Once thought to herald the demise of brick and mortar stores, online shopping is proving to be a critical element in the revival of the in-person retail shopping experience. The advent of online shopping forced a substantial...more
Holiday Crowds – Black Friday Deals - Holiday shopping has begun! Consumers strategically making their lists and hitting the malls a month ahead of time are hopeful to avoid an expected shortfall of gift options. ...more
Though there has been consistently high occupancy and superior rate growth in the industrial market over the past several years, the deep economic recession has caused sentiment expressed in our latest Allen Matkins/UCLA...more
Although online shopping is extremely convenient, many consumers still want to touch and test out products before they purchase them. Since 2015, Amazon, with its first brick and mortar Amazon Books store, has made its way...more
Pop-up shops have become an increasingly popular way for both new and existing retailers to introduce a business or to test a new product, service or location. The original pop-ups were seasonal, such as Halloween and...more
While increased occurrences of retail store closures and predictions about the death of the shopping mall are causing mall owners to consider downsizing or repurposing their space away from consumer-facing retail and toward...more
It may have been unthinkable ten to fifteen years ago, but the shift in consumer shopping patterns from brick-and-mortar stores to online platforms has resulted in the emergence of retail-to-industrial conversions over the...more
It’s no secret that consumers have been shifting away from shopping at traditional brick-and-mortar stores in favor of shopping online. Nor that the shift in consumers’ shopping habits has resulted in a wave of store...more
The 48th annual US Shopping Center Law Conference was held last week from October 24-27 at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes in Orlando Florida. The conference saw a near-record number of attendees, where almost 1500...more
The question of whether aging commercial properties can find new life and cash flow is one that has haunted the industry since the Great Recession began and continued through 2017 when the “wall of maturities” was expected to...more
The retail industry has faced significant challenges this year. In 2017, more than 5,000 retail stores closed their doors, many of them portfolio-wide closures by well-known department-store chains who were synonymous with...more
Declining sales by large brick-and-mortar stores are a harbinger of the challenges facing shopping center owners. The continued popularity of e-commerce shopping creates additional pressure on the retail business model. As...more
In addition to gigantic warehouses that e-commerce companies are constructing away from population centers where real estate is limited or too pricey, shopping malls and former shopping mall sites are well poised to be the...more
In the recent proliferation of pessimistic articles about the demise of brick-and-mortar shopping and the looming retail “meltdown” or “apocalypse,” many writers have emphasized those economic forces that support their...more
For over a decade On the Skware Toy Soldiers and its owners, Boo & Woo, the Skware brothers, have enjoyed the shopping traffic brought to their retail store that’s located in the same shopping center as Athletics Authoritiez,...more
The 2016 ICSC Law Conference was held last week at the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Attendance was very strong this year, with over 1425 lawyers, paralegals, lease administrators, brokers and other retail real...more
Pop-up stores or “flash retail” have graduated from passing trend to popular practice. Historically utilized for the sale of seasonal products (think temporary stores that only sell Halloween costumes), the pop-up has evolved...more
If you believe the hype, it is only a matter of time before brick and mortar retail succumbs to its online competitors. Recent decisions made by several stalwart retailers appear to support this theory: Macy’s recently...more
In late June, members of the local and national retail community convened at Goulston & Storrs’ Boston office to participate in an interactive panel discussion billed as RETAIL 2020: Future Ready. Panelists included Ben...more
Spending a weekend or a Black Friday waiting in long checkout lines can drive many consumers to make their purchases with online retailers, which offer convenient and fast shopping. As competition with online retailers...more