Fiesta Bowl Shopping at Tanger Outlet Mall Opens in Glendale Arizona

The thirty-ninth Tanger Outlet Mall opened in Glendale Arizona in November of 2012. There are 37 Tanger Outlet Malls through-out the United States and one Tanger Outlet Mall in Canada.

Shoppers turned out in droves to buy merchandise from the 29 permanent stores and the 2 temporary stores in the mall. Very few mall operators have opened new malls during the current economic hard times. However, the venue for the Tanger Outlet Mall is superb due to being located in the Westgate Entertainment Complex.

Tanger has opened amongst the very successful Cabela’s World’s Foremost Outfitters, AMC IMAX Theater, Arizona Cardinals Football Stadium, the Phoenix Coyotes Ice Hockey Stadium, a host of night clubs and eateries, as well as several well appointed hotels. The project sits at the intersection of the Route 101 and Glendale Street. It is easily accessible to the over 3 million residents and 8 million winter visitors via those streets. It is the closest outlet mall to the Greater Phoenix area.

I short, the old adage that location, location, location are the three most important things in retail has been more than met with this location.

The outlet mall is a derivation of in-house manufacturing over-runs. Factories use to make too many of an item or make an item that was less than perfect. They would have an in-house store to sell off these items. There still is a Revlon Outlet Store in Phoenix, AZ at 1402 S. 40^th Avenue.

In most recent memory someone had the idea to create a full mall property filled with over-run, and slightly-off products. Even when businesses were having their products made overseas they would still sell off the seconds and over-runs at an in-house outlet store in the USA.

However, the companies wisely knew to protect their retail vendors and not damage the brand by becoming only a cheap outlet product. So, it was generally contracted that the outlet malls had to be a certain distance from regular malls and department stores, so as to not interfere with full price sales of the merchandise.

At one point several manufacturers actually closed their outlet mall store in order to secure a contract with a large retailer. Russell Sports closed their doors in order to secure a huge contract with the Wal-Mart organization, at one time. This cost Russell Sports a great deal of money to buy-out existing leases, so one can assume the contract with Wal-Mart was quite lucrative.

The next phase of outlet malls came when the manufacturers and vendors realized that they could make a great deal of money selling their product themselves and not having the ‘middle man’ I.e. the mall retail store take any of the profit.

This worked for only a few manufacturers or vendors as most figured out they had no idea how to run a retail store. Some survived and hired professional retailers to run their store operations.

Several manufacturers and vendors then started making products just for sale at their outlet malls. Nine West Shoes did that. They would sell the Mandy named shoe at the regular full priced mall and then make a Mardy named shoe that was very much like the Mandy to sell at their outlet location.

Outlet Malls became a staple in the world of retail.

The Tanger Outlet Mall in Arizona is an open air mall. It has huge fans to act as cooling agents during the desert hot summers. Although, there are not cooling mist systems installed at this time, one can surmise that the misting systems will be added. Shade sales also add the needed respite from the blazing desert sun. Trees and landscaping also provide a cooling atmosphere.

Signage must be erected for each store. The mall itself needs to provide excellent signage for the tenants. Customers need to know exactly where their favorite stores are located. Customers usually like to park near their favorite store and will only walk so far.

Security needs to have mobility in a property of this size. The use of the Segway is workable in this area. This is due to the area receiving little rain and no snow. Golf carts are often used on such properties as well in the desert. In harsher weather an enclosed truck is required.

The shopper needs to feel safe. Most times the job of security is to be visible and well connected to the mall office and local police. Security has limited authority.

Landscaping is usually contracted out to local vendors. Landscaping is needed to provide the retail environment and provide an attractive shopping venue.

You can get some wonderful sales and deals at the outlet mall. However, you are advised to shop wisely and know the product that you are shopping for.

Several particularly well regarded outlet stores are at Tanger Mall in Glendale, Arizona. These stores include but are not limited to; Talbots, Le Creuset, Nike Factory Store, GUESS Factory Store, Naturalizer, Nine West, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, and White House/Black Market Outlet store. Here is a full list of the stores: http://www.tangeroutlet.com/glendale

Be sure to look into the Tanger Outlet Chic Elite Club membership. Tanger will also text deals to you. There is a Tanger APP as well. Follow them on Facebook as well.

Opening a new outlet mall is just another sure sign that the economy is in an upturn.