Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. Well, Bailey, something weird is
Speaker 1: happening to toy prices. They're actually falling this holiday season.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this story from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News yesterday.
Speaker 2: Did you see this? I saw it, But I'm not
Speaker 2: buying toys. Are you buying toys?
Speaker 1: I'm yeah, yeah, you know, Santa Claus has got to
Speaker 1: go shopping somewhere. Okay, reported yesterday Bloomberg News here reporting
Speaker 1: yesterday that toy makers are actually slashing prices, with toy
Speaker 1: promotions during the holiday season expected to peak at thirty
Speaker 1: five percent. Okay, that's just toys. It's certainly a unique
Speaker 1: retail segment and one that saw a huge shift during
Speaker 1: the pandemic. So what about other types of retail. Well,
Speaker 1: we've got a great guest to talk all things retail
Speaker 1: as we do get through the holiday season. Nicole Larson
Speaker 1: is National Research Manager for Retail Services at Colliers. She's
Speaker 1: on the retail team There managed a portfolio of over
Speaker 1: two billion square feet in the US. They got storefronts, malls,
Speaker 1: grocery stores, restaurants, and more. Nicole joining us this afternoon
Speaker 1: on Zoom from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Nicole, how are you good?
Speaker 3: How are you guys? I'm excited to talk all things retail.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, what are you seeing right now? I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys have incredible real time data that shows who's
Speaker 1: shopping where, who's eating where, and who's spending money where.
Speaker 1: What does the environment look like?
Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, let's start off with the
Speaker 3: holiday shopping season has really been off to a great start.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, consumers are, you know, remaining pretty cautious
Speaker 3: and selective about what they're buying. They're focusing, they're purchasing
Speaker 3: power more on their needs rather than they're once they're
Speaker 3: not buying on impulse, and they're really not splurging on
Speaker 3: products that don't wow them. So we actually saw nearly
Speaker 3: sixty percent of consumers said that they bought less on
Speaker 3: impulse this Black Friday than they did last year. But
Speaker 3: also about forty percent of consumers thought that retailers were
Speaker 3: more generous this year with their discounts than they were
Speaker 3: last year. So that goes to your point of toy prices.
Speaker 2: As well, Nicole, one that has definitely been top of
Speaker 2: mine for me has been this kind of rush of
Speaker 2: buy now, Pay later.
Speaker 1: I thought you're gonna say buying toys.
Speaker 2: I know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know to buy toys.
Speaker 2: I don't have anyone to buy toys for.
Speaker 1: So buy toys for my kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know it'll be a Christmas surprise, a Christmas miracle.
Speaker 2: A Christmas miracle brought to you by Bailey Lipsholtz Nicole. So,
Speaker 2: we saw a firm with a partnership with Walmart to
Speaker 2: drive for their volume. How does buy now, Pay Later
Speaker 2: play into the retail landscape?
Speaker 3: So we actually took a survey. We found one in
Speaker 3: five consumers planned to heavily leverage the buy Now, Pay
Speaker 3: Later program payment plans during the holiday season. I think
Speaker 3: really to spreading out the holiday spend. So you know
Speaker 3: how we actually or Amazon had the deal days Target
Speaker 3: best by Walmart. I think really stretching out their spending
Speaker 3: period has also really helped consumers get them to open
Speaker 3: their wallets. I mean we're already starting to see it
Speaker 3: now with other holidays. If you go into Target, you
Speaker 3: can already start to the Valentine's Day items. So I
Speaker 3: think that's going to be a trend not only just
Speaker 3: with Christmas and Black Friday spend, but you're going to
Speaker 3: see it with other holidays too. In order to get
Speaker 3: those consumers to spend, you know, start selling the products
Speaker 3: a little bit earlier than usual.
Speaker 1: Does that? I mean, Bailey, I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but that Walmart a firm news yesterday that sent news
Speaker 1: of that sent shares of a firm up double digits. That
Speaker 1: really got me thinking, Wait a second, Nicole, is it
Speaker 1: the best thing if consumers are at Walmart paying for
Speaker 1: Walmart purchases over time? Like? What story does that tell
Speaker 1: about the American consumer?
Speaker 3: I mean, one trend we're looking at for twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four is that our consumers are going to be a
Speaker 3: lot more considerate in their perching habits. I definitely don't
Speaker 3: think retail spend is going to increase by very much
Speaker 3: next year. If anything, it's going to remain either the
Speaker 3: same it was this year or maybe a few basis
Speaker 3: points higher. But really there's going to be a big
Speaker 3: stabilization as I mentioned, because consumers are just being a
Speaker 3: little bit more picky. I mean, we have so much
Speaker 3: information out there. If we do want to buy a TV,
Speaker 3: or some sort of appliance. We're not just going to
Speaker 3: one retailer to look and click and automatically buy. We're
Speaker 3: looking at all platforms. We're going in store, We're going
Speaker 3: in line really to do our due diligence on where
Speaker 3: is the best price available.
