Outlet Mall Vacancies Empty Storefronts Appearing At Post Falls Mall, Creating Worries About Health Of Tourism Economy

Linnea Boaz noticed something missing recently at the Factory Outlet mall, one of her favorite shopping places: outlets.

“I was a little surprised by it,” said Boaz, a Liberty Lake resident who likes to shop here several times a month. “I’m used to seeing it full.”

The original cluster of 50 outlets has had up to 10 or more empty spaces this fall. A few holiday stores are filling some gaps for Christmas, but after they close at the beginning of the year, merchants believe as many as 15 stores will be empty.

For a mall that has seen steady sales since opening in 1991, the vacancies are an eye-opener.

Outlets such as Easy Spirit, Champion/Hanes Activewear, Bannister Shoe and the Australia Hat Outlet are gone.

Mall management said the outlets left because their parent companies folded nationwide, taking all stores - including their discount outlets - down with them.

Outlet stores are the final resting places for merchandise that large retailers couldn’t sell at their network of stores elsewhere.

“It’s absolutely normal for this to happen,” Kay Riplinger, marketing director for the mall, said about the vacancies. “We’re working now to get them filled.”

A smaller, separately managed outlet mall adjacent to the Factory Outlet mall is not suffering the same exodus of tenants. In fact, one retailer left the larger mall in favor of its smaller neighbor. The Oneida fine dishware outlet wanted smaller retail space.

“I’ve been a little worried about the empty stores here,” said Carol Erickson, manager of Perfumania at the original outlet mall. “I don’t know if they’ve been marketing the mall as well as they could.”

Erickson has managed the store since the mall opened 5-1/2 years ago, selling perfumes at discounts of 10 percent to 70 percent. Business has been decent, but the loss of Canadian shoppers continues to hurt, she said.

The value of the Canadian dollar dropped in 1993, keeping Alberta and British Columbia tourists north of the border.

Tourism and retail marketers have scrambled to replace them ever since.

Regardless, vacancies at the Factory Outlet mall hurt more than the bottom line of its owner, Benderson Development Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y. The outlets have been a key part of efforts to lure tourists to Kootenai County and Post Falls.

Aside from the loss of Canadian shoppers, several theories abound about why the mall’s future might not be as bright as tourism backers had hoped.

The specter of the soon-to-be-open Spokane Valley Mall has retailers elsewhere worried.

Carol Morgan, manager of the American Tourister store at the Factory Outlet mall until early this year, says filling the empty spots could prove difficult with the big mall just down Interstate 90 set to open in August.

“I think people may be worried that the draw just isn’t going to be there,” Morgan said from the American Tourister outlet store in North Bend, Wash., she now manages.

Luring enough shoppers to attract new outlets might have become a problem.

The top characteristic that discounters consider when looking to open a store is traffic, said Bill Delorge, vice president of merchandise management for Group USA, a Secaucus, N.J.-based outlet retailer with stores around the country.

“We believe in the outlet concept, but we believe in doing our homework,” Delorge said. “It’s got to be the right location, and the biggest aspect of location is the traffic we see and its demographics.”

The Inland Northwest does have more than half a million residents within easy driving distance of the Post Falls outlets, but with the Valley mall, well-established NorthTown in Spokane and “big box” stores such as Fred Meyer competing for dollars, there might not be enough shoppers to go around.

Shoppers may be growing wary of outlets, according to Jack Taylor, a retail professor at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Ala.

“I think outlets are a little deceiving,” Taylor said. “You’ll find some merchandise at low prices, but on average, the prices at most outlets aren’t any better than sale prices at stores elsewhere.”

The size of outlet malls also seems to make a difference in their success. An outlet mall with more than 100 stores about an hour from Taylor draws busloads of shoppers from Mississippi and even Atlanta, he said. Smaller outlet malls may not have that “novelty” draw, he said.

“People take two-day trips just to shop all the stores,” Taylor said. More outlet construction around Birmingham suggests that retailers believe outlet malls work - but only in the right spots.

For her part, Boaz, the frequent shopper in Post Falls, believes the outlets will do just fine. With enough packages in hand to make a good dent in her Christmas shopping, she walked along the covered sidewalks while easy-listening music was piped through speakers above.

“I think it will survive,” she said. “I like to shop outdoors. Malls make me feel inhibited. And people just like to shop at factory outlets.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo