‘Competitive socialising’ at Topgolf.
Making the most of
Competitive Socialising Roy Menachemson sees that the massive impact of COVID -19 on the retail sector presents opportunities to reimagine the design, branding and operations of leisure spaces he change in how people how shop, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen a seismic shift from bricks T and mortar stores to on-line trading. The retail market in Australia is expected to decrease by 3.2% in 2020 wiping some $17 billion off the sector. Yet the leisure time experience of shopping, that cannot be achieved online, is being increasingly recognised by shopping centre developers and owners who, as many retailers close stores, are revisiting their tenant mix to offer products that attract people other than shoppers. Landlords know that prime retail space must not sit idle as maintaining a solid level of foot traffic becomes paramount in saving smaller retailers from closure. As a result, tenant mix in the post Coronavirus world will see faster change as developers and owners move to attract leisure attractions to fill spaces vacated by larger tenancies. Major shopping malls are expected to evolve from fashion and food retailing to more leisure and non-retail services. Gyms and family entertainments centres (FECs) – which as a result of the demographic of their users being more than just 24 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 141
families I feel should be known as social entertainment centres (SECs) - have long been a familiar offering in retail areas. Readers may already have come across other retail locations with facilities such as climbing walls, swim schools, wellness lounges as well as libraries, childcare, medical centres and dentists. With variety set to be key as landlords work towards creating a good experience for shoppers, leisure providers now have a unique opportunity to hire hitherto unaffordable spaces by providing malls and centres with high quality facilities designed to maximise the growing trend of ‘competitive socialising’ (see opposite) - a key to driving foot traffic and extending trade beyond traditional ‘shopping’ hours. Landlords recognise that including such components into their tenant mix will unlock additional value for those tenants looking to maintain established stores by climbing aboard the opportunity of extending trading hours and benefitting from the high spend demographics attracted to these social entertainment experiences. The current tidal wave of tenants exiting leases due to the
