The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated a … We don’t know if it’s temporary for six, 12, 18 months or longer, but it is temporary,” Brown said. But in-person, indoor interaction is considered one of the riskiest activities during the pandemic – and thus many of those operations have been shut down for months, with little promise of reopening soon amid an outbreak in states like Texas, Arizona and Florida.“That has unfortunately turned into a massive liability because those are the things that are going to stay closed,” Kuiper said. “This is their time to shine.”Mall owners will need to collaborate closely with tenants and local officials to come up with creative solutions to survive this crisis, in addition rent relief, said Coresight’s Weinswig.
But I don't know that COVID was the cause of the issue to begin with,” Taubman said.But he acknowledged that the pandemic will require malls to adapt their approach, especially because retail leasing is not expected to rebound quickly, even if a vaccine ultimately puts an end to the crisis.“I think we're seeing a higher rate of evolution right now than we have in the past and we're going to have to move,” Taubman said. Malls, retailers struggle to survive coronavirus impact. Malls were a brilliant social idea when they first started. And I think that mall owners are going to have to get creative in order to survive,” CoStar consultant Robin Trantham said.For example, J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and J. And this trend has placed malls in a dangerous position. By using The Balance Small Business, you accept our
Crew had billions of dollars in debt that weighed them down, placing them “The COVID crisis has impacted them in a way that has deteriorated their business plan. Certainly in my neck of the woods, it is a tale of two completely different outcomes: Aspen Grove, the open-air style mall, was never really shut down, as at least its restaurants could be open for curbside. Few are typically located in malls.On the other hand, department stores and apparel retailers, which dominate most malls, have been floundering. I remember the day Walmart earned the number one spot on the Fortune 500 list. It has changed the way we shop, the way we browse, the way we process. Customers today want an experience.
Many malls also have clauses in their leases that allow other, smaller tenants to leave if anchor tenants drop out.“The department store is just a format that does not work anymore,” said Chris Kuiper, a CFRA Research stock analyst who tracks mall companies. “So it’s not a substitute for dining out.”Despite short-term difficulties for tenants like fitness centers, which have been forced to shut down in many states, malls are still likely to move in that direction when this is over if only because of the pressure e-commerce continues to place on physical stores, CoStar’s Trantham said.“While it may take a while for fitness centers and restaurants to expand at the same rate as they were before, we will still believe that they will recover eventually,” Trantham said.In the long run, mall property owners may need to pivot once again, turning toward alternative options for their space, like hotels, apartments, or online product fulfillment centers, analysts say.“Real estate is real estate, so if you’ve got a good piece of land you can turn that into something totally different,” Kuiper said.They also need to invest in new ideas like consolidated areas within the mall where shoppers can pick up products that they bought online from retailers located inside the mall, analysts said.However, many malls can’t make long-term plans right now.
“At some point in time, we will gather in public together to enjoy dining or entertainment or sports or recreation together. And while this looks like the track we are on, it is very hard for a mall store to deliver. By most accounts, suburban malls are going through a slow and painful death. But don't pronounce them dead just yet.
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However, these online retailers are not taking over the empty spaces in the malls just yet. I think it's going to take a hiatus for a while because people don't have the money right now.”The challenges facing department stores, in particular, are especially problematic for malls – and not just because of the foot traffic they’re supposed to deliver. Malls and retailers are fighting to survive amid the coronavirus pandemic as 25,000 stores have already closed in 2020. Malls even provided exercise as many mall walker clubs formed to circle the paths in the mornings before the stores opened. “So they’re really facing no good options at this point.”The key question is whether the experiential model is finished or simply on hold.Philadelphia resident Marta Rusek, 35, considers herself a lifelong mall shopper and before the pandemic was regularly going to the AMC movie theater at her local mall.Now, Rusek, who works as a nonprofit organizer and has a compromised immune system, has no plans to return anytime soon. People visited them for the convenience, but for most families, it was an outing.
Their focus has been filling the empty anchor spaces with movie theaters and restaurants. Malls not only had stores with wares they could purchase but also provided some entertainment as well.