Increase retail sales now, clear inventory fast, and get ready to Sell for 2009.

YOU WILL EITHER BE RETAIL ROAD KILL OR YOU WILL BE A SURVIVOR.

Read the following article and then let's figure out how to be one of the Survivors.
The dead mall problem

Experts say Atlanta, Las Vegas, and retail hubs in California and Florida are at real economic risk if thousands of more stores shutter in 2009.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As the recession leaves more retail casualties in its wake, rising store bankruptcies and mall closures could have devastating economic consequences.

As more stores exit malls, vacancies in regional malls could rise past 7% by year-end, a level not hit since the first quarter of 2001, according to real estate research firm Reis.

Major cities across America will be affected, said David Bribery, Chairman and co-CEO of Atlanta-based The Shopping Center Group, a retail real estate services firm.

Both Birnbrey and Susan Wachter, professor with University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Real Estate Department, warn the social and economic impact of empty stores can be devastating.

"One of the biggest consequences [of store and mall closings] is the loss of a sense of community," Birnbrey said. "I am a big believer that malls are an essential part of Americana. A mall is a place where people gather and socialize."

In addition, many municipalities are heavily dependent on retailers for the tax revenue and jobs that they generate.

For example, Montgomery County, Pa., gets as much as 50% of its tax revenue from the local King of Prussia mall, said Wachter.

The impact will be felt on local police service, schools and roads, said Birnbrey.

The village of North Randall in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is on the verge of extinction after a challenging economic and competitive climate has crippled business at the Randall Park Mall.

The shopping center, once the largest enclosed mall in the greater Cleveland area, is closing after 32 years. [Read story]

The pain could be far reaching. "The Midwest, California, Florida, Atlanta and Arizona are very vulnerable to a retail recession," said Wachter.

Forecasts look bleak

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), in its most recent forecast, expects that 6,100 chain stores will shutter this year, the highest level since 2004 "as the U.S. recession continues to take its toll on the retail sector and its job market."

In 2009, the ICSC estimates that store closings could exceed 3,100 in just the first half of the year. However, the number of potential closings rises exponentially when the firm takes into account both public and private sector businesses.

The ICSC projects that about 148,000 retail establishments - both public and private - will go out of business this year and another 73,000 stores will close in the first half of 2009.

The ICSC projects that about 625,000 retail jobs will be eliminated this year "with little change in the pace for early 2009."

Fewer retailers means less competition and fewer places to shop. "Right now everyone is euphoric over the big sales," Birnbrey said. "Once the holiday season is over then we could get this monopolistic situation where the [retail] survivors realize that they don't need to be as competitive on prices."

Is America too 'overstored'?

But not everyone sees a dead mall as a negative development.

"Our country has six times more retail space per capita than any other county," said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Institute of Technology.

"We're just cannibalizing our existing stores by building more stores even when sales aren't increasing," she said. "We were long due for a retail correction and we're going through it now."

Dunham-Jones said big-box enclosed malls have become a dying breed as more shoppers prefer going to shop at strip malls or "lifestyle" open-air malls.

"The good news is that this isn't the first time we'll see dead malls," she said. In an upcoming book, "Retrofitting Suburbia," co-authored by Dunham Jones, she's included case studies of more than 100 places across North America that have turned dead malls or big-box stores into thriving community centers.

What's needed, she said, is for the public and private sector to be opportunistic and develop the 100 acres of prime mall space for mixed community use like schools, libraries and new housing.

John Norquist, a former mayor of Milwaukee who now lectures on urban planning, agreed with Dunham-Jones.

"There's no disgrace in a dead mall," Norquist said. "In Milwaukee, we had one department store, Boston Store, in the downtown area. When that went away and the rest of retailing went into the suburbs, we focused in developing the empty space into housing and I gave fast permits."

Norquist rationalized that more housing would eventually attract more retailing. "Milwaukee opened up for [retail] business in 2001 and it's continued to grow," he said.

But Wharton's Wachter remained unconvinced. She said any talk of redevelopment in this environment is "unrealistic."

"Everything that has been suggested needs funding. There's no money for these adaptive reuses [of retail space] for communities," she said.

Blirnbrey's criticism was somewhat harsher. "It's human nature to put a positive light on a bad situation," he said. "It's just a case of hope springs eternal."

So, time to think creatively, changes on the scale we will See in 2008-2009 represent danger, risk and opportunity.

What are the winners in retail doing and planning?

Job ONE - CLEAR INVENTORY

Smart retailers are looking at creative ways to attract more business FAST, and get the 2008 inventory out the door NOW, the retailers that succeed are using a variety of special offers, offers that drive larger purchase and some interesting creative "gifting strategies" that operate on two levels;

SMART - Increase attraction and traffic for immediate, larger purchase.

SMARTER - Develop a "sticky" relationship, linked to in-depth knowledge of all traffic, in order to extend attraction for purchases in the 2009 upcoming season.

(I have recently helped develop a number of creative strategies, that operate on multiple levels to achieve these goals)

JOB TWO - GET READY FOR 2009 - FOR THOSE LEFT STANDING

If you listen to the above suggestions, and you are still standing, you will be able to leverage the large scale relationships and knowledge of large groups of new traffic and customers, added to your existing customer base to reach out INTELLIGENTLY to sell more and more effectively as 2009 gets rolling.

The competition will be FIERCE and you will need to have a head start.

You will need to be smarter in reaching and understanding your market, mark my words, the market is changing fast, stop wasting money on poorly targeted marketing, that wastes encredible sums of money for questionable results that are short on accountability.

Bottom Line: YOU DON'T HAVE MONEY OR TIME TO WASTE

Survival will be a product of fast, knowledge based, targeted actions that do the job economically.

I am seeing the results of this in the marketplace, the changes are breathtaking and very profitable for Retailers that seize the opportunity. Think Walmart, but you can gain the advantage and profit for a fraction of the cost with the newest tools available.

Get on it NOW, time is wasting.