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Nostalgic Retail Series #45 - DISCOVERY CHANNEL

𝟭𝟲𝟱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀. 𝗧-𝗥𝗲𝘅 𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗻𝘀. 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀. 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 $𝟯𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿. If you walked through a mall in the late 90s, you probably stopped at the Discovery Channel Store. Fossils. Science kits. Nature documentaries on VHS. Discovery Communications built it as a brand extension. Retail as marketing. It worked. Until it didn't. A Timeline: * 1995: Discovery Channel Store launches

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Convenience retail isn't shopping... It's an errands business.

The industry has been obsessed with "experiential retail" for years. Destination shopping. Instagram moments. Dwell time. Meanwhile, convenience quietly drives more frequent traffic and more opportunities than any experience-driven concept ever will. The market is recognizing this: In late 2024, SITE Centers spun off its convenience retail

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Nostalgic Retail Series #44 - THE LIMITED

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲. $𝟱,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲. If you shopped at a mall in the 80s or 90s, you knew The Limited. Dark wood. Stained glass. Used brick. The store that made sportswear fashionable for the everyday woman. Leslie Wexner opened the first location on August 10, 1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

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From LEGOs to Leases: How Kidults Are Changing CRE

Adults aren't buying toys. They're reshaping retail. The above photo is my oldest son's (29) lego city, called Bricklanta...a work in progress over the last 15 years. What started as a kid, has become a love of Lego that has lasted long into

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Nostalgic Retail Series #43 - WET SEAL

𝟱𝟬𝟬+ 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿: 𝗹𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. If you were a teenage girl in the late 90s or early 2000s, Wet Seal was your spot. Metallic graphics on the walls. Graphic tees. Fast denim. The soundtrack of mall culture. Founded in 1962 in Newport Beach, California as "Lorne's" (a swimwear boutique), the name

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Nostalgic Retail Series #42 - RITE AID

If you grew up in the Northeast or Mid‑Atlantic, Rite Aid was just… there. Flu shots, film developing, late‑night snacks, first jobs. But behind that familiar blue script was a brutal balance sheet story. Founded by Alex Glass in 1962 in Scranton, PA as Thrift D Discount Center,

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The Attention Economy: Reshaping Retail (the Consumer) and Real Estate

Let’s start with a simple idea: Information isn’t scarce anymore...Attention is. We don’t live in a knowledge economy. We live in an attention economy. Online, everything is designed to grab your focus: * Platforms push outrage over nuance * Brands chase clicks over connection * Politics rewards extremes over

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Nostalgic Retail Series #41 - THOM McAN

For anyone who grew up in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, the familiar red Thom McAn sign was as much a part of the American mall experience as the food court and the fountain. Ward Melville and J. Franklin McElwain opened the first Thom McAn store in New York City

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Nostalgia to End 2025...

One of the unexpectedly viral series of posts this year for me has been the Nostalgic Retail and Nostalgic Restaurant Series. These have been fun to do, have brought back successful strategies, questionable decisions, failed leadership, and most of all....brand attachment that we all had to many of these

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Nostalgic Retail Series #40 - JOANN (Fabrics & Crafts)

Founded in 1943 by German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, and Justin and Alma Zimmerman, the business began as the Cleveland Fabric Shop in Ohio, later adopting the Jo-Ann Fabrics name as it expanded beyond a single location.  Becoming a publicly traded company in 1969,

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Where Did Site Selection Come From?

I decided to dig into the history and theory of site selection, wanting to write about it, but with brevity (and not with the old "walking though 5 miles of snow to get to school attitude). Site selection has significantly evolved over the years...part due to economic development

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Nostalgic Retail Series #39 - MARSHALL FIELDS

Marshall Field’s roots trace to 1852, when Potter Palmer opened P. Palmer & Company in Chicago as an upscale dry-goods store focused on service and trust. In 1865, Marshall Field and Levi Leiter joined the business, and by 1881 Field had taken control and rebranded it as Marshall