PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

Global retail fuels frequent flier

By Edmund Mander

Ian Thomas

Not only does Ian Thomas, president of Thomas Consultants, fly more miles each year than any of Canadian Airline's other passengers; he travels farther than a good many of its pilots, too.

Yet there is just a hint of irritation in his voice when he is grilled on the subject.

This story, insists Thomas, who runs the Vancouver, B.C.-based retail development planning firm, is not about him or his four years as Canadian Airline's top passenger. The real story is about what it represents—the globalization of retailing and the shopping center industry.

His globe-trotting "underscores the portability of concepts," Thomas said, describing how his company now is working with retailers and developers in more than 30 countries on the American, Asian, African and European continents. "The shopping center industry has been embraced in all corners of the world."

Thomas flies about 400,000 miles a year, which is a bit more than the distance flown by the average domestic pilot for Canadian Airlines. At last count, Thomas had clocked 1.4 million miles, but that is going up, if not every day then every other day: That's how often Thomas, who spends two-thirds of his time away from home, gets on an airplane. The past year has seen Thomas travel to Sydney, where he advised on the Olympic Games village; Athens, where he consulted on the creation of Village Entertainment Park, an urban entertainment center; São Paulo, where he addressed the ABRASCE (the Brazilian shopping center council) conference on—what else?—global retail development as well as to Hong Kong, Thailand, London; and dozens of other destinations.

With some notable exceptions, developers building shopping centers in some parts of the world historically have not paid a lot of attention to the finer points of design and retailing, he noted. Malls with seven or eight stories, which anywhere else would have spelled disaster, have been common in Asia, for example.

But globalization is changing all that, and owners are fast learning that the same rules that govern mall design in the United States apply everywhere else today, Thomas said.

"Today there is a common thread around the world about what constitutes a successful shopping center," he said. All it takes sometimes to drive that lesson home is for a good mall to open near an existing, obsolete one.

"If you try to match the standard rather than beat it, you do so at your own peril," Thomas cautioned.

International design firms like RTKL, with which Thomas has worked extensively, have helped propagate innovative concepts in retail development around the globe.

But by no means do ideas flow in only one direction from the United States anymore, he stressed.

"It used to be that the U.S. was a great exporter of ideas; now it's an importer of ideas," he said. Simon Property Group's relatively recent effort to market its malls as a brand is what Australia's Westfield Corp. has done for years with its Shoppingtowns, he pointed out. Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia, has attracted worldwide attention in the industry for its giant atrium and other innovative features. The mall's owner, John Gandel, chairman of The Gandel Retail Trust, has "scoured the world" for ideas in his ongoing quest to expand and improve the property, Thomas said.

"Today the most successful malls that are being built in Asia are not all based on the American plan necessarily, but the international one."

Retailers also are helping spearhead this global idea exchange as international frontiers become easier to cross for people and businesses alike. Paris-based Carrefour's hypermarkets can be found not only in Europe, but in Asia and South America, too. Retailers such as Spain's Zara, Sweden's H&M and Italy's Armani are destinations for shoppers around the globe, including the United States.

Such ideas, of course, don't travel by themselves, but have to be lugged around the world by people like Thomas. Which leads us back to the subject of his life in the sky: How does he endure those long stretches without a stretch, all that stale air and less-than-fresh food, the hordes at the check-in counter and countless flight delays, day after day after day? "Well come now, it's not quite that bad when you're flying business class," Thomas pointed out.

"Fortunately, as a frequent flyer, I get to the front of the line most of the time, so that relieves an enormous amount of anxiety and tension," he said.

Another trick of his is to work out before a flight so that he is not only in peak condition, but also tired and ready to sleep on boarding the plane. Staying clear of alcohol also helps him sleep, he added. As for all that stuff about preventing oneself going to sleep in order to adjust to a new time zone: It's hogwash, Thomas said. He just sleeps when he's ready.

"You end up relying on adrenaline, and I'm really surprised how far you can push the system." Occasionally, though, the adrenaline has run out rather suddenly and, not realizing how tired he was, his brain has frozen in mid-sentence, Thomas admitted.

But the staff at Canadian Airlines try to do all they can to keep their No. 1 customer rested and relaxed. By now they know Thomas very well, and greet him by name as he enters the business class waiting areas, far from the madding crowds in the economy lounge. Recently the airline even inscribed one of its planes with the signatures of Thomas and a handful of other frequent fliers.

Not surprisingly, Thomas has become quite an authority on airports, and he heartily approves of the recent trend for putting day spas and interesting retail into their passenger terminals. Indeed, a hint of passion creeps into his voice when he describes Cathay Pacific's showers and saunas at Hong Kong's new airport, and the Japanese water gardens built into its business class lounge.

Thomas has even worked on a dozen or so airports around the world, including Los Angeles, Istanbul, Manila and Brisbane, advising on the integration of retail into their passenger operations. And, given that he virtually lives in the places, he would be the first to admit there is a measure of self-interest in such work. "They're taking a lot of the frustration and the anxiety out of flying."

© 2010 ICSC. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Contact ICSC | ICSC Home |