The traditional high street is caught between a rock and a hard place, on the one hand growing out-of-town retailing and on the other hand dramatically increasing spending on internet retailing. Retailers are working really hard, they're buying better, promoting better and reducing cost quicker.

And what are we doing in shopping centre management?

Are we buying better than last year in real terms? How many others have moved our security operations from in-house to a contract only to find we're paying more money and still need the same in-house management to monitor the contract? The same can be said of many services.

Are we as demanding of the managing agents as they are of us and our contractors? Are we promoting ourselves better? Do we know who our customers are? Where they live? Do we know what floats their boat?

Our websites should be up-to-date, giving details as to how to find the centre; a postcode and map reference would assist the growing number of satellite navigation users.

Special offer coupons should be made available via the website, mailing lists should be built up so that we can send out special offers. The first offer I had from one leading shopping centre was not to go shopping but to go to the theatre, which was not connected to the shopping centre.

Now is the time to start thinking outside the box, to challenge the unthinkable, because...

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

Mr Rees Hopper

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