Shopping mall

PEN AND PAPER
Among rent, accessibility, reputation fees there are many variables to consider when choosing between downtown and shopping centers. Provides a useful starting grid Alberto Comunello, Value Lab consultant, company of management consultancy and information technology, specialized on marketing, sales and retailing issues: "If until the mid-'70s there was no alternative to the city center, today the proliferation of malls and retail parks induces traders to reflect on which of the two options to choose for their store. The mall today is typically a large structure, with important infrastructure, in most cases located in the suburbs and offering diverse business and entertainment for various events. So, first, consider the compatibility of the shopping center itself with the brand and products that characterize the store offer. The distribution channel should communicate an image consistent with the brand identity and purchase experience must be associated with typical customers of the brand. " Specifically, Comunello talks about potentialities and market catchment area’s demand characteristics, intensity and type of competitors, to lease-purchase value of the property, rules and regulations and compliance of exclusivity areas, if any (see page. 63).

About consistency between products or services offered and location speaks Larry Smith. The consultancy of Larry Smith Italia on shopping centers, business parks and renovation of urban centers is aimed at property developers, investors, traders and government markets. "The analysis if preferring one or another solution - says Silvia Segale, Larry Smith Commercial Director - should be done keeping in mind the characteristics of your product and customers who attend or will attend the two commercial alternatives. Over the past ten years, many brands have become increasingly interested in the world of shopping centers than historical centers, for several reasons: more "familiarity" of consumers towards shopping outside the city center, comfortable environment, easy parking; diversified services to customers; presence of large commercial attractors, more affordable rents, absence or scarcity of "key money" or good revenues compared to historical centers. Nowadays, the crisis has reduced the gap between the economic conditions in both cases, making the historical centers attractive again, in many cases. Here, if it comes to big cities, big chains want to "be there" often for prestige reasons (open flagship has priority), also opening outlets in the reference shopping malls of that city. In provincial cities, city center and shopping center are often an alternative, and then compete". Successful competition fueled by events occurring in the meantime, as the liberalization of licenses as a result of the Bersani Decree (Legislative Decree no. 114/98), which has helped increase the number of shopping centers in Southern Italy and rationalize existing structures in the North. "At some point - notes Robert Casasola, Rustioni & Partners Ltd. associate, specialized in research and acquisition of commercial locations in Italy and abroad – for the retailer has become not only difficult to find  rentals sustainable spaces, but also be able to understand how much the mall chosen could be profitable. Because here, unlike in the old town, the only measurable data are location, traffic and user base. "
Especially since, as pointed out by Silvia Segale, "if the placement at catchment and tenant present is not easy to find for new centers in the first marketing, it is more about existing centers, although not always the aspect of positioning is considered in the choice. There are chains that are stubborn to enter, with disappointing results, in centers of commercial success without products or services in line with that center or that the catchment. Others who have been very successful in centers that have never been willing to accept ". However, the location "shopping center" has convenient parking, is warm in winter and cool in summer, synergies between the tenant: "Unfortunately for the many, perhaps too many, clothes shops: the mall could offer spaces to various business initiatives ", says Casasola. He adds: "Another important difference between the two locations on the leases applied. In the city center it's about leases, in the commercial center about rent business unit".