Factory Outlets Show Market Muscle : It’s the Same Retail Pie, but More Players Vie for Bigger Slices
With analysts predicting lackluster holiday sales and new outlet centers challenging established malls for the diminished profits, the Christmas season has turned into a dogfight for Ventura County retailers.
The Oaks, the county’s largest mall, is chalking up less-than-expected sales this month, according to Barbara Teuscher, the Thousand Oaks shopping center’s general manager.
Teuscher said the mall’s traffic volume has decreased by about 5% since the Northridge Fashion Center reopened earlier this year, and attributed a decline in apparel sales to balmy fall weather.
“We’ve been seeing that [decline] all year,” she said. “Number one, people don’t have the same needs as they had during the earthquake, and two, they are going back to where they shopped before.”
However, Teuscher said it is too early to tell whether Camarillo Factory Stores, which opened a second phase in November, has drawn shoppers away from The Oaks.
“Factory outlet shopping is a much different type of shopping, obviously,” Teuscher said. “It certainly represents a much stiffer competition, but I can’t say whether that will affect The Oaks. We’ll have to see.”
Yvonne Golliher, general manager of Off Fifth, the recently opened Saks Fifth Avenue outlet in Camarillo, said the store has attracted many shoppers from eastern Ventura County and beyond.
“We’re doing great,” she said. “Traffic far exceeds what I thought it would when we opened. We have definitely drawn from the Conejo Valley area. We’re getting repeat customers that we know by name.”
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Indeed, Camarillo’s outlet mall has been so crowded that its owners have had to ask the city to allow customers to park on the surrounding streets, said General Manager Terri Cameron.
“We are experiencing a good holiday season,” she said. “We just opened a new phase in November, we now have more than 60 stores and we’re very happy with the customer base we’re attracting.
“Outlet centers have always coexisted with malls,” Cameron added. “I think they can share the pie. I don’t think we’re stealing their business. But we do have more upscale clothes than most outlet centers.”
Because they are located miles apart on the Ventura Freeway, the casual observer might think that Oxnard Factory Outlet and Camarillo Factory Stores are dueling to the death.
That is hardly the case, according to the managers of both shopping centers, who each cite their neighbor for helping Ventura County develop a reputation as a discount-mall mecca.
“With the increase in the number of outlet shops, it makes it more appealing for people to drive 1 1/2 hours to Ventura County to search for bargains,” said Peggy Wimberley, general manager of the 38-store Oxnard Factory Outlet. “If people can go to two outlet centers for the same drive, they’ll do it.”
However, Wimberley still enjoys a little competition with her Camarillo counterparts, who she said offer higher-quality goods--albeit at a high price.
“We’re positioned differently in the market,” she said. “Not everyone is going to go to Barney’s and spend $600 on a suit, even if it’s half off.”
So with the outlet malls in Camarillo and Oxnard commanding an increasingly large slice of the county’s retail profits, are small businesses left with the scraps?
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Not necessarily.
Specialty businesses such as Bonnie’s holiday supplies in Ventura and Oxnard and Zender’s in Thousand Oaks are doing respectably, according to their owners, who attribute their success to unique selections, hard-earned reputations and a little ingenuity.
“There’s really no other store around like this one,” said Don Zender, who has operated his home-supply and Christmas-ornament shop in Thousand Oaks for 20 years. “They have Christmas stores in the big malls, but they don’t carry the things we do.”
Zender pointed to his store’s popular Christmas-tree-lighting seminar as a service most big retailers do not think to offer.
Bonnie Mihalic, who opened the first Bonnie’s in Oxnard 35 years ago, said sales are down this holiday season.
“Anyone who tells you anything different is lying,” Mihalic said.
But she said her business has become so well-known in the west county for its costumes and bric-a-brac that it has become a holiday tradition for many shoppers.
“I think our reputation is what keeps us in business,” Mihalic said. “I don’t think the 20-foot Santa on the roof hurts either.”
Citing high consumer debt and a sagging economy, retail-industry analysts have predicted a weak holiday season this year, with only a 3% to 4% increase in sales compared to a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, that results in little or no increase at all.
Nevertheless, some retailers are still reporting brisk holiday business.
Although its two major anchors, Sear’s and Robinsons-May, have announced that they will move to rival Buenaventura Mall, The Esplanade in Oxnard is still attracting good crowds.
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Indeed, the shopping center enjoyed a 27% increase in traffic last month, according to Manager Donna Ferrell.
“The season started a little bit slowly,” she said. “But our traffic has been up, and I know this weekend was unusually good from talking to the retailers.”
And at The Oaks, a spokeswoman for Macy’s said the Bullock’s anchor store is toting up strong sales after a slow beginning.
“It’s been a very positive Christmas,” said Elizabeth Krogh. “We got off to a bad start, but the past two weeks have been incredible.”
