Shopping Centers Today

DEC 2016

Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

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44 S C T / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 A t 3 p.m. the day after the Cleveland Cavaliers ended a 52-year drought and won the NBA championship, customers in line at the Dick's Sporting Goods store at Legacy Village, a suburb of Cleveland, faced a four-hour wait just to get inside the store and then an additional hour to make it to the cash register. Perhaps not surprisingly, the store ran out of Cavaliers caps. All this may have had to do with the fact that Cleveland fans were looking for souvenirs and other ways to connect themselves to this historic victory. But it also had no little amount to do with the fact that Dick's is itself a winning national sports story. Dick's was the only brand, aside from NBA.com itself, from which fans could buy officially licensed shirts mere minutes after game's end. (Dick's also has deals with MLB, the NHL and the NFL). And it is the largest national chain left standing in the wake of the closings of Sports Authority, Sports Chalet and Golfsmith. The story of Dick's rise — and its competitors' fall — has been many years in the making, analysts say, and it follows closely the script of other national chains that share products and specializations in common. There no longer remains room in the brick-and-mortar world for two or three large-scale national retail players with mainly the same inventory, posits Michael McGrail, COO of the Boston-based Tiger Capital Group. The firm frequently appraises the value of retail inventories on behalf of banks. "Look what happened with linens," McGrail said. "You had Linens 'n Things, you had Bed Bath & Beyond — now Bed Bath & Beyond is the only national chain standing. The same thing with electronics: You had Best Buy and Circuit City; now Best Buy is the only national player today. Yes, you have some regional players, but they just don't compete on a national scale. When you looked at the industries where multiple players were killing each other, sporting goods was just next down the line." Dick's had positioned itself well for the battle. The company began investing in e-commerce way back in 1999 with an online platform. "We knew it was going to be a significant aspect of the future of retailing," CEO Edward Stack said at an analyst event in 2013. That year Dick's finally brought its e-commerce operations in-house >> Dick's has won the national sporting-goods retailer challenge By Rebecca Meiser Last player standing UPPER- INCOME TEENAGERS ARE EMBRACING FASHION ATHLETIC APPAREL MORE THAN EVER Brands such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour scored high with upper-income teenagers in Piper Jaffray›s 32nd semi- annual survey of 10,000 U.S. teens about their shopping habits and preferences. Nike was the most popular clothing brand, named by 30 percent of respondents as their favorite. By comparison, 9 percent of respondents picked the second- ranked American Eagle brand as their favorite. Footwear spending among teens continues to hit new peaks, with Adidas the largest brand gainer from the previous survey, conducted in the spring. Fifty-one percent of respondents said Nike was their preferred footwear brand, compared with the 9 percent of respondents who named Vans as their favorite. S T O R E F R O N T S

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