Talking Shop with Barrie Scardina
Guest: Barrie Scardina
Topics: Cushman and Wakefield, retail
Transcript:
Chris Ressa 0:00
This is retail retold the story of how that store ended up in your neighborhood. I’m your host, Chris ReSSA and I invite you to join my conversation with some of the retail industry’s biggest influencers. This podcast is brought to you by DLC management.
Welcome to retail retold everyone. Today I am joined by Barry Scardina. Barry is a retail pro with a plethora of experience. I’m excited for her to be here. Today. She works at Cushman and Wakefield. Welcome to the show, Barry.
Barrie Scardina 0:35
Hi, it’s so great to be here. I’m excited to spend some time with you today. Tell everyone a
Ressa 0:40
little bit about who you are and what you do at Cushman and how you got there.
Scardina 0:48
Sure, um, it’s it’s sort of an interesting story. So I am a New Jersey girl born and bred, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, the Jersey Shore, I started out in retail at the age of 16, and a half years old at Macy’s. And before Westfield owned the Garden State Plaza, when it was just literally a free standing it might have been Bamberger is back, then I worked in the gift wrap department, and I was too short to be able to reach the roll to wrap to pull the gift wrap off. And so I was moved into contemporary sportswear to sell clothing. And that’s where my love of retail began. Literally, there was anger about my gift wrapping abilities. And if you ever come to our house for Christmas, they have not improved at all.
Ressa 1:33
Haven’t seen me, I giftwrap something really, really scary.
Scardina 1:41
I spent the majority of my career, as you said, in retail, mostly on the operation side of work for amazing organizations like Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch. And prior to moving into the real estate industry, I worked for Calvin Klein, where I was the president of North America. And what I’m at the end of 2018, I was really ready for a new opportunity, a new challenge. And in 19, I joined Cushman and Wakefield to lead their retail practice across North America. And it was an interesting time to change it to change industries to change careers, because three months later, we went into a pandemic. And I found myself with, you know, hundreds of brokers that couldn’t meet with clients that couldn’t do business, and literally an industry that was in enormous change. And in the beginning, the news is really bad. And we were out there, you know, saying retailers are innovators, and we’re going to be okay, and we’re going to find our way forward. And that really proved to be true. And so our positive spirit and our belief in our partners was really I think, you know, well intended and really, you know, brought us to where we are today. It’s been great to take what I know as a retail leader and be able to meet with clients and talk about what do they need? Where are they in their lifecycle? Are they the digitally native brand that wants to enter a new market? Are they someone who’s thinking about expanding? Do we need to do a portfolio overview? Should we look at the portfolio and think about, you know, how we can do micro fulfillment before we just close stores? Are we in the right centers, there’s just so much great work going on. And so much experiential work. It’s just every day is exciting and challenging. So I’m so blessed to be in, you know, in this industry.
Ressa 3:34
Interesting. So, how did you find them? Or did they find you?
Scardina 3:40
So, it’s a funny story I, I was, you know, interviewing for lots of different positions and trying to really figure out what I wanted to do. And I’ve got a kind of a different background. I’m a very strong operational leader, I have a love of technology. And I really have a passion for retail, I love like, if I could go and work in a store and sell product all the time. That’s what I would do. I love the consumer. I love the being in the brick and mortar. And so you know, I was talking to lots of retailers and trying to figure out what I wanted to do and Cushman it posted this job on LinkedIn. And I was like, Oh, I’m gonna just apply for it and see what happened. And I went through a really extensive interviewing process. I think we talked for like six or seven months, and every time I talked to someone at the organization, I came home and said to my husband, boy, this could be really interesting. This could be really fun. And, um, and then eventually, we decided in September of 2019, to move forward together and so it has been really fun. There’s there’s been a lot of challenges and, you know, working with the brokerage community is very different than running an organization because you know, these are people that you’re influencing and you’re really serving. It’s all about being a servant leader and helping them have capabilities to do what they need to do. Much different than running an organism HCM, where you’re kind of saying to people, this is what we’re going to do. And this is how we’re going to do it. And we’ll, I’ll lead you through it. So is a really a different muscle to flex and in a different industry, but I’ve really enjoyed it and I work with, we have the most amazing people, amazing people. So smore just so visionary.
Ressa 5:18
Excellent. So interesting. We’ll talk more about that in a little bit. But first, I want to take us to the part of the show we call clear the air. I’ve got three questions for you. Okay. Are you ready?
Scardina 5:31
I’m ready.
Ressa 5:33
Question one. What is one thing most people agree with, but you do not.
Scardina 5:38
So during the pandemic, people really developed a love of cooking and they like to, you know, really experiment and bake and, and as we moved into a time where we could have people together again, I was in the supermarket and people were buying all kinds of preparations for meals. I love to throw a party. I hate to cook. The only things that make are the turkey for Thanksgiving, and the roast chicken and brisket for the Jewish holidays. That’s it. That’s it. In fact, last year in a panic because I couldn’t have friends for Russia and I was just having my parents I made my my first noodle kugel and I’m in my 50s. So I hate cooking. And I know people really find it like it’s a form of being creative and people find, you know, it’s relaxing. I just and I’m just not good at it. I feel like you know, it’s an art and I just don’t, I’m just not good at it. I do make great brisket down.
Ressa 6:38
I love brisket, brisket. Okay, question two. What is one skill you don’t possess, but wish you did?
Scardina 6:48
Oh, I wish I could sing. I love music. I love live music. I wish I have a terrible voice. I wish I could say also last night while I was watching the Christmas tree lighting. I wish I had been tall enough and skilled enough to be a Rockette, that would have been pretty cool. I was I was pretty cool.
Ressa 7:07
I have 00 musical ability. So I also appreciate musical skills, which I don’t have. So I also wish I had one. Do you like the singing shows out there? My wife and I love the voice your watch the voice?
Scardina 7:23
Of course I watch the voice? Absolutely.
Ressa 7:26
Are you watching the season? Who do you think’s gonna win?
Scardina 7:29
I you know, I feel really badly. I haven’t played paid attention to this season as closely. I love Ariana Grande. And I was like, so excited to see her on. But I haven’t really watched all the individual performances the way I usually do. There’s so much on Netflix and Hulu and Apple, I just just not enough time to watch all the content.
Ressa 7:49
Okay, we gotta move on. Question three. When is the last time you tried something for the first time.
Scardina 7:58
So in August, I had partial knee replacement, probably driven by wearing very, very high heels and eating around retail stores for a number of years. And I waited as long as I could to do it actually have to do it on my other knee and March. And so um, you know, a big part of, you know, recovering is really building back the muscles. And so I started rowing. I’m a big orange theory fan. And I hadn’t done a lot of rowing. And so I started rowing and I’m still into it. It’s like an excellent exercise, it exercises every part of your body. It’s you can be as competitive as you want. It’s really fun. I have a rubber day we’ll have to exchange offline, we can exchange times how long you to do, you know, 500 meters, etc. I’m still pretty small. It’s pretty slow. And I do have to say I have like a probably like a 28 inch inseam. So when I push back, I don’t go back that far. So it definitely abuse. My arm was more.
Ressa 8:58
Yeah, I totally get it tall people have some advantages in rowing, no doubt. Absolutely. Keeping the conversation moving. Let’s talk a bit about what’s going on in retail. Big question.
