The Rise of Virtual Restaurants?

Restaurateurs are adding "virtual" restaurants to expand their delivery options - and most of us have no idea we're ordering from restaurants that don't actually exist! 

An August 14, 2019 New York Times article by Mike Isaac & David Yaffe-Bellany looked at the ways in which the new delivery apps like Uber Eats are changing the face of retail dining.

SAN FRANCISCO - At 9:30 on most weeknights, Ricky Lopez, the head chef and owner of Top Round Roast Beef in San Francisco, stacks up dozens of hot beef sandwiches and sides of curly fries to serve hungry diners. He also breads chicken cutlets for another of his restaurants, Red Ribbon Fried Chicken. He flips beef patties on the grill for a third, TR Burgers and Wings. And he mixes frozen custard for a dessert shop he runs, Ice Cream Custard.

Of Mr. Lopez’s four operations, three are “virtual restaurants” with no physical storefronts, tables or chairs. They exist only inside a mobile app, Uber Eats, the on-demand meal delivery service owned by Uber.

“Delivery used to be maybe a quarter of my business,” Mr. Lopez, 26, said from behind Top Round’s counter, as his staff assembled roast beef and chicken sandwiches and placed them in white paper bags for Uber Eats drivers to deliver. “Now it’s about 75 percent of it.”

Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub are starting to reshape the $863 billion American restaurant industry. As more people order food to eat at home, and as delivery becomes faster and more convenient, the apps are changing the very essence of what it means to operate a restaurant.

No longer must restaurateurs rent space for a dining room. All they need is a kitchen — or even just part of one. Then they can hang a shingle inside a meal-delivery app and market their food to the app’s customers, without the hassle and expense of hiring waiters or paying for furniture and tablecloths. Diners who order from the apps may have no idea that the restaurant doesn’t physically exist.

To read the complete article, click here...

Which way NOW?

Future Detours Ahead For Retail Customer Journeys

Forbes.com
Nikki Baird

This Forbes article discusses the trends, behaviors and even disruptive technologies that can impact what the shopper seeks from her customer journey.  It reports on those things that customers expect from the retailers with whom they engage, how much things have already changed with regard to customer expectations and just how hard it has sometimes been for retailers to keep up with those expectations.

So what’s next for those customer journeys and the expectations that retailers may have to match? The article goes on to discuss the three big disruptions that appear to loom on the horizon.

Consumer-Driven Disruption: Time   

Consumers have less time to shop. This is a global phenomenon, driven by three main time pressures. One, there are more women in the workforce, which generally means they have less time available to handle “domestic” tasks like grocery or family clothes shopping. No matter how much it would be great if households had an equitable distribution of tasks, the reality is, when women work, there isn’t really a commensurate increase in other household members’ time spent shopping, at least according to US consumer time studies.

Click here to read more....

The Next Frontier Of Wellness: Your Pets

Forbes.com, June 18 2019
Serena Oppenheim, Contributor

With a fast-growing awareness about nutrition and our own health, it is not surprising that the next wave of wellness companies are not focused on humans, but on pets.

In terms of money spent on pets, the U.S. is by far the world leader with the U.K. a distant second. According to a recent Mintel Report, 95% of US pet owners consider their animals to be part of their family and nearly half of pet "parents" are as concerned about the health and wellbeing of their pet as they are a member of their human family (backed up by the fact that 44% of millennials see pets as their "starter children").

However, similar to the obesity epidemic among humans, 56% of dogs are estimated to be overweight or obese in the U.S. There has been a 911% increase in diabetes in cats and dogs since 2011. In addition, cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs - 1 in 3 dogs will develop cancer, which is the same incidence of cancer among men.

The pet industry in the U.S. as a whole is estimated to be worth $72 billion and 2018 figures suggest that $29.88 billion of that comes directly from pet food. Unlike with human food, however, the pet food industry is highly unregulated. Every year sees dozens of recalls. To date in 2019 there have been seven public pet food recalls and in 2018 there were nearly 50. Reasons have ranged from salmonella to euthanasia drugs being found even in some major pet food brands. In addition, many people don’t realize that some brands of pet food can actually be made up of animals who are diseased, dying, disabled, or dead.

To read more about this topic, click here....

The Fastest-Growing Job Sector?

Cannabis, Marijuana, Weed, Pot? Just Call It a Job Machine

The New York Times, Conor Dougherty
April 25, 2019

While cannabis may still be illegal on the federal level, 33 states now allow its sale for medical purposes at a minimum. Ten of those states, including California, have legalized recreational use. And as new markets open and capital continues to flood in, the cannabis industry has become, by some measures, one of the country’s fastest-growing job sectors.

A few years ago, navigating the marijuana industry felt like a journey to the fringes of legitimacy. Now cannabis dispensaries occupy brightly lit spaces on prime retail strips, with $80 pot lotions and $20 bars of pot soap. Six months ago, Canada became the first major world economy to legalize recreational marijuana use, and several dozen cannabis stocks — many for companies that are American in all but name but unable to list in the United States — now trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange.  For investors, it’s a two-pronged thesis. The first is that many people like recreational use. The second is that as cannabis becomes more widely used, it is increasingly a therapeutic remedy that people substitute for pain pills, sleep aids and other pharmaceuticals.

