Thursday, December 8, 2016

Wreck the Malls with Bowels of Gravy

December 2, 2016
Fortune: Simon Property Group Fights to Reinvent the Shopping Mall

If you want to get a rise out of David Simon, tell him mall traffic is declining.

Oops!

7 comments:

mab said...

I'm wondering how the rise of REITs has affected your FRED retail chart. Many retailers have decided to lease space from REITs rather than own the real estate themselves.

Target is an exception, but even there activist investors have called for Target to split the company into a retailer and a REIT.

More and more, the Northeast looks like on giant strip mall. I probably have 10 Home Depots and Lowes stores within 15 miles of my house. I can't wait for number 11!

The above aside, I'm doing more and more shopping online.

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

I don't think it does affect it, since the chart shows actual sales.

What would affect it is if a department store leased out part of its floor space to another entity that sells stuff within its department store.

What is the leased department?

A leased department is a department in a retail store--usually a department, discount, or specialty store--that is rented to an outside party. The leased department proprietor is responsible for all aspects of its business (including fixtures) and normally pays a percentage of sales as rent. The store sets operating restrictions for the leased department to ensure overall consistency and coordination.

If Sears were to lease out all of their floor space to outside parties, then clearly their retail sales (excluding leased departments) would fall to zero in the FRED chart. That would not necessarily be bad for Sears, of course.

What is bad for Sears is my individual foot traffic in Sears. It is approaching zero as elapsed time approaches infinity. D'oh! ;)

Stagflationary Mark said...

Speaking of strip malls, I took a picture of one business near me. Their sign has some amusing lights burned out.

It will never be as good as the one my girlfriend and I once saw though.

Nature's Pant_y

Really needed that second 'r' to stop us from laughing. Hahaha! :)

mab said...

I don't think it does affect it, since the chart shows actual sales.

In that case, department store sales have been mauled. Anchor stores? Anchor tenants?

Dropped anchor stores! No worries, we can always use more FEMA camps!

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

No worries, we can always use more FEMA camps!

Yes!! Hurricane Lampert!

Eddie, "you're doing a heck of a job.”

Mauled small mall squalls!

Prankster bankers' anchors tanked her and sank her!

Thank her for the canker? No, thank him! The Sears' sore's spores soar! Eddie's deadly eddies!

We need to expand the Department of Homeland Security to include strip mall searches. Who knows what they will find! Payday loan centers? Pawn shops? Nail salons? Could be almost anything that I'm terrified to enter! ;)

mab said...

We need to expand the Department of Homeland Security

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=3765A225-B773-4F57-B21A-A265F4B5692C

Merry effing Xmas!

We'll have our strip maul searches soon enough!

Stagflationary Mark said...

Will there be a Disinformation Czar?

Only government information coming from "many authentic sources" will be allowed!