Third Publicly Traded Mall REIT Files for Bankruptcy in Eight Months: Washington Prime Group, the Simon Property Spinoff by Wolf Richter • Jun 14, 2021 • 87 Comments The brick-and-mortar meltdown for mall landlord started years before the Pandemic. For WPG, it started in 2016.
WTF Spike of Retail Sales Lives Another Month on Surging Prices & $1,400 Stimmies. Gonna Be Tough in May by Wolf Richter • May 14, 2021 • 94 Comments Government gives consumers Free Money, retail sales spike. Free Money peters out, retail sales sag. Welcome to the new normal.
The Retail WTF Charts of the Year, Powered by $1,400-Stimmies and Massive Price Increases by Wolf Richter • Apr 15, 2021 • 208 Comments The government better not ever stop dousing consumers with free money.
Fed’s Bond Purchases Won’t Save all Mall CMBS from Defaulting by Marc Joffe • Apr 15, 2021 • 59 Comments Subsidizing CMBS impedes the necessary market adjustment away from commercial property and toward residential redevelopment.
What I See as Retail Landlord, One Year After (and we’re STILL Forgiving and Deferring Rent for Our Hardest-Hit Tenants) by John McNellis • Apr 10, 2021 • 162 Comments Some Green Shoots, but Finding them Is Tricky.
Signs Are Everywhere: Businesses Have Changed Permanently as a Result of the Pandemic by Wolf Richter • Mar 9, 2021 • 276 Comments There is no return to the “old normal.” Employment adjusts too. But it will take years to sort out the issues these sudden massive shifts leave behind.
Macy’s Brick & Mortar Sales -35%, Digital +21%. Walmart Online +69%, US Ecommerce +32%. Online Furniture, Grocery, Clothing Sales Explode as Brick & Mortar Melts Down by Wolf Richter • Feb 23, 2021 • 135 Comments Mall landlords, even the biggest, are turning malls over to their lenders.
Here’s What’s Hiding Behind the Massive Seasonal Adjustments in January Retail Sales by Wolf Richter • Feb 17, 2021 • 58 Comments In whiplash charts. For example, department store sales soared 23% “seasonally adjusted” but collapsed 42% “not seasonally adjusted.” What gives?
Visits to “Places of Commerce” Still in Collapse Mode. Have Some of these Massive Shifts Become Permanent? by Wolf Richter • Feb 15, 2021 • 188 Comments People and businesses have changed how they do things. And it shows up in the GPS data.
Owner of Westfield, Buckling under $32 Billion in Debt, Plans to Dump its US Malls After Huge Losses by Nick Corbishley • Feb 12, 2021 • 95 Comments “A management team that remains prisoner of its failed strategy that started with the acquisition of Westfield.”
