Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry King
so they believe that being in philly would hurt their brand? That's interesting and makes sense to me.
These people are new yorkers and the philly brand in NY is a 2nd rate town... is what it is
|
Not that it would hurt their brand, but that it doesn't have the cache that other places have (in their minds).
Listen, I don't agree with them, but that's the perception.
At the last fashion brand I worked for, I was pretty close to somebody in the real estate department, and she explicitly said to me (about opening a store in Center City) one day when I asked: "our customer is absolutely there...we're just not ready to commit yet". She privately acknowledged that Philly was one of her favorite cities and she loved popping down for weekends, but her higher ups (who are inevitably older and to be frank, dated in their opinions) didn't get it. In another conversation, the CEO of said company told me he referred to NY as the "city that never sleeps" and Philly as the "city that never sweeps". (He admitted it was based on a dated perception, but these perceptions take years to fade (even as he acknowledged it was based on time he spent here as a young professional almost 30 years ago)).
At the current brand I work for, Walnut Street is constantly mentioned as a logical next location but other places always manage to pop up first.
As for Outlets, there are really one 4 or 5 Outlet locations that are worthy of destination type shopping. Places like Woodbury Commons (in NY), Sawgrass near Miami, Cabazon near Los Angeles, etc. The vast majority of Outlet Centers are replicas of each other and offer nothing unique (the same Coach, Polo, Van Heusen stores, etc). I really just think we are going to get the latter and not the former.
Why? Because the truly elevated brands don't even like shipping their product to Outlets...thus, they try to control distribution immensely and as a last resort, will open stores in one of the above outlet centers as a way of managing their supply chains (to their chagrin) but in lieu of selling to the TJ Maxx's of the world. By going into one of the 4 or 5 power centers, being attractions in an of themselves, they keep the brand as elevated as possible (given they don't want their product there at all).
Second, the bigger brands that have more universal presence at all Outlet Centers (think Coach, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, etc) tend to drive most of their volume through those 4 or 5 Centers. I can tell you from experience that at my previous brand, we had over 40 outlet locations and among those 40 locations, 50% of the volume was driven by 5-8 doors. Similarly, I've heard that the Kors has doors at those locations that do over $20/million a year and Polo $100 million.
It's an established enough space (the Outlet Center concept) that it would have to take something truly unique and extraordinary to get a place in that echelon of center. If Celine only has one outlet in the US, it isn't going to pick Philadelphia as the location of its second outlet. It's going to go to Sawgrass or Cabazon. Ditto for all of the others.
Thus, we're going to get Coach, Kors, Kate Spade, etc. For some mid-tier more obscure brands, think Elle Tahari or D Squared, etc, we'll likely land a few of them...and it is those brands who will consider it a sufficient presence in our market to not bother with Walnut Street after that.
That's just my take. And I know a lot about the business. I work in it. Very close to the decision makers.
So you can disagree with me, but I'm telling you based on my experience it's not going to be anything special. It's just going to be another mall. It makes me even less enthusiastic about the government support being thrown its way.
Prev
Linear Mode
