“How does a restaurant barely eight months old win this designation?” ask the editors of Connecticut magazine, in touting the new Darien Social Grill among the top six neighborhood eateries in the state.
A good question, and one perhaps not entirely answered by the editor”™s blithe summation “by doing a lot of things right.”
Darien Social was one of 65 Fairfield County venues designated by Connecticut magazine editors as the “Best of Connecticut 2012.” Recipients ranged from chi-chi Greenwich Avenue and its myriad shops for splurge shopping, to Monroe”™s gritty Lake Zoar Drive-In restaurant, home of the “Zoar burger” as well as Thursday night antique car, truck and bike rallies through October.
The annual issue offers a major splash of publicity for the winners: “Best of Connecticut” features made up more than half of reader favorites on the Trumbull-based publication”™s website in early September.
The retail and hospitality industries remain a mixed bag entering the fall. Connecticut magazine”™s Yardley, Pa.-based parent Journal Register Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing a 19 percent decline in print advertising over two years amid continued struggles for newspapers and magazines of all kinds. An affiliate of Alden Global Capital L.L.C. put in a stalking horse bid for Journal Register, with Journal Register operator Digital First Media allowed to consider other offers.
As of July, Connecticut”™s retail sector employment was up by 3,700 jobs from a year ago, a 2.1 percent gain, according to the state Department of Labor. Employment in the arts, education and recreation sector was up by 1,400 jobs for a 4.9 percent boost to lead all industries (accommodation and food services were up a more modest 2 percent).
And in the first quarter, Connecticut saw a 25 percent spike in retail tax collections from a year earlier, albeit impacted by an increase in the sales tax rate (now the 11th highest in the nation), and a surge in revenue from taxes on clothing after the state eliminated an exemption on that front.
Where the action is
If Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford are the epicenters of Fairfield County”™s retail sector, as determined by sales tax contributions from the cities”™ big-box stores, shopping centers and malls, Westport is the runaway leader for upscale shopping and dining options. Connecticut magazine”™s editors selected 20 establishments in the town, not to mention Main Street proper, which like Greenwich Avenue was noted as a destination shopping experience.
Independent stores continue to withstand the onslaught of e-commerce and big-box competitors, even as Connecticut considers options for extracting sales tax from dot-coms that sell here.
Amazon.com Inc. was the second fastest retailer in the nation, according to a Kantar Retail ranking in the August issue of STORES magazine published by the National Retail Federation (Kantar Retail has a consulting office in Wilton), with sales up 46 percent in 2010. The only company to top it was Suffern, N.Y.-based Ascena Retail Group, Inc., which runs dressbarn, founded in Stamford in 1962 and with a half-dozen stores in Fairfield County today.
Employment at specialty stores easily outstripped that of general retailers in August, according to federal jobs data, with specialty store employment up 2.8 percent compared to 1 percent for general merchandisers.
Independent, specialty retailers, products and restaurants are prized most in Fairfield County, carving out a unique place among the masses of big-box stores and strip malls that otherwise clutter city avenues.
Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. has a large number of both chains and specialty retailers in its Fairfield County shopping centers. In the third quarter, its core property portfolio was 91 percent leased, up “modestly” from the end of last year but still well below the 96 percent occupancy rate it historically has hit. Through the first nine months of the year, base rent revenue from Urstadt Biddle buildings was up 6 percent.
“Overall we feel good about the direction of the leasing at most of our properties, although we do have three or four properties where the leasing environment coming out of the recession has been more challenging,” said Wing Biddle, president and chief operating officer of Greenwich-based Urstadt Biddle, in a review of the company”™s third-quarter results. “We are encouraged to see an uptick in our ”¦ overall operating results this quarter as some of the leasing we completed in late 2011 and 2012 began to come on line without being offset by additional vacancies.”
What”™s in store
Some retail landlords will find temporary takers for space from “pop-up” stores, with Halloween costume stores already securing space at some shopping centers.
All are looking with uncertainty to the coming holiday season. Of retail chains surveyed in the past several weeks by Philadelphia-based Hay Group, 75 percent expect an increase in holiday sales and the vast majority expect to hire at least as many employees as last year, with more than a third saying they will boost their 2011 hiring.
Retailers are also increasing their focus on permanent employees, with 43 percent indicating they will have more permanent workers and fewer seasonal workers this year. With renewed confidence and a bullish outlook for 2013, retailers want to retain more workers beyond the holiday season.
Four in 10 retailers will launch holiday promotions in October this year, though half say they will cut back on discounting this year.
“One of the lessons learned during the downturn was that stores need to be able to respond more quickly to shifting market conditions and consumer preferences,” said Maryam Morse, an executive of Hay Group”™s retail practice, in a prepared statement. “Now inventory is better managed, the supply chain is more effective and retailers have a clear plan for promotions to move the merchandise. With sales improving, retailers are placing more emphasis on retaining and rewarding employees and identifying career paths,” Morse said.
It all comes down to shoppers, of course. In August, The Conference Board3 Inc., a New York City-based independent business membership and research association, reported its consumer confidence index hit its lowest point since the previous November, in part due to continued apprehension about their job prospects. And the National Federation of Independent Business reported this month that consumer spending slowed midyear, with one in five companies citing weak sales as their biggest business problem.
