Shopping in all weathers

Is summer a good period for retail centres? The truth is that they can't expect overly impressive turnovers at this time of year but they're not quite as bad as one might think. Shopping centre managers seem to agree on this, though holidays and good weather aren't their favourite times of year

In retail, profits are a fair-weather friend. Come summer and it's drinks' manufacturers and travel agents who rub their hands with glee. But what do shopping centre directors feel about the summer holidays? And by what special powers do they attract customers, when most people want to just lap up the sunshine?

Summertime, and the living is easy...
Despite what some might think, retail centre managers lose comparatively little sleep over footfall during the holiday months in their shopping centres, because that particular remedy was found some time ago. "A lot of people assume that the worst times for retail are July and August when it's hot or January immediately after Christmas, but the fact is those months aren't that bad. Seasonal discounts in fact attract crowds of customers," says Artur Nowakowski, Director of Galeria Mokotów. "People follow their instincts when they shop and become bargain hunters very easily," he adds.
Tomasz Waszkiewicz, Director of Galeria Dominikańska in Wrocław is another who will stress how encouraging the rate of footfall is at his centre in the month of July. The number of people shopping there is augmented by what he calls the "explorer" factor. "If city residents leave the city during the summer, tourists, particularly from smaller cities, make up for their absence."
August is the month when he claims everything gets back to normal.
Grzegorz Latała of Apsys Polska, however, a company which manages fourteen retail centres around Poland, notes a certain pattern. "In summer, footfall increases significantly around the seaside and in northern Poland, whereas in winter, centres near skiing resorts benefit the most."

Retail calendar
Seasons then it would seem, don't impact hugely on shopping centres' success. Public holidays and the atmosphere in a city, are far more important. "The May bank holiday and Corpus Christi for example are the days we have to look out for. Some managers organize spectacular promotions and sales but, in our opinion, they don't work. They have no purpose when most of the city's population is out of town. Even if some superstar performed in the city square, you wouldn't get a crowd and we aren't interested in wild goose chases," says Artur Nowakowski.
Tomasz Waszkiewicz doesn't agree. "The fact is that people leave Warsaw around the time of bank holidays, such as the extended May weekend. This year however we've prepared lots of attractions like dance shows and art workshops for children. One of our tenants organized an audio-gadgets' car show, and the footfall was no worse than at any other weekend."
Grzegorz Latała, on the other hand, claims that it's very difficult to halt the "flight" of city people during so-called 'long weekends'. He doesn't believe that any attractions or animations are solutions. "Perhaps the only thing that might attract people to a shopping centre instead of going to a river or lake is a car lottery. Gdynia Kliff have tried that sort of thing and a crowd of customers waited to find out who the winner was up until midnight. The management must have done very well out of that."

Four seasons
"If the climate does have any influence on retail at all, it's definitely those long winters. The longer the winter, the worse business tends to be. People don't feel like leaving the house and instead of buying new spring collections, they go on wearing their winter jackets and there's no point hoping that during a long season they'll lose two pairs of gloves. Even if they do, they're not going to buy another pair in March," Nowakowski says. Galeria Dominikańska has been operating for a year and a half and Tomasz Waszkiewicz claims that nothing has as yet suggested that the weather affects his customers' purchasing habits. "All you have to do is persuade your customers that in your centre they can find warmth in winter, cool themselves down in the summer, shelter from rain in Autumn and spend their money all year round."