Speaker 2: Well, Nicole, again, with your portfolio of storefronts and malls,
Speaker 2: how much of this foot track is foot traffic is
Speaker 2: actually delivering sales? Because you mentioned that if I walk
Speaker 2: into a store and see that there's a TV that
Speaker 2: I want, I immediately google it and see what kind
Speaker 2: of price I can get elsewhere that'll probably have free shipping.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so surprisingly, you know, I think the pandemic definitely,
Speaker 3: you know, surged online sales that went up very quickly,
Speaker 3: a lot faster than we probably expected for that to
Speaker 3: come up over the next few years. But despite all
Speaker 3: of this e commerce growth, brick and mortar stores really
Speaker 3: remains the preferred shopping center or the preferred shopping experience
Speaker 3: I should say, by consumers. We work with a lot
Speaker 3: of retailers, and a lot of them have already really
Speaker 3: perfected their online and omni channel strategy, so now they're
Speaker 3: actually looking to really perfect and right size their physical storefront,
Speaker 3: maybe get that store size right, maybe experience with experiment
Speaker 3: with new formats. So that's really going to be one
Speaker 3: big thing you're going to see in the new years,
Speaker 3: a lot of retailers putting their focus back into the
Speaker 3: physical space.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting to hear because it feels like to
Speaker 1: me physical apart from groceries, and even groceries like physical
Speaker 1: physical stores are like a last resort for me. Therefore,
Speaker 1: when I want to try on a pair of shoes
Speaker 1: or try on something but I don't know what, Nicole,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be bothered to leave, you know,
Speaker 1: my house.
Speaker 2: Well, we even buy it. I feel like we buy stuff,
Speaker 2: my fiance buy stuff to try it on, and if she.
Speaker 1: Doesn't send it, send it back, which is just costing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's also bad for the bad.
Speaker 1: For the environment. But I mean, Nicole, how does that
Speaker 1: gel with what you're seeing at Colliers?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean or the foot traffic definitely shows that
Speaker 3: foot traffic is up, and it's really for these desired centers.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're starting to see a lot higher foot
Speaker 3: traffic in strip centers where they're closer to the suburbs.
Speaker 3: Like you mentioned, you don't want to drive far to
Speaker 3: have to return something or to purchase something. So sometimes
Speaker 3: you know, if it is more convenient for you to
Speaker 3: just hop in your car and head onto the nearest
Speaker 3: strip center close by your house, that might be the
Speaker 3: easier alternative to offer a return as opposed to sending
Speaker 3: it in mail, so that will also drive foot traffic
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: I do also think that it has to do with
Speaker 1: the experiences that these retail spaces are increasingly offering. Right
Speaker 1: It's not just you know, it's the stuff that you
Speaker 1: can't do online, and you know, it's like the Lego
Speaker 1: Lands or you know what Mattel's trying to do with
Speaker 1: like Pepa pig World and these experiences and stuff. Just
Speaker 1: in the last thirty seconds that we have betenaicle, is
Speaker 1: that something we're gonna see more of?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. I mean landlords should definitely try to annetize
Speaker 3: their space as much as they can. There's so much
Speaker 3: they can do with these events, any sort of experiences
Speaker 3: like you're mentioning, we're also seeing retailers do that. You know,
Speaker 3: even if they have a store in a location already,
Speaker 3: adding some sort of pop up at the other side
Speaker 3: of the mall. So maybe if your consumer doesn't go
Speaker 3: to your side of the mall, maybe the ones who
Speaker 3: do go to the other side of the mall can
Speaker 3: can figure out that you're there as well. So lots
Speaker 3: of different options for landlords to get the space activated.
Speaker 1: Nicole Larson, national research manager for retail Services at Callers,
Speaker 1: joining us on Zoom from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Bailey, are
Speaker 1: you done with all holiday shopping?
Speaker 2: I'm done? Well, I was going to say, you're thinking
Speaker 2: about Lego land and Peppa Pake. I just got a
Speaker 2: new smoker for Christmas, So different stages of all.
Speaker 1: Right, so fourth of July we're coming over.
Speaker 2: I'll be over there in January two.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that sounds good. Hey, you're listening to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Bus this week. This is Bloomberg