Thursday, October 29th, 2009
It seems like everywhere you look, retailers are closing shop and filing bankruptcies, and empty storefronts are lining the streets. Last year we saw the closing of retail giants, Circuit City and Linens N’ Things, and luxury retailers such as Versace also closed stores around the world. So why is it that Legoland Discovery Center, an attraction centered on the LEGO building blocks, is opening stores in Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta?
I believe Legoland sees an opportunity in the recession because consumers are looking for free or affordable cost entertainment in their malls. This trend also corresponds to a consumer who expects their news to be free on the web. Consequently, we see malls across the globe add entertainment and amusement venues to draw consumers who have relegated shopping to obligatory time, which is something close to work. These consumers are bored with the same stores in every mall and with higher gas prices, lost home values and depressed 401K accounts they do not have the funds for a shopping spree.
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Tags: bahrain, Disney Store, Dubai, entertainment, lego, Legoland, mall of emirates, malls, shopping center, shopping mall, ski dubai, wahoo water park
Posted in Culture, Real Estate, Retail, Shopping Centers | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Reprinted from Star-Telegraph
A $12 million Legoland Discovery Centre, an attraction centered on the popular children’s building blocks, will be coming to Grapevine Mills mall, the city said Tuesday.
The only other U.S. Legoland Discovery Centre opened last year outside Chicago. Legoland Discovery Centre and the Legoland theme park in California are developments of U.K.-based Merlin Entertainment Group, reportedly the world’s second-biggest operator of visitor attractions.
The Grapevine City Council and the board of the Tax Increment Financing District No. 1, which was established several years ago for the mall, approved a two-phase, $1 million incentive package for the project. Merlin Entertainment will receive $500,000 when it completes the facility and $500,000 when it completes an accompanying 10,000-square-foot miniature golf facility made from Legos. (more…)
Tags: amusement, Dallas, entertainment, Grapevine, lego, Legoland, shopping mall
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Reprinted from The New York Times
The Walt Disney Company, with the help of Steven P. Jobs and his retailing team at Apple, intends to drastically overhaul its approach to the shopping mall.
At a time when many retailers are still cutting back or approaching strategic shifts with extreme caution, Disney is going the other way, getting more aggressive and putting into motion an expensive and ambitious floor-to-ceiling reboot of its 340 stores in the United States and Europe — as well as opening new ones, including a potential flagship in Times Square.
Disney Stores, which the media giant is considering rebranding Imagination Park, will become more akin to cozy entertainment hubs. The chain’s traditional approach of displaying row after row of toys and apparel geared to Disney franchises will be given a high-tech makeover and incorporated into a new array of recreational activities. The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, perhaps bolstering sales as a result. Over the next five years, analysts estimate that Disney will spend about $1 million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology. (more…)
Tags: Apple, branding, Disney, Disney Store, entertainment, malls, redevelopment, shopping, shopping center
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Friday, October 9th, 2009
Lego
Lego has opened its first concept store in Concord Mills, located north of Charlotte, NC. The 4,520 square foot store has been designed to create an interaction between children with on-site master builders. The store has room for birthday parties and classes.
New World
A new world is likely to emerge in which designers rebel against long lead times and where they take their collections directly to the consumer through their own boutiques, trunk shows, and over the web.
Web Sales
Web sales are projected to reach $156 billion in 2009, representing 6% of the total U.S. retail pie
The Web Fashion Consumer
Consumers have come to expect new merchandise more frequently, thanks to the web and fast fashion retailers such as H & M. Many cannot understand why they have to wait 6 months to see the fashions seen on the runways. Buyers at department stores generally base their orders on the past, while fashion editors gravitate to the most photogenic and future looking styles, leaving the consumer stuck in the middle. This results in one facet of the fashion industry looking forward and the other looking backwards. The consequence: a consumer on one hand is told what to buy but on the other, not where to buy it.
In response, a new generation of fashion retailers is emerging on the web where news is freely given and fashion is sold. Net-a-porter with average sales of $820.00 per transaction and customers from 170 countries is one example of this new generation of merchants. The company has successfully merged its web retail site with a fashion news site catering to a new consumer who wants credible news over magazine advertisements and the most up to date fashion now.
Entertainment
Families spent 5.1% more on entertainment in 2008 than in 2009, something that has surprised many economists. As consumers tightened their pocket books and wallets one would expect entertainment to be one of the first categories to see significant decreases. But the 5.1% increase in spending equated to 16.5 billion more dollars spent in the category over 2007.
Household debt
The American family is trying to put money into savings and reduce their overall debt, but they are clearly not faring as well as one might expect in this recession. Household debt now amounts to about 125% of after tax income.
High Net Worth Individuals
Luxury retailers are faced with a significant decline in Americans with a high net worth defined as having $1,000,000 of assets available for investment. In 2008 the assets of these individuals dropped by as much as 22%. The result is a major decrease in sales at retailers such as Neiman Marcus where sales have decreased by over 20% in 2009 over 2008.
Tags: consumer, consumer spending, consumerism, entertainment, fashion, fashion trends, household income, japan, lego, luxury, online sales, online shopping, recession, Retail, versace, web sales
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