Local retailers optimistic
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
11/28/2009

Local retailers are cautiously optimistic leading into the holiday shopping season, as Cherry Hill business owners are predicting their holiday sales to surpass those of last year.

Retail expert Dr. Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, a professor of marketing and associate dean of undergraduate programs at the Rutgers University School of Business in Camden, said retailers could expect a more confident – and educated – consumer this holiday shopping season.

This season certainly has the potential, she said, to be bigger than the last. “Consumers are beginning to feel a little more confident in terms of their spending. They’ve gone through several months to readjust their spending habits and now feel a bit more secure in what they can spend,” she said. “They know what they can do and that provides them with more confidence.”

Consumers this season will be looking for the bargain deal and have started their shopping earlier than most years. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, more than two-thirds of consumers have already started their holiday season shopping in some facet.

Consumers aren’t waiting until the last minute, she said, because they hope to take advantage of early shopping season deals retailers are offering.

“Consumers know that waiting until the last minute might not be the savviest strategy to stretch your dollars,” Kaufman-Scarborough said. “Customers are looking for ways to save this season. Retailers need to make sure they’re aggressive about promoting the way you provide your customers with savings.”

Bob Wahlquist, senior regional manager of the Cherry Hill Mall, said the retailers within the local mall are cautiously optimistic that their sales will rise from last year’s numbers. Last year at the start of the shopping season, Wahlquist said the economy was in a freefall. The banking system was in disarray and people were watching their finances closer than ever before, he said. This year, it seems as if shoppers are ready to start spending money again as the economy seems to be improving.

“Last year it was a wild roller coaster ride downhill, but now most people believe we’ve bottomed out and we’re coming up off the bottom. If you look at Wall Street and the stock markets, it’s a dramatic improvement from a year ago,” he said. “Now the biggest issue is consumer confidence. If the typical person believes things are better than a year ago, the economy will recover and retail sales will improve over last year.” One factor that retailers should look to, Wahlquist said, is that even during the worst times of the economy last year shoppers still came to the mall. The mall didn’t see much of a dip in attendance, he said, even if the people who frequented the mall weren’t spending as much.

Finding ways to coax those shoppers into spending money on a gift this season will be the challenge for business owners, Wahlquist said.

“Retailers have learned from what they went through last year. They know they will have to be promotion conscious; they will have to be clever to get people to spend money this season. The economy took a pounding for a while, and people have gotten in the habit of being tighter with their money,” he said. “Retailers need to make their items trendy, or make the prices so attractive that consumers say they really need one or two of those items.”

The Cherry Hill Mall, Wahlquist said, is in a great position to establish itself as one of the premier South Jersey shopping destinations. Because people are looking to stay close to home and not drive to many different complexes, the mall offers a great solution at this time of year, he said.

Plus, with the opening of Nordstroms, Urban Outfitters, and a slew of new restaurants and retailers, Wahlquist said the mall is ready for a great season.

“When the economy was dipping, the retail horizon in Cherry Hill was reborn and recast. This is a very different place from what it was several years ago. The progress that took place is indicative of what the future holds. It’s an environment the locals have become more and more proud of,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a great stretch to think that in a few more years we can be regarded as a sort of Paramus, NJ, the retail Mecca of the east coast. We have work to do, but we’re making great strides in that direction.”