VEGAS BABY! ICSC May 2022
Probably the second most likely conversation you will overhear among retail real estate people (#1 is the Johnny Depp/ Amber Heard trial - which by the way, he won!), is whether ICSC conventions will ever come back to their pre-pandemic form and whether you ever need go to another show.
ICSC’s May Show Makes Big Return - Chain Store Age
Lots of debate here. You’ll here things like “remote working and video conferencing has taken away the need for us all to get together and meet in person”, and a million other variations of this. Fuel to that fire was added after the first live ICSC show return in Las Vegas this past December, you heard that mantra a lot more. Depending on what you believed, ICSC reported about 10,000 attendees in December, vs. the 30k+ in the heyday. (To be fair, the December Vegas ICSC show should never have been compared to the May show, as the December show was in place of the NYC show which couldn’t happen because of NYC pandemic regulations. The December NYC show generally draws 12,000 – 15,000 attendees, so it wasn’t too far off.)
Leading up to this May and speaking to lots of other brokers and retailers across the country, there was a ‘wait and see’ approach as to whether they were going to pull the trigger and come to the show this year. I knew they were coming because I started getting meeting requests a month before the show. Not the ‘hey, we have this awesome product and I need to fill my calendar to show I’m busy so can we meet to talk about it’ requests, but the ‘we need to get all of the people on this deal to hash out the final open issues so we can close the deal’ requests. You have to take those meetings. So does everyone else. I knew it was going to be a much bigger show. It was. BTW – it was great seeing everyone who I haven’t seen for the last 3 years. Lots of stories and laughing. I’ve missed you all.
So, after a 3-year hiatus of the May ICSC show in Las Vegas, here’s some observations I made:
Retail Brokers Network booth (RBN) was rocking! Insert self-promoting plug here. (ROI Commercial is a member firm of the RBN, but seriously, it was rocking)
COVID? Absolutely. Several people had to bail out just before or even during the show because of it. I’m not going to get into the weeds on this, but I’m happy people are trying to figure it out and society is moving forward again.
Young People! There everywhere!!! Nice to see there is a new generation of young and talented brokers coming into the mix. We need you! ICSC, if you are listening, can you please figure out a pricing structure for the under 30’s (like a junior broker discount rate or something) as you’ve raised your prices, and young brokers really don’t make that much money when they start. They need to be at these shows and can use a leg up to make sure they are. Thank you…
22,000 +/- actual attendees (not the folks that signed up and didn’t show) according to ICSC. More than double what we had in December. It felt like it too.
RBN Booth on Monday 5/23
Other trends:
Vacant Big Boxes – not many of them left. They are getting back filled with medical users, sporting uses (gyms, pickleball, volleyball, etc.), specialty grocers, schools, and even dispensaries.
Restaurant (QSR and full service) quality service trending way down – attribute this to ‘the great walkout’. Lots of staff quit during the pandemic and it is really hard and expensive to get quality trained people. Not sure how this gets fixed, but they are trying. Be patient.
Car washes and oil changes on every corner! When is enough too much, I think we will find out.
Pickup windows vs. traditional drive-thrus – QSR’s that take a little longer to prepare your food have figured out that it’s expensive to staff and clean a building and would rather you just pick it up instead of paying Uber Eats to deliver it. The work around is ordering on their app and driving thru (no speaker box to order, so don’t try it!)
Supply chain issues and labor are squeezing businesses. No surprises here, but our retailers need a break. Hopefully we can get a few of these issues ironed out this year.
Last but not least, the best random fact I learned this ICSC is that Piggly Wiggly was the first grocery store in the U.S. (est. 1916 – Memphis Tennessee).
Thank you for the read and for those that did not attend ICSC this year, I hope to see you at the next convention!