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Este informe no está disponible en español. CARIBBEAN BUSINESS Shoppers Hit The Local Malls For DadsMall Tenants Satisfied With Father’s Day Sales By TAINA ROSA June 26, 2003 Mother’s Day and Father’s Day proved once again to be magnets for Puerto Rico consumers, with managers of local shopping malls reporting that tenants are satisfied with sales during the two holidays. Now the malls are looking forward to the back-to-school season, which they hope will also be a hit. Although sales figures for May and June aren’t in, mall managers said that traffic was good. "The malls were packed on Father’s Day," said Ilsa Vidal, leasing director of Commercial Properties. She noted, however, that there was slightly more traffic for Mother’s Day. PMI Marketing Manager Martha Hermilla said that traffic was equally good during both holidays. "Plaza del Sol was full and we received positive feedback from our tenants," she said. Marietta Don-Segarra, vice president of Centro Gran Caribe, also noticed the same amount of traffic during both holidays. "These are always good days for the malls," she said. "Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were both good; many people came to the mall." Don-Segarra explained that one way she measured traffic was by counting the number of shoppers who entered raffles during the two holidays. Tenants’ opinions were also encouraging, she said. One retailer that has space in many local malls is Marshalls. The company’s corporate affairs director, Angelo Mercado, said that sales for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were good. "We expected sales to surpass those of last year by a slight margin, and they did," he said. The island’s shopping malls are now looking forward to back-to-school season, which begins in mid-July. That is when parents buy all the items their schoolchildren will need for the coming academic year, including backpacks, uniforms, shoes, and school supplies. Although the mall executives interviewed by CARIBBEAN BUSINESS hadn’t begun preparing their back-to-school promotions, all said they expect positive sales during the season. "We are still concentrating on summer, but we plan to begin working on back-to-school next month," said Don-Segarra. Mercado said that Marshalls has already ordered merchandise for the back-to-school season. "Our buyers ordered merchandise for the stores in January," he said. In general, sales at local malls seem to have picked up compared with last year, though consumers are still cautious, according to mall executives. This Caribbean Business article appears courtesy of Casiano Communications.
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