Scardina 9:12
You know, it is such an amazing time. I am so excited about where we are in terms of recovery. We’re seeing retail vacancies drop, we’re seeing rents start to increase. We see consumers still having a lot of money to spend. And I always preface this that, you know, we make generalizations, but we have to remember there are people really struggling out there. And it’s been a tough time for a lot of people. But in general when you look at the overall economy, there’s tremendous pent up demand and consumers are spending and they have quite a bit of savings to continue to spend. Our forecasts flow through our economist shows that retail is going to continue to be strong for the next two to four years. So we’re going to continue to see this trajectory. When we look at E commerce we see It’s starting to level off, we’re gonna get to like somewhere around, I don’t know, 8020 Split brick and mortar 7525. So the brick and mortar business is going to continue to be really strong. And what’s so great too is what how retail has changed. So you know, apparel, accessories and footwear, which really drove retail for so long, has been, you know, a little bit slower to recover. And it’s kind of been a little stagnant. But we’re seeing so many new people come, you know, to the space, medical retail, which we love to call Med, Tao veterinary services, all kinds of Petcare, digitally native brands, opening up stores, the dollar stores and kind of the big box stores thinking about new formats. And it’s been really exciting to see how people are looking at communities and figuring out what are their what’s the right mix in a community? What should the developer be bringing to the community? What is the right size of the box? How does technology play a role, all these things are coming together in a way that we’ve never seen before. I don’t know if you saw but I was just watching the segment on, you know, Walmart and the delivery in the drones. And I would love a drone to drop off a box in front of my house. That was so cool. What was here’s, here’s just the innovation on the product side on the technology side on the consumer experience side is really exciting. I mean, like, look at, you know, the Lego store and Rock Center, though the Harry Potter experience, like, there’s just the Tiffany’s a big T that Tiffany’s just did all the Louis Vuitton pop up stores. It’s a really exciting time. And there’s, um, the food, there’s so many second generation spaces that are giving new opportunities to restaurant tours, food halls are a big deal, the ghost kitchen movement, like we can’t even keep up electric vehicles, you know, there’s just so many new things on the horizon. You know, we’re not naive, we also have to understand that we’ve got supply chain challenges, and definitely labor shortage challenges. And I’m actually, I think we’ll sort out the supply chain, the labor, I think, is going to take something longer to unwind. But I still feel like there’s just terrific positive momentum. And there’s just a great sense that we came through something that was just so so, so devastating. And I feel like the investment community is saying, We’ve shared the things that really needed to be shared, we rip those band aids off, and we’re going to be able to move forward in a much more positive way.
Ressa 12:34
If you were running a retail business, like you had once upon a time, what would you be doing to bring the best candidates in the door? We’ve seen things like Target tuition reimbursement. Now, obviously, many businesses can’t do things like that they don’t have the balance sheet. So let’s assume you were at a smaller retailer, what would you be doing?
Scardina 13:00
I think, you know, for the big brands, there’s, I know, you said two things. But I think there’s three, I think one you have to have people, you have to explain to people what your what your brand is about and have them buy into your brand. And feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Everybody wants to be part of something. And so we don’t want to have people just walking into a store to work for four hours to leave, you want them to have input to to be able to have some decision making, you know, maybe someone gets to be in charge of some visual merchandising, or they get to do displays. And they’re part of like, kind of the brand ethos when I was young, and I worked at the limited, you just felt like you were part of something that was so much bigger than yourself. It was just such an exciting time. I think, you know, flexibility around hours we haven’t been the best managers of our talent over the years or hours have been really brutal. We don’t always, you know, we always don’t think about how we can be flexible and fit into people’s young needs. And it’s much different. Now, one of the biggest areas where we’ve seen people drop out of the labor force is women with young children. So what can we do to make sure that we’re, you know, helping people, you know, have that flexibility? And then I think, you know, I’m all about the product, right? So what can we do to give people products and provide them discounts. You know, years ago, when I worked in stores, you you were able to get special product for special prices. And so then you got to wear the brand and be part of the brand. So I think those are all things that make people feel like something bigger than themselves. And then obviously, you want people to feel like they’re safe. You know, I think the other thing that we don’t really talk about a lot is there’s a lot of crime going on right now. And we’ve seen it in the news and we need to make sure that people feel safe when they’re when they’re in our employment.
Ressa 14:49
Thank you for sharing that great response. There’s a lot going on. It seems that a simple one might be the right Use price. So wages can be raised, do you think that’s going to happen?
Scardina 15:06
I definitely think that we’re going to see the minimum wage increase, and that we’re going to have to pay more for good talent. It’s interesting, and I’m sure you’re seeing this too, when you go out to dinner, there are some restaurants that are really well staffed and have great, you know, great. And some places where the staff is really too thin, they can’t get them food out, there’s just not enough people. And you’ve got to believe that those experiences where there’s were a lot of people working in there was a really good experience for the consumer are paying a better wage. And they’ve sorted that out. I do think, you know, that’s a big part of it. But you know, people were for different reasons, money is definitely part of the app. But I also think that when I look at some of the studies, people want to feel fulfilled, they want to work someplace where they’re proud, where we’re we’re focused on sustainability, when we’re focused on diversity, equity and equality. I don’t think it’s just as simple as money. I think there’s got to be a package there, especially for younger people.
