Home Body
Oct 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Janssen
There are no fewer than 14 shopping centers in or around Omaha, providing residents with more destinations where they can shop closer to home. Meanwhile, the population has only grown by 1.25 percent annually, Quinlevan says.
“Omahans are reevaluating their spending and shopping patterns and are becoming less likely to drive across the city to shop today, while at the same time they are still willing to shop,” states the report from Grubb & Ellis.
In times when consumers are consolidating their shopping trips, centers with a wide range of retail options may be in the strongest position to draw more traffic. That could be responsible for driving sales growth at General Growth Properties' Westroads Mall in Omaha. The 1.2-million-square-foot mall attempts to cover all the bases with its retail mix and recently added retailers, including Delia's, Forever 21 and Abercrombie & Fitch. A new movie theater is also under construction.
Visitors do in fact use Westroads as “a one-stop shop,” says Jim Sadler, senior general manager.
The increasingly gas-conscious shoppers who visit Omaha's Village Pointe Shopping Center come with an objective in mind, says Kim Jones, marketing director at the property owned by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Red Development. The center has seen a slight increase in traffic within recent months, and shoppers more often leave stores with purchases. “While people are being more prudent in their gas expenditures, it hasn't affected shopping too much. They're not there to window shop,” says Jones. “They want to spend.”
However, a June 2008 study by Columbus, Ohio-based TNS Retail Forward, a consulting and market research firm, indicates that the drop in driving is taking some toll on shopping patterns, even if they're not cutting back on spending. The study of 4,000 members of an ongoing tracking survey found that 68 percent of respondents had reduced driving in response to gas prices. Of them, 75 percent were planning errands to minimize driving and conserve fuel. And, 58 percent sought to fulfill all their shopping at one stop whenever possible — which could explain why power centers saw a 4 percent increase in traffic from June 2007 to June 2008, according to TNS. In addition, 55 percent of respondents said they were staying closer to home or work when running errands, and 47 percent were leaving home less often. One quarter said they were doing more shopping online to save on gas.
Retail executives confirm the study's findings. Consumers are paying more attention to their spending and to how many trips they take, says Gary Stevens, vice president of development for Visconsi Companies Ltd. in Pepper Pike, Ohio, outside of Cleveland. In addition, “they're decreasing what we would call ‘sport shopping,’” Stevens says. “They're sticking with the necessities.”
Fewer trips
Some residents of Kalamazoo, Mich., and the surrounding region drive to Chicago or Detroit for shopping trips, says Tim Timmons, vice president of Meyer C. Weiner Co., a developer in Portage, Mich., south of Kalamazoo. But in a time of high gas prices and other economic pressures, those trips may now appear less practical. “It would seem to be a pretty easy time not to take those trips,” says Timmons.
Jones at Omaha's Village Pointe, however, notes that neither the weak economy nor the high prices at the pump detoured a group of friends who travel approximately 100 miles every October from Sioux City, Iowa, to Omaha's Village Pointe Shopping Center. The women, who usually charter several tour buses, were planning their excursion a month in advance this year.
CB Richard Ellis' Omaha office vice president Dennis Hoth says shoppers may be responding to the trend of arranging “staycations” and are cutting down on other vacation travel.
“You can only do your normal routine for so long,” Hoth says. He cites traffic at centers in Omaha and nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa, that appears to be on the rise.
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