NewsBytes: Shopping Center Woes and Personal Shoppers for Men
1) Shopping centers are clearly, and not surprisingly, feeling pains in today’s economy. Stories like this Wall Street Journal piece and this USA Today piece describe the trouble developers are facing in trying to lease space, and the lengths to which some malls are going to “bring ‘em in.” On the latter topic, mall executives might want to read Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore’s book, The Experience Economy, before they go too far… (hint: drawing in teens and tweens with themes and entertainment approaches, thereby horrifying anyone else, may not be the best answer).
2) A husband/wife business partnership recently founded OutfitEZ, a wardrobe-buying service for men. A Bizjournals staff writer describes how Chris Gosnell (the husband) “couldn’t shake the notion of creating a company to find and sell business-casual clothes through a reasonably priced subscription service targeting cubicle-bound men in technology parks. “ The interesting thing: Men may never have dreamed up a wardrobe-buying service unless women had raised that need (and demanded it – in the form of personal shoppers) first. Remember – women are often the leading indicators of what all consumers will eventually expect.
