross-shop now more than ever, said Jeff Green, retail analyst who’s familiar with the Southwest Florida market.
