Nordstrom exceeding expectations
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
7/15/2009

By all estimates from Cherry Hill Mall and Nordstrom officials, the new branch at the Cherry Hill Mall is exceeding all expectations since it opened up its doors three months ago.

Senior Regional Manager Bob Wahlquist said the mall is also planning an expansion in several months to be poised to take advantage of the recovering economy.

Since Nordstrom opened its new store several months ago, Wahlquist said the mall’s attendance has been increasingly steadily. Also, just by looking out into the mall’s parking lot and parking structure, it’s obvious that shoppers are starting to come from farther away from locations like New York and Pennsylvania to do their shopping in Cherry Hill.

“We’re a regional shopping center, and as a result of adding Nordstrom and our new restaurants, we’re attracting people outside of our core target market. We’re seeing the beginning steps of keeping people from leaving South Jersey to do their shopping,” he said.

“It’s as simple as looking at the automobiles parked in the parking lot. We’ve changed the flow of traffic around the building. We see parking spaces filling up in the months of April, May, and June that have not been filled up in a number of years.”

Indeed, the new Nordstrom store has been performing over expectations since its grand opening in March, said Brooke White, Nordstrom spokesperson.

White said it’s not company policy to release specific details on sales, but the new Nordstrom branch at the mall is doing better than expected.

“For the store, it’s been performing better than our expectations.

We’ve been really pleased with the location and we’ve been pleasantly surprised so far with its performance,” she said.

So far it’s been a good season for the mall, Wahlquist said, as the majority of the stores and restaurants in the mall have been done in excess of their projections so far for the year. If you’re even meeting your projections in this economic climate, he said, you’re doing back flips.

The economy has been showing signs of improving and breaking out of the malaise that has haunted so many retailers, Wahlquist said, which is why the mall is currently planning on expanding its retail space for its shoppers.

Between now and Christmas, Wahlquist said the mall will be adding about 50,000 square feet of retail space, with more coming in the first quarter of 2010.

“We anticipate in the first quarter of next year we’ll probably bring on an additional 20,000 feet of retail space. It’s going to be a work in progress, but we’re looking to the horizon and we think we’ll be in good shape. When the pendulum starts to swing back, we’ll be in terrific shape,” he said. “It will be a nice situation for us. The retailers that have come in have performed. Eight months ago when we were talking to retailers we were trying to sell the dream, but now we have quantifiable data and we’re selling something that has been proven to work.”

When the economy rebounds, he said, the mall will be in a great position to take advantage of the additional shoppers.

There’s no doubt America has been affected by the economy, Wahlquist said, but luckily the population within the shopping mall has stayed constant.

Even if people are just visiting the mall and not spending money, when the economy rebounds those types of shoppers will begin spending again, he said.

The new parking structure, which opened in November 2008, should also see expanded use in the future, he said.

More retail has been connected to the parking structure, Wahlquist said, and when the weather begins to deteriorate near the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, more and more people will take advantage of covered parking.

“To date, we’ve been very happy. You’re judging conditions in the world by a different set of rules than you did in 1999. In 1999, merchants just opened their doors and people spent money, it didn’t matter if you were a good or bad merchant,” Wahlquist said. “In today’s world, people have ‘x’ amount of money they will spend and you have to provide the best products and services for them.

“We’ve created an environment where people feel very comfortable. In the short and long term, we’ll come out in a very advantageous position.”