DMM Retail Industry e-News Issue #197

New “Wonder Woman” Brings Back the 80s (All Hail “Chess King”)

Note: this article is spoiler-free. Your humble e-newsletter editor enjoyed the first DC Wonder Woman movie, and was eager to see its sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984.” The film’s producers were tight-lipped about its plot, but it seemed to involve the year 1984, and much of the glory that year brought forth. Trailers showed scenes in a mall featured in the period piece, and indeed, according to a recent article in USA Today, filmmakers took over an empty Virginia mall and put star Gal Gadot in a world that featured many retro stores (“The mall sequence was super fun. It’s all real stuff. We’re literally being wired, then being pulled up and down and to the sides all over the mall, which was crazy!” Gadot told USA Today). While your e-newsletter editor has not yet seen the film, he is curious, for those of you who have, where does this film rank with some of the greats that also rely heavily on malls for their plots or memorable scenes? For what it’s worth, consider the following films, but by no means is this an exhaustive list (note: some of these clips may feature language that is NSFW): Back to the Future, The Blues Brothers, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Mallrats. Thoughts? Tell us via Twitter or via our “Contact” page.

Motley Fool Pities Retailers Not on Their “Most Likely to Dominate 2021” List

As rough as 2020 has been on retailers, some have done well, working hard for their communities and doing all they could to help their neighbors, as many were deemed essential during the COVID crisis. For many, the situation accelerated a process that had already begun in the world of online shopping, making themselves more useful than perhaps even they realized, and in different ways (CNBC recently noted how it has “changed shopping forever“). The folks at Fool.com spotlighted the top three retailers they felt had the best chances of prospering as we enter (what we hope is) the beginning of the end of coronavirus and a return to normalcy. Representing the home improvement category is The Home Depot, because, as Fool notes, “Since the stay-at-home trend is likely to continue well into 2021, Home Depot sales are likely to hold steady or even pick up. Furthermore, low mortgage rates have spurred an uptick in buyer demand, and as more homes move off the market, there will be more projects to tackle.” Representing the general merchandise category is Target while Dick’s Sporting Goods earns high marks covering the personal fitness boom.

Try These Top Ten [Re]tail Transformations Today!

As much as many of us would like to go back to the mall’s heyday in the 80’s (see first article, above), 2020 has brought on numerous challenges, and hastened the mall’s re-invention. Mall properties have uses beyond lifestyle centers and distribution centers. Forbes contributor, Sanford Stein, the author of Retail Schmetail, has a list of ten ideas, including “Makers Markets and Make-tailing” (a new breed of retailers that specializes in “crafted, handmade, and limited production items”) and converting portions of mall space to “Community Gardens” (in which malls offer “small plots to neighboring dwellings” for “community engagement, while letting folks get their hands dirty growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables.”).