Retail Stores Cutting Down Hours of Operation
In a report produced by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), they strongly encourage landlords and tenants to work collectively to “reinvigorate consumerism, reposition business cooperation and restore investor confidence.”
As we have seen both in St. George and across the nation, retail centers are experiencing higher vacancy rates than reported in years and are expected to continue rising. The report continued “Now, more than ever, retailers and retail property owners must work closer.”
Some strategies discussed in the article were to temporarily reduce the hours of operations. According to Co Star, Foot Locker reported March 5th in their earnings call that mall traffic was “down dramatically.” Matehw Serra, CEO of Footlocker, is in favor of reducing store hours during their non productive times. “One of the big expense initiatives we’re talking about, and I really commend the mall developers for initiating it, [is] we’re beginning to reduce some hours, which is a big play for us when you operate in the U.S. with 3,000 stores. Cutting strategically some non-productive hours really helps us on the expense line in the millions of dollars,” said Serra.
Foot locker isn’t alone- Joe Schmidt, president and COO of Dicks Sporting Goods announced March 10th that they would be reduce their hours of operation one hour each day Monday through Thrusday.
