MONROE — Most malls are struggling these days, as anchor stores close and others follow them out.
But at Cincinnati's biggest outlet mall --Cincinnati Premium Outletsin Monroe, Ohio -- just the opposite is happening, as it is adding a half dozen new stores this summer and fall.
Marketing Director Anne Winegardner said "We are opening 6 new stores over the summer and into this fall, it will be 8 total for 2022 this year."
How is that possible, during these tough economic times, when so many area malls (with the exception of Kenwood Towne Center) are turning into ghost towns?
Winegardner credits 3 factors: the fact that a lot of shoppers during the pandemic wanted open air shopping, combined with a wide selection of brand names, and everyday discount pricing.
"A lot of our shoppers are used to 25 to 60 percent off every day savings, with outlet pricing, especially in this economy," she said.
She says shoppers still want brands like Ralph Lauren, Adidas, Tory Burch, and Coach, but don't want to pay retail for those brands, when their grocery bill and other bills are are at record high prices.
While the merchandise in those stores is often not the exact same merchandise you will find at a Macy's or Nordstrom, shoppers in these tough economic times don't seem to mind.
Shopper Crystal McVeigh says with inflation hitting her budget hard these days, signs promising markdowns was just what was she was looking for this back to school season.
"These sales sound really good to me," she said. "Considering yeah, we have 4 kids, so any kind of discount is amazing."
New stores arriving in 2022
New stores going into the outlet mall owned by Simon Properties include:
- American Eagle Outfitters and its sister store Aerie
- Versona, a women's clothing and jewelry chain.
- Leggings Outlet.
- Hall Jewelers.
- Perfume Outlet.
- Bella Boutique.
In addition, the Adidas outlet store is moving this fall into a much larger store that formerly housed the Saks Off 5th store,
With stimulus checks long spent, and gas, utility, and grocery prices hitting our budget hard, discount stores are the hottest thing this summer, and Cincinnati Premium Outlets is taking advantage of that.
As always, don't waste your money.
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