Do you know why knowing your traffic flow is so important to strip mall success? There are a few decisions that will be made depending on the traffic flow. Learning more about this topic will help you better understand how to place the right tenants in your strip mall. Read this article for more.
One big determining factor to knowing your traffic flow is which end you see first. In America, since everyone drives on the right side of the road, you pick the end that drivers see first. That gives the shop a little better recognition and, in most cases, you can paint a sign on the end of the building, which usually provides better visibility than anybody else in the center.
Because this tenant is so important to the overall success of the strip, save that end- cap for a business that is able to pull people in off the street.
Tip: Remember, where you place those tenant businesses in your retail property should depend on which way the traffic is moving. Determine if the traffic is moving towards the business/commercial district (work-side of town), or the residential section (home side) of your city. If you’ve never considered this fact before, it’s true. Most major streets in your area have evolved as arteries that carry travelers from a more residential area to a more commercial area going one direction, and vice versa going the other direction!
Therefore, there are literally businesses that are on the “way to work” for a majority of people and others on the other side of that same road that are “on the way home” for the majority of travelers on that street. That’s a major consideration in the retail business (both for the business owner and for you the property owner deciding to whom to rent your retail space).
For example, a good anchor for the on-the-way-to-work-side is food, like Dunkin’ Donuts or a Starbucks. You might also want stores that stock the kinds of things that people buy on their way to work. This is another reason why knowing your traffic flow is important.
For stores on the homebound route, you might try getting a Blockbuster or a Pizza Hut. Hamburgers can be in either direction, but generally they are on “on the way home” side. For example, McDonald’s usually wants to be on that side, although McDonald’s sometimes builds across the street from each other, because they know they’re going to get so much business, that either direction will work.
Your main concern when you are building or buying a strip center is that it has a logical end cap— one that’s going to pull people in off of the street because they see it first when approaching. Hopefully, you will have other stores in the center that can take advantage of the traffic.
You don’t want to add to the traffic, if you have a small building, like 6 units or less. That means retail tenants here who require medium-term parking and are not “in and out” places should be limited. For example, to conserve parking, you should only have one restaurant in a strip of this size.
Another entity, a dry cleaner, is an excellent choice for the work-side of the road. Be sure to locate this shop next to another work-side store, because they’ll have the same traffic at 7 o’clock in the morning. You don’t want a dry cleaner located next to something like Starbucks. The people that stop in to get a donut don’t go to the dry cleaner unless they have dry cleaning with them.
Tips: When selecting tenants for your strip, you’ll want to…
• Put an end cap in that’s dependent on which side of the road you are on and that will pull people in from the street because they see it first.
• Try to manage the parking, as you don’t want to put too many people with the same kind of hours next door to each other or have too many tenants like restaurants where clients will be parking for a length of time on their visits.
• Get tenants in place that are going to stay in business.
• Look for franchises instead of a Mom & Pop type business to take advantage of brand name recognition for your strip center as a whole to benefit.
Knowing your traffic flow is a huge part of being able to place the right tenants for strip mall success.
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