Shopping Trend: Thrift Stores Gain in Popularity

Some shopping centers cater to more upscale customers, others target a mix. Others are finding the sweet spot at the lower end of the shopping barometer, and are finding that thrift stores are becoming popular in some areas. According to The Daily Times of Salisbury, MD, economic conditions have resulted in even “style-savvy shoppers” becoming “increasingly driven toward thrift stores.”

Higher Rents = Improving Economy

If you’re a retailer who’s paying a higher rent you might not like it, but you can thank an improving economy. That’s according to the Stamford Advocate in Connecticut, which reports that larger chains and national retailers are better equipped to afford the higher rents, leading to lower vacancy rates in shopping centers and on small-town main streets as they displace smaller shops. The Advocate report states that “strip malls and neighborhood shopping centers... are starting to see a turnaround, with vacancies dropping some 11 percent year on year for the first time since 2009.” Tom Torelli, managing partner of Allied Property Group in Greenwich, tells Advocate reporter Richard Lee, "When rents go up, it shakes out the marginal retailer."

How Retailers Choose Their Sites...Very Carefully

It isn’t just a roll of the dice or a flip of a coin – not even if it’s best two out of three. Retailers very carefully and methodically decide when and where to open a new shopping center or store. In a new report prepared for Expansion Solutions magazine, Shawn Massey of The Shopping Center Group, a commercial real estate consulting company, has a lengthy list of items that communities should consider when they are looking to lure retailers to their areas. Massey warns communities to do their research into specific retailers, consult nearby communities to prevent unnecessary overlap, and make sure to be armed with all the information the retailer could want to know about the community they are being lured to.