On today’s episode of TRD Talks Live, associate publisher Hiten Samtani will discuss the future of retail with TSCG and SCG Retail’s David Firestein, Newmark Knight Frank’s Jeffrey Roseman and Meridian Retail Leasing’s James Famularo.
Long before coronavirus kept shoppers off the streets, retail was struggling to adapt to changing times. In an interview with TRD, Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace spoke to the need for a retail bailout. And in an interview with Bloomberg, billionaire Sam Zell noted one way this crisis will change the way we look at retail space: “Retail always had the best corners,” he said. “Well, the best corners are defined as where the traffic is. But if the overall level of traffic diminishes, then the definition of best corners doesn’t sound quite the same.”
Now, with big-name companies such as J. Crew, J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus in danger of joining retailers Forever 21 and Barneys in bankruptcy, the industry as a whole faces a reckoning.
Still, some are confident that foot traffic will pick back up. Simon Property Group, for one, has plans to reopen malls with special tracking technology to keep shoppers safe. And Macy’s said it will open its 775 stores by the end of June.
At 5 p.m., our experts will talk about turning retail around and what we can expect from the stores of the future.