Ressa 16:06
Yeah, great point. I think it’s a great point on restaurants. Because I think people wander into a restaurant, and they just assume it’s hustle and bustle, and then they, they see that, you know, potentially that half the restaurant is closed off. And there’s limited hours and the consumers getting frustrated. And the reason is, they’re having trouble staffing.
Scardina 16:34
There’s also I think, in the restaurant industry, there’s also opportunities around succession. So how do we get people who can move from one role to another role to into management? Like, how do we make, you know, how do we give those opportunities in the restaurant industry to move people along? And it’s not just to stop a staffing blame for someone? Okay.
Ressa 16:53
That’s the labor side. You mentioned, a ton of exciting stuff. You got me excited. Let’s get everyone else excited. Let’s bring it down a bit and give us what are you concerned about?
Scardina 17:08
I, you know, I am concerned about the new variant. You know, that’s something that I’m concerned about, I’m worried that we’re going to see people unable to get out again, into stores or feel as confident I was in, I was in the mall on Black Friday morning, which I probably was like, the oldest person in the mall on Black Friday morning was really, I think something focused on 15 to 25 year olds. But I’ve been doing that since I was very young. And so I was in the mall at seven o’clock in the morning, my son and daughter in law. And people were they were out, they were together. They were shopping in groups. A lot of people were unmasked, because they had been, you know, vaccinated. And I think there was this feeling of like safety and positivity. And I, you know, I worry about if we have to kind of pull back from that. So that’s a worry. And I worry too, about inflation, you know, it’s hard to understand exactly what’s going on gas prices go up, they go down, lumber was very expensive, it’s come down, the supply chain is really going through, you know, a difficult time we can’t get we’re seeing leases being delayed, because we can’t get fixtures for stores. We’re seeing restaurants not being able to get refrigerators and stoves. And so you know that that kind of slows down the momentum and you worry that people will make will change their mind or change decisions based on not being able to follow through the way they want to. And so I think that’s also very concerning. And I am concerned about what’s going on with the crime in our retail centers. We have some really challenging parts of the United States that are you know, we’ve got to get our arms around and we just came out of this terrible, terrible time. And the last thing we want to do is deter people from going back to stores
Ressa 18:53
couldn’t agree more. We certainly don’t want to deter people from going to the store. Crime is interesting. Because I feel like as it relates to retail, it’s not necessarily the headline news shrink keeps coming up people talking about this. So for you to say that’s one of your biggest concerns going forward. That hits me in resonates. The Shrek one is interesting to me. Because I think the battle is over with ecommerce and brick and mortar and E commerce is the tailwind. What I do think, however, is shrink is less of a challenge for E commerce brands right? People aren’t walking in and out of the store. And there’s other ways that can happen digitally but different types of issues. You can’t drive your car into your computer while maybe you can like you can into a store and take things out. So I saw it What happened? You know, interesting time you bring up a good point and it resonates with me if it shrinks a concern for you, I think it’s something we all need to think about.
Scardina 20:10
Yeah. And it’s, it’s kind of twofold. You know, there’s this very violent crime that’s going on in terms of like smashing and grabbing, which I think is very scary and orchestrated. But then there’s also, you know, you go into a store, and there’s a lack of labor. And there’s kind of the grab and go. And so you know, stores are getting hit by, you know, by people who are probably, you know, a little bit less sophisticated, but they’re getting hit nonetheless. And that is an expense to the retailer. And we I worry about that, because, you know, all of this goes down to their bottom line and their ability to spend capital to expand. So, you know, shortage has been a problem for a long time. You know, my whole career, we’ve dealt with shortage, but this is feels very different. It doesn’t feel it feels like someone really needs to do something about it to kind of stop this this kind of crime, I came up with the idea that someone should do something. I don’t think that I don’t think I’ve thought through it well enough, but I am concerned about it. So that’s
Ressa 21:11
retail. Let’s move on to the real estate side, you come from operational background? Have? Have your eyes been open to what goes into how stores actually end up where they do? Or did you know what was happening behind the scenes.
