Tracking Consumer Spending Trends With Tanger Outlets CEO Stephen Yalof

<div class="block">Rising costs have impacted nearly every industry, including the retail sector. Shoppers looking for some spending reprieve might find what they&#39;re looking for at shopping outlets. Stephen Yalof, Tanger Outlets CEO, joined Cheddar News to talk about consumer spending trends. &quot;What&#39;s interesting about our space is that we&#39;re seeing more customers now come into the outlet space because its an opportunity for them to buy brands at everyday value pricing and I think that&#39;s a big trend for the consumer right now,&quot; he said.</div>

Closing Bell

And with some are just around the corner, many people might be looking to get their shopping done indoors and outdoors and for an affordable price. So outlets might be what you're looking for. Our senior reporter Chloe A sat down with the C 0 10 outlets to talk about consumer spending trends and more take a look. So I want to talk about inflation here, obviously, inflation is starting to cool but is still persistently high hovering just under 5% per April. So what does that mean for the American consumer and their shopping habits? The American consumer is in a very interesting place right now because we're seeing people spend a tremendous amount of money on travel, on experience on Taylor Swift tickets. And you know, there's a narrative that folks are trading down on other things, whether it's restaurants or food and beverage. Um What's interesting about our space is that we're seeing more customers now come into the outlet space because it's an opportunity for them to buy brands at everyday value pricing. And I think that that that's a big trend for the consumer right now. They want the brands they love, but they want them at the best possible price and they could execute that in our shopping centers. Absolutely. So this, you know, while still spending a lot of money on experiences to your point trading down in other areas, you mentioned Tanger outlets. So how specifically will that benefit you going forward? We historically, we're 42 year old company. We've been a public company for 30 years. We've weathered a tremendous amount of economic cycles, recessions, inflationary period and it just seems that those economic headwinds definitely favor our channel because like I said, you know, with value pricing every day, a consumer can certainly get a lot more for their money. But what's what's important, you know, we're not selling commodities. We're selling best famous brands, international domestic Nike Gap, Polo, Kate Spade coach. These are the brands that people seek and everyday value pricing is something that they're looking for. Now, you've previously said that we're going to see or we are currently seeing a rebound in retail. What makes you so confident about that? Well, about two weeks ago, I was at the I CS E convention in Las Vegas and that's a gathering of developers and retailers that have opened to buys for the 23 24 25 store opening seasons and the discussions were robust. The open to buys are plentiful. Um A lot of the best brands are out there really looking to make deals and grow their store portfolios you know, the, the narrative of uh online shopping has been, you know, sort of dominating the headlines. But what we now understand is there's an omni channel ecosystem that the retailers all want to participate in, they want to have their online business, but they also want to support it with bricks and mortar shopping. And as that continues to grow the need for clearance and a place to dispose of excess inventory, that's where the outlet channel fits in. Now, what sort of demand are you seeing among your retailers? Are there any specific trends that you've noted higher traffic in some areas than others? For example. Yeah, you know, geographically, we're primarily a Southeast based company and we see uh a terrific traffic to that geography primarily because a lot of uh a lot of people who have shifted where they work every day and are living, you know, closer to home, moving out of cities, moving into the suburbs. We pretty much are a suburban dominant portfolio. Um you know, that said from a, a particular trend and we're seeing a lot of our customers are gravitating more towards the ath leisure categories. And that's been in the headlines for quite some time. You know, we just saw uh Lululemon report their earnings and you know, their growth is still pretty outstanding. They're a really important retailer in our shopping centers and their growth in full price bricks and mortar is also supported by their, their great growth in our outlet channel. So athleisure a big trend also I want to mention, of course, it is summer time or about to be summer time and it's warming up here on the east coast in the northeast. So what sorts of trends are you anticipating uh throughout the summer? Yeah. You know, I think there's still gonna be a heavy lean into fashion apparel, um fashion footwear, you know, and you know, we're seeing people still want to get dressed up and go out for events. Ok. Our thanks to Chloe A for the interview with Steven Yo Tanger Outlets, CEO.