Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 10)

CONSIDER THIS / PRESIDENT’S PAGE Urban Renaissance BY TRACY MULLIN The Voice of Retail Worldwide STORES is published by NRF Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of National Retail Federation Inc., 325 7th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004. (202) 783-7971 FAX (202) 737-2849 hen NRF moved into its downtown Washington, D.C., offices 15 years ago, there wasn’t much nearby except for a subway station and a friendly bartender across the street. In the last few years, the area has been through a transformation so profound that I often can’t believe I’m working in the same place. This same scenario is playing out in dozens of cities across the country. According to the 2007 NRF Retail Real Estate study, conducted by AMR Research, the number of retail stores in urban locations will increase by nearly 30 percent this year. As prime real estate locations dwindle in suburban and rural areas, many retailers have begun looking to expand with new locations in urban markets — for good reason. According to the Institute for a Competitive Inner City, residents in the top 100 inner cities spend $120 billion per year on retail goods, but one-third of that spending happens outside of the city. In other words, there are a lot of people who live and work in downtown areas across the country with all kinds of money to spend and not enough places to spend it. Not a bad opportunity for a retailer. I can think of no better example of a smart urban store than The Home Depot in downtown Manhattan. Just by checking out the window displays, you quickly realize that the store was not created for the contractor undertaking a massive project or the suburban dad trying to best the neighbors with his immaculatelykept lawn. It focuses on projects for smaller spaces by highlighting corner shelving units, small potted plants and cheery, compact appliances. Plus, they provide same-day delivery. Two other retailers that jumped on the urban bandwagon early were Bloomingdale’s, which opened its smaller, hip Soho store a couple of years ago to rave reviews, and Neiman Marcus, which is testing its trendy new Cusp store in a handful of locations, including Washington’s Georgetown area. In the past few months, myriad retailers have announced a move downtown. Tiffany publicized plans to open smaller stores, called Tiffany & Co. Collections, starting next year. Fast-casual chain Baja Fresh recently unveiled a 600-sq.ft. prototype designed to save the company on real estate and construction costs while helping deliver faster service to customers. Though some companies might make it look easy, the decision to move downtown is far from simple. While it’s true that smaller stores give retailers more site choices, companies must re-evaluate just about everything to ensure that urban stores are meeting the needs of local residents and workers. In many cases, that means drastically changing the merchandise mix to accommodate smaller spaces — and a different demographic. As the pendulum swings back to a resurgence in downtown retail, companies are finding tremendous success in renewed urban areas all across the country, including right near our office. Fortunately for many of us, that friendly bartender is still around, too. W CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD M. Farooq Kathwari, Chairman, President and CEO, Ethan Allen Inc., Danbury, CT VICE CHAIRMEN Paul R. Charron, Chairman Emeritus Liz Claiborne, Inc., New York, NY Myron E. Ullman III, Chairman and CEO, J.C. Penney Co., Plano, TX PRESIDENT & CEO Tracy Mullin SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS Mallory B. Duncan, General Counsel David Hogan, CIO Karen Theibert Knobloch, Member Services Carleen C. Kohut, Finance & CFO Steven J. Pfister, Government Relations NRF Divisions Association for Retail Technology Standards EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Richard E. Mader (202) 626-8140 National Council of Chain Restaurants PRESIDENT John R. (Jack) Whipple (202) 626-8183 FAX: (202) 626-8185 Retail Advertising & Marketing Association EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Mike Gatti (202) 626-8117 FAX: (202) 737-2849 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Scott Silverman (202) 626-8192 FAX: (202) 626-8191 325 7th Street, NW Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20004 All articles published in this magazine represent solely the individual opinions of the writers, and not necessarily those of the National Retail Federation. 10 STORES / DECEMBER 2007 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.