Wayne Abegglen, CEO of Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town:  “Canal Walk’s top retail categories are expected to be technology, toys, jewellery and gifting this festive season.  Noting the centres cumulative performance to-date all the indicators are pointing to a bumper festive season.  We have also observed that shoppers are more relaxed this year in comparison to last year’s festive season and this should translate into more sales and spend-per-head.  Our great variety on offer as well as our renowned school holiday programme for kids will cater for our shoppers needs.  Our Snow event offers tube sliding down a giant breathtaking snow ramp as well as a children’s play area. Another December highlight includes the Snowboarding Rail Jam Competition featuring the top snow boarders in the country.  Our extended shopping hours as well as new retailers such as Forever New, Inglot, Speedo Concept Store, Lu by Lollita, Toy Kingdom as well as the larger Dis-Chem and Incredible Megastore all add to the convenience and are major draw cards for shoppers.  All in all, our retail forecast is positive for Christmas 2010.”

Sheridan Naude, Festival Mall in Joburg’s East Rand:  “Clothing and shoe stores are expected to trade exceptionally well at Festival Mall this Christmas.  Consumers are seeking value for money and good deals, and will spend at retailers offering this.  The festive season is always a period of positive retail spending, and this year should be no different.  We anticipate this year will trade better than the same period in 2009. The general job losses experienced country-wide over the last two years have not had a great impact on our market, and despite this Festival Mall has actually experienced a fair increase in turnover in the past few months.  The big draw card over Christmas is our gifting and clothing variety on offer.”

Rachel Klaasen, Hemingways Mall in East London: “We predict that the food, clothing and home wear retailers will be the most successful retail traders at Hemingways Mall.  Due to the economic pressures, many customers have changed their priorities and there is less focus on short-term beneficial purposes.    As consumers are still very price conscious, as an after effect of the recession, retailers that offer “greater value” will trade exceptionally well.  Consumers are more credit conscious and will be more careful when purchasing on credit.  Although there is still a feeling of uneasiness with consumers as to what the New Year will bring financially, I do believe that this festive season will experience better retail trade in comparison to 2009.  The draw card for our centre is the convenience angle – with only one trip to ensure that the entire family is catered for.  Our outstanding variety will also be enhanced with the arrival of the Platinum Group to our centre in time for Christmas.”

Hennie van Staden, I’langa Mall in Nelspruit:  “As I’langa Mall enters its first year of festive trading, we anticipate a season of positive growth in turnover as our shoppers belong to a relatively traditional market with a strong Christmas focus.  We expect that retailers such as Game and Dion will trade exceptionally well, as well as stores offering credit purchases. The convenience factor and our extended shopping hours will be a major draw card to our centre.  There is also an expectation that shoppers will spend more money on necessity goods this December.” 

Debra Sharnock, Killarney Mall in Joburg’s Northern suburbs:  “Due to our diverse shopper demographic overflowing into various religious spheres, we have noticed that our Summer Sale in January is a greater retail period than Christmas in our centre.  This being said, we do believe that those shopping for gifts in December will focus on value clothing and house hold goods and that shoppers are seeking items of need rather than want.  We believe that the December trade this year will not greatly differ that of 2009.” 

Jacqui Douglas, Morningside Shopping Centre in Sandton:  “Morningside Shopping Centre will be going into its second year of festive trading.  With a less conventional market falling in a higher LSM group in comparison to other centres, we predict that our restaurants and retailers focusing on health, wellbeing and beauty will be the most successful categories.  Although Christmas is a high-spend period in our centre, we anticipate that our Summer Sale in January will also do well. Where income cuts have been experienced due to the recession, we expect that there will be a greater focus on need-driven purchases as opposed to want-driven purchases.  In 2009, Morningside Shopping Centre traded remarkably well in comparison to other centres and we anticipate that this trend will continue. We believe that our convenience angle, children’s activities and charity campaigns will be an added draw card for our shoppers.”