Scardina 21:28
So just so we don’t get our facts mixed up, I was the president of Calvin Klein, I don’t want anyone to call me Jordan, saying it’s okay. But you know, when you work for a large corporation, and you are a divisional president, you have a real estate person, unfortunately, I had a lovely woman, she’s really wonderful. And they bring you deals because they’re working with certain, you know, landlords, and they bring you deals and you look at the deal, and you stand there and say, Oh, that deal looks good, that location looks good. Oh, that’s where Banana Republic is going to be that looks good. And when I moved into real estate, and certainly part of this, too, is related to the pandemic, we have really migrated away from, you know, taking somebody to a center and standing there and saying, oh, that’s the food court. And that’s where the Polo store is. And so I’ll be right between the food court and the Polo store, or I have to be next to Apple. And now we really use demographics, predictive analytics, mobile data, to be able to say to people, your consumer is doing this, and this is where we’re doing it. There’s been so much that’s changed. And it’s it’s not just in big cities, it’s in small cities like Chicago, Washington, DC, you to Philadelphia, you know, what’s going on in San Francisco, Seattle. And there’s been so much migration look at Houston, Dallas, and Austin. 25 years ago, I went to worried about what my retail presence looks like in Austin, Texas. Now everybody is opening a store in Austin, Texas. So you’ve we’ve really moved away from this, like, Oh, I think this would be a nice location to put a store to really being data driven, analytical, predictive testing and learning open up, you know, pop up stores or short term leases, and really understanding like, Where does the brand resonate? And where does it make sense with the community, which is like light years away from any kind of conversation I’ve ever had, I always say, if I had known what I would be doing, I would have, like, handle things so differently. You know, but I didn’t know, you know, a lot. A lot of you know, things have changed
Ressa 23:40
when you were leading large retail operations. Did you know what went into the negotiation? And the story behind that of how a deal got done for a store to end up? Where did where were you surprised?
Scardina 23:58
Oh, absolutely. I was surprised. I was at a meeting. Our brokers work so hard to strike the right balance, and to look at TI and the term of the lease, and there’s so much that goes into it. And even the number of locations you You see, when you’re trying to decide where to put something. It’s, you know, they work so hard. They really do. I had no idea. And in fairness, you know, most of my businesses were in, you know, malls and outlet centers. And so you’re looking at spaces like, Oh, here’s one space, here’s another space, that space seems nicer. Okay. But you just had no idea.
Ressa 24:37
Okay, that’s a very helpful perspective, especially for the people in retail, not on the real estate side. Okay, general question. Now, what’s going to happen next in retail,
Scardina 24:46
I think we’re going to continue to see vacancies come down. We don’t have a lot of there’s not a lot of new building going on. So unlike in some places where there are lots of new offices go going on in there competing with existing properties, we don’t have a lot of new centers going up in in retail. So vacancies are going to continue to come down, I think we’re going to see rents start to return and normalize, it’s going to be very different by geography. So if you look at what’s going on in the Sunbelt, or, you know, in Miami, versus what’s going on in Chicago, or New York City or San Francisco, it’s going to take time, it’d be different by geography. But I also think we’re going to see tenants change, I mean, we’re going to see, you know, what needs to be a reason for the tenant to be in a location, you’re gonna have to drive traffic for the developer there, you know, the tenant has to feel like the right co tenancy is in the area. There needs to be a sense of community. I think everyone’s talking about that. The retailer needs to show sustainability and diverse in diversity. And it’s a confusing time. You know, I was reading you know, all the articles this morning. And lash soap is talking about really pulling back from social media, but Tik Tok is you looking to sell product. So let’s just, it’s such a confusing time. And I think there’s a lot to sort out. But I feel like from a brick and mortar perspective, we’re going to see the better centers get even better. The B malls find their way, and anything less than that morphed into something very different, whether it’s industrial, multifamily, mixed use, you know, there’s a lot of new tenants on the horizon, this medical thing is exploding. And I think we’re just going to end up with a very different landscape, but but a more productive one.
Ressa 26:45
Today, I actually put out my top five retail real estate transfer 2022. No, I missed. That’s okay. But you kind of hit on three, Oh, good. You hit on three, and it reminds me, one was that retailers are going to get more charming.
The spaces are actually going to get more charming. And I said that because construction costs have risen. And therefore there’s a lack of new development supplies coming off the market. Because as you mentioned, the malls purpose is getting changing.
