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