Five Trends Learned from the
ICSC Mid-Atlantic Conference

Retailers, developers and franchisees met in Washington D.C. in February and lobbed ideas back and forth over the ever-changing retail industry. It was all seen and heard at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual Mid-Atlantic Conference. According to the Washington post, here are the top five “trends to watch” in 2014.

Technology + Real Estate ÷ Cubicles + Smart Stores = the Future

The faculty of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University has researched and analyzed the relationship between technology and real estate is changing our lifestyle, particularly how we work and shop. “Smart Stores” and cubicles, they say, are becoming more reflective of a more modern way of living. For example, one business was looking for a unique space for his employees. Instead of taking traditional office space, the company utilized a former restaurant in a shopping mall.

Bringing Men to the Mall:
more than Just a Comfy Chair

It may be a tired cliché – as tired as the men who are dragged to the mall on a Sunday afternoon to…ok, ok, so I stepped into my own tired cliché. It’s one thing to write and laugh about tired clichés; it’s another to do something about it. The February issue of design:retail magazine has some answers. According to article writer Allison Embrey Medina, there’s a “quickly emerging ‘man cave’ aesthetic, where retail stores are creating ‘guy houses’ for today’s fashionable male consumer.”