I own a strip shopping center in Tempe, AZ that has mostly (78%!!) men
ages 20-40 as customers as per an informal survey I have conducted. I
am looking for lease leads to fill a few vacant spaces. We have a
sports bar, a drive-thru liquor store, a tattoo parlor, a
Jack-in-the-Box, a Sub sandwich shop that are all successful. No nail
salons, frozen yogurt or tanning salons where women are 80% of the
customers! I am already looking for a barber shop as one example of a
logical co-tenant for my center. The center is located about 2 miles
from ASU (a major university) and across the street from a large
industrial park. Many of the men who frequent my center are "blue
collar" type workers, so businesses targeting yuppie men would be a
worse fit than businesses that target blue collar men. I am first
looking for broad categories of businesses that match, then actual
contact information for the categories that would seem to match up
well.

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Clarification of Question by kingway-ga on 05 Sep 2004 13:52 PDT

Auto parts is a good example. Here are some others that I have
brainstormed on my own: Barber Shop, Barber College, Cuts gym, Massage
therapy, Payday Lender, Gun Store, Job Center, Golf repairs/sales, Gun
Safes/Regular Safes, BBQ take-out or sit down, Breakfast Greasy Spoon,
Music retailer (guitars/drums), DJ equipment store, Cigars, Donuts,
Car Stereo, Martial Arts, (Karate/Judo), Do-it-yourself Car Wash, used
sporting goods store, Motorcycle parts, Truck Parts, Four Wheelers,
ATV-Jet Ski, Snow Ski/Water Ski, Paintball, Tools (like Harbor
Freight), Work Boots, Pool Hall/Billiard Parlor, camping, comedy
traffic.

A 5 star answer will lead me to several directions I haven't
considered or will enhance and focus the ideas listed above.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 07 Sep 2004 04:27 PDT

Kingway-ga,

You haven't mentioned any of the chain stores that come to mind for
your particular demographics.  Is your mall not yet big enough to
attract them?  Are you interested in contacting stores like:


Clothes:  Payless Shoes, Old Navy, Kohl's
Stuff:  Family Dollar, Dollar General, Big Lots
Drug Stores:  CVS, Duane Reade, Rite Aid, Eckerd, Savon
Electronics:  Radio Shack
Convenience:  7-11 
Food  Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, etc, etc
Supermarket:  Safeway, Giant, Publix, Shop N Save
Sports:  Dick's Sporting Goods, Finish Line

Let me know if these are relevant (or not) to your plans.  Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by kingway-ga on 07 Sep 2004 06:47 PDT

Pafalafa: My center is a 40,000 sq ft unanchored strip center within
which I have the following sized vacancies: 8,000 sq ft, 2,500 sq ft
and 1,500 sq ft. Chains are fine, but most chains (not all) want
anchored centers, power centers and/or malls. I will respond on each
of the names mentioned below in brackets to give you some feedback, if
you'd like further clarification, just let me know:

Clothes:  Payless Shoes (possible, do they have more men customers or
more women/family in general, but the blue collar aspect matches), Old
Navy (a mall/power center retailer, no chance), Kohl's (no space, they
require big boxes)
Stuff:  Family Dollar (blue collar yes, but I'll bet more women than
men customers, hope I'm wrong), Dollar General (same as Family
Dollar), Big Lots (same as Family Dollar)
Drug Stores:  CVS, Duane Reade, Rite Aid, Eckerd, Savon (for all the
drug stores, isn't their average customer skewed more female and older
rather than male and younger? I don't know this, just an impression --
possibly false)
Electronics:  Radio Shack (an excellent thought)
Convenience:  7-11 (a good thought, but in conflict with the existing
liquor store which also carries convenience items)
Food  Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, etc, etc (all require
standalone pads of 1/2 acre for a drive-thru, I do have one pad of 1/4
acre which which I am talking about with Waffle House who does like
the blue collar man customer)
Supermarket:  Safeway, Giant, Publix, Shop N Save (no room for a
standard supermarket, but again markets generally have more female
customers)
Sports:  Dick's Sporting Goods (big box retailer usually goes in power
centers), Finish Line (a pure mall retailer, never would go in an
unanchored "blue collar" center)

Auto parts

Brew-it-yourself beer store; collectible card (baseball, football cards) shop;
coin shop; used sporting goods (ala Play It Again Sports); pawn shop;
hobby store (trains!!); bait shop (yeah, I know it's the desert);
military surplus store; military recruiting office; auto service
business (seat covers; oil change; car alarms; car stereo installer;
emissions testing & repair); unfinished furniture store; telescope
shop; work clothing retailer; boot retailer; irrigation installer;
ticket broker; video game reatiler; equipment rental; auto parts
store; off-track betting; do-it-yourself auto service bay; sign shop;
tire retailer; woodworking tools; decking contractor; accessories for
pickups and 4x4s (bed liners; hop caps; hitches; tool chests);
Hallmark store.  (Kingway -- I just threw the Hallmark store in there
to see if you were paying attention.  But really: you could get them
to do a kiosk at your mall,   open only on Valentine's Day and Mothers
Day.)

Google search strategy:
pick up the Yellow Pages index and apply a little imagination

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Especially if the industrial park is large, you might consider things
the businesses on the park might use, as well as things the employees
buy as individuals. There is overlap, but business-to-business
marketing is different from business-to-consumer. For example, an
instant print/photocopying/typing place might not appeal to
individuals, but many small industrial businesses could use the
service.

Owain

Perhpas Blockbuster, or other video store. Even chain video stores
tailor their offerings to the neighborhood.

You might consider that the sample is biased based on the tenants you
already have (that is, if you have a barber shop, sporting goods
store, bar, and Jack-in-the-Box, I would expect you to attract > 75%
men).

You are already bringing in male patrons.  Why not give their spouses
something to do while they're there (nail salon, clothing stores,
etc).

Just a thoughts.

You mentioned video game store, but you might also consider a
video-game internet cafe.  Games like half-life counterstrike,
battlefield 1942 and other shooter and multiplayer titles are very
popular across that demographic and it might really do well in an area
where home broadband and high-end computers are not common.

If you are thinking of a video game store...guess which gender plays
more video games online than the other?

You are correct....women. Where there are women, men are soon to follow.