CBRE actually said that they believe 25% of all retail will be repurposed by 2025. Which I find exciting because for me, that means there’ll be a lack of supply more demand. So there’s a bunch of things, which is retail space will be repurposed, stores will get more charming, the lack of new development and that the you know, the, some of the malls will be repurposed. Yeah, retail real estate isn’t really getting built, because not because of demand. But because of the construction cost and the rent to cost ratio, I said, retailers are going to have to get a little more charming, because they’re going to have to get creative with the spaces in order to get a deal to pencil. There’s going to be a lack of space. And they’re going to have to be creative within the space because of your point. I do think that is good for the industry. You know, and when I say more charming, it might not actually be more charming might just mean they’re keeping the bathrooms in the same spot to save 60 grand and maybe put 30 of that into the experience of the store. The other thing I said is, we’re going to get a lot of new concepts. You mentioned, the health care all all the new things that are happening in shopping centers, and they’re really not alternative anymore. And finally, you mentioned before hiring and the great resignation. Well, one of the things that’s happened from the great resignation are those people are becoming entrepreneurs are some of them and opening up new concepts. So there’s a flip side to the tough to hire story that I think is interesting. Absolutely. I’ll give you one that’s that was my top 2022 retail real estate trend, which is we’ll have more online stores close than physical stores in 2022. Yeah,
Scardina 29:45
it’s possible there’s there’s definitely an abundance of online. I actually listened to a podcast that you did, I guess within the last couple of weeks and you talked about like just the number of online you know, store stores, and it might it scored Have reminds me of the number of channels we can watch now, like, when Paramount plus and peacock came out, I was like, I just feel like now we’re just doing a derivative of you know of what all these others have been and how many things can you really pay for? And how much TV can you watch? The one thing I’ll say differently than I think, you know, you said was that I think the retailer needs to be more sophisticated in how they think about their consumer journey, because the customer is more sophisticated. And this this augmented reality and artificial intelligence and the fact that we do so much of our investigation about what we want to buy on our mobile before we enter the store, there’s going to be a combination of just experiencing the brand, but also making shopping I think, more simple and efficient. I don’t see things like curbside pickup going away, I think returns have an opportunity to be more simple. You know, and there’s a lot of technology around, I think, a lot of analysis that needs to go into how we convert people, when they come back into our store to do something like a return, how do we rebuild a sale? I almost think there’s there’s an opportunity to go back to our roots on clienteling. And how do we get people to know about special events in our store or sales that are going to come? I was in? Well, I can I posted this on LinkedIn a few months ago, and I’ve been talking about it a lot. I’ve been a customer of a ritzy, I have a niece who is in that in that lane and a daughter in law. And I had been blown away about the product, the help in the store, how the store is set up. And I was in, I guess the store on the Tuesday before Black Friday, and they were like, oh, for our best customers were kicking out Black Friday early. Here’s a QR code to scan on your phone. And you can see what the new Black Friday prices are gonna be. And I was like, This is so cool. This is just like the coolest thing. I probably got the ritziest team in trouble. I’m sorry. But I mean, I think that we’re going to have to have a more sophisticated experience in the store. And I think the other thing is, I know talking about a lot of things, but products gotta get back to our roots and product, you know, it’s fine. It’s fine to have a lot of basics. But we need to really see trends evolve. And it must have been terrible as a designer to try to figure out how to do design and production when nobody was in an office. Nobody could touch textiles. And nobody was working in China. It must have been terrible. But we need to see products evolve. You know, we do not need another crew neck cashmere sweater. We just need to see product evolve.
Ressa 32:48
Yeah, I have spent a lot of time in the box space world where it’s super competitive. There’s a lot of retailers competing to sell pampers and Pepsi. As I say, and I agree with you. It’s one thing that digitally native brands bring that are interesting. They’re these lifestyle brands with these new products that we can all marvel at. I actually own some untuckit shirts. What did you think of this past Black Friday, you were out? What was your take?