ZipRecruiter's data suggests that cannabis-related jobs nationwide currently stands at 200,000 to 300,000. While many of those jobs are on the lower end of the pay scale (consisting of rote agricultural work), there has also been a expansion in the demand for better-paid positions like chemists, software engineers, and nurses who consult with patients about using cannabis for anxiety and other medical conditions.

Meanwhile, the pioneers who brought the industry out of the shadows are being joined by professional managers and executives — “talent,” in corporate speak — who have had careers in other industries. For upper-level managers and executives, companies say they prefer candidates with a background in highly regulated industries like alcohol or pharmaceuticals.

To read more, click here...

The Retail Brokers Network

What is the Retail Brokers Network (RBN) and why did Equity Retail Brokers join?

The RBN is a national networking group founded in 1992 whose members are like us - successful independent brokerage firms that specialize in retail real estate. Upon joining in 2001, we wanted the ability to refer business nationally, while taking advantage of the shared booths at regional and national ICSC events. However, the greatest benefit has been the personal friendships we have formed and the positive affect they have had - and continue to have - on us as individuals and the company as a whole.

What value does Equity Retail Brokers get from membership in the RBN? 

Having brokers across the country that we "Know, Like and Trust" (that's the RBN motto!) gives us the ability to help our clients with their real estate needs locally and nationally. We get valuable market knowledge and expertise through relationships, regional and national RBN meetings, and monthly RBN calls on a variety of relevant real estate topics. The referrals we get from (and give to) RBN firms is a great value as well, of course.

What value do our clients get from our membership in the RBN? 

We use the information we gain from our involvement in the network to help our clients get deals done locally and nationally. Through access to people and information, the RBN provides us with expertise we otherwise wouldn't have, and allows us to make referrals to RBN firms in other markets, when needed. The end result is more problems solved and deals for our clients.

What do you like best about the RBN? 

I am in regular contact with like-minded real estate professionals around the country who I know, like and trust. We talk about real estate, our families and everything in between. I don't think I can count the quality friendships I enjoy as a result of the RBN. Oh, and we often make money together. How great is that?

Click here to learn more about the RBN, or stop by booth C-111 Union Street at ICSC RECon!

Best Retail Sales Since 2017

The Best Retail Sales Since 2017 Brighten US Growth Outlook

With first-quarter gross domestic product figures due April 26, the surprisingly strong retail report spurred economists to further increase projections.

www.Globest.com   

By Reade Pickert | April 19, 2019

Photo by Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) Retail sales in the U.S. jumped by the most since September 2017 and first-time filings for unemployment benefits dropped to a fresh 49-year low, as a strong labor market gives American consumers the wherewithal to keep the economy chugging along.

The value of overall sales in March rose 1.6 percent, boosted by gains in motor vehicles and gasoline stations, after an unrevised 0.2 percent decrease the prior month, according to Commerce Department figures released Thursday. That exceeded all forecasts in Bloomberg’s survey calling for a 1 percent gain.

A Labor Department report released at the same time showed initial jobless claims fell last week to 192,000, the lowest since September 1969. Economists had projected an increase.

“The labor market is alive and well,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC. Income gains support consumer spending and “as long as the labor market is doing well there is good reason to expect consumer spending should do fine.”

With first-quarter gross domestic product figures due April 26, the surprisingly strong retail report spurred economists to further increase projections. Analysts raised economic growth forecasts for the period Wednesday after a report showing the trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in February. The economy had showed signs of slowing heading into 2019, before the U.S. central bank put rate hikes on indefinite hold and a government shutdown clouded the outlook.

(To read the rest of the article, go to www.globest.com:  Link to Full Article )

The Outlandish Story Of Ollie’s

A $5 Billion Retail Empire That Sells Nothing Online (But Is Beating Amazon)

Abram Brown, Forbes Magazine                                                                                                            Photo by Harry Fellows
April 1, 2019

Ollie’s is very possibly the only company in America whose brick-and-mortar stores are not just surviving but thriving. It focuses exclusively on traditional retailing, selling not a thing online. Read that again: nothing sold online.

Nonetheless, Ollie’s sales have doubled in four years. It moves more than $1 billion a year of low-priced goods from its large (30,000 square feet or so), no-frills stores like the one in Sterling. Profits are at a high, nearly $130 million.

Abram Brown's article in this month's Forbes Magazine retails the success story that is Ollie's, in an era when retailers are retrenching and retooling their market strategies. Retail companies announced 3,400 store closures last year, with plans to shutter a record 155 million square feet of shops. Those numbers will skyrocket in 2019: Retailers announced 4,300 store closures in just the first nine weeks of the year.

As Abram's points out, Ollie’s is the exception to the rule. Not only is it opening new locations, shares in Ollie’s have quintupled since its IPO in 2015. And every Ollie’s store has been profitable within a year of opening.

To read more about how Ollie's is thriving in today's competitive marketplace, click here to read the full article...