Scardina 33:17
I had there were some brands that looked good. And some brands that really looked tired. And I think the consumer knew when we first of all athleisure is huge right now. And so every athleisure store headlines out the door. I think the juniors market is doing well, like I was surprised to see, like a real, a lot of attention to packs on American Eagle has been doing well for quite some time. But I think where there’s great product and good value, I don’t think consumers were looking for the deep discounts they necessarily had been, I think there’s a lot of understanding that inventory is a little bit tighter and their supply chain issues. And I didn’t see those big banners in the windows, like we’re giving the store away at 75% off, I definitely felt like things were more subtle. But where there was really good product, there were a lot of people in the store and where there was like, you know, things were kind of status quo. That’s what you saw, you know, that you felt like in the store. And I’m hoping that as we move forward, I mean, Zara was crazy busy. But I think as we move forward, we have to see just, you know, some some reinvention and some reinvestment and really, you know, we don’t need to wear skinny jeans every day. We don’t need to wear leggings every day and we can’t possibly buy any more workout clothes. So like what, as we return to work, which I think is going to be a big part of 2022 I think people are gonna want to get dressed up again. And I think that’s going to be a big you know, it’s going to be an exciting time to see fashion come back.
Ressa 34:51
Yeah. I think in 2022 people who are going to get dressed up again, you make a great point. I personally need to go get a new word. Sure. And I’m excited to do that. I was at Woodbury Commons with my wife recently, and we were getting things for the kids. And it was, I thought the product was exceptional. It was really good. I did find myself saying, you know, the product was great. But in the New World Order, when might I wear that product? You know, I might normally wear this type of product at this event. When is that event going to happen? So I did have a little bit of that?
Scardina 35:26
Well, it’ll be I think, you know, people are very excited to, you know, be together again, I think we’re gonna see a lot of travel and a lot of family gets together the holidays, hopefully, people will be safe. And I do see, you know, more and more people returning to work. Like when I started to go back into the office, and I want to say May or June. I mean, I my office faces Sixth Avenue, I can look down to the park. And it was like, five people walking in the street and for cars. And you know, last week, although it wasn’t nearly like it is at Christmas time, the city was really alive. And the stores were busy. And people were in Rock Center. And they were getting ready to kind of you know, they were putting the lights on the tree with the scaffolding. And it was starting to feel like things were coming back. And we need those commercial business districts to come back to support the retail businesses, so that you open up our coffee shops and lunch places again.
Ressa 36:20
Sure. Okay. Let me to wrap it up. This has been great conversation brings me to the last part of our show. I have three questions for you. Are you ready?
Scardina 36:29
I’m ready.
Ressa 36:30
What extinct retailer Do you wish would come back from the dead.
Scardina 36:33
So I have three. So I miss the limited and what it did for women as they were crossing from being a college student and into their early part of their career and just the great product, but I miss it most because that’s where I really I really cut my teeth. I spend a lot of time across the Limited Express Cacique. And so I have like a fondness for that. I think the other thing that I was talking to someone about was, and it will never come back. But blockbuster. I was telling a story to someone how I would pick up my son after you know, after work at daycare, and we would rush to the blockbuster and I would call my husband on the phone at work and be like they have this movie, but they haven’t confused should we rent to movies? Will we get them back in time? You know, is this appropriate for my child and there was just something really fun. Personally, though, I would say and I think I’ve talked to you about this before I’m so sad to see Barney’s go. I thought the curation of clothing, jewelry accessories and footwear was just so special. And I have so many fond memories of shopping with my girlfriends and then going to Fred’s for their fantastic french fries and I was really sad to see that go and even put an outpost in sacks and call it Barney’s. It’s not boring.
Ressa 37:51
Yeah. Okay. What was the last item over $20 You bought in the store?
Scardina 37:56
Oh, I’ve been shopping in Sephora for all the people the women in my life so I’ve been buying a lot of cosmetics. Oh, my God. I think I’ve spent a fortune in Sephora in the last two weeks.
Ressa 38:10
And lastly, before I let you go if you and I were shopping at Target and I lost you would I would I find you
Scardina 38:15
probably were pet supplies are I have a 16 year old cockapoo and I love to buy her toys and beds, weed beds all over the house and you know, really like treats. You know, things like that. But you’re not gonna find me in the kitchen. i Oh, that’s for sure.
Ressa 38:32
Okay, well, this was great. Thank you so much for taking the time. Let’s definitely do it again.
Scardina 38:38
Let me see Kranthi was great seeing you happy holidays. Have a great holiday.
Ressa 38:41
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