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00:00And just on the heels of what we were discussing, the latest batch of earnings really show consumers are spending despite uncertainty over tariffs and longer term inflation. The wrinkle, as Romain pointed out, is that everyone wants value. How is that showing up in your malls, in foot traffic and in sales? Well, we are a value platform, so we're really where the customer wants to shop, where their favorite brands the best possible price every day, and we're seeing the customer show up. If you go back to tariffs, you talked about tariffs there for a little bit and you think about tariffs being announced in April. We've seen traffic build since April. So it's been a pretty interesting story as customers might have anticipated some issues in third and fourth quarter. So we did some pretty smart things. We reduced the customer through back to school to start shopping a little bit earlier. And as we've gotten that customer earlier, it's really resonated. And in fact, as the tariff impact was not as strong as those some of those some of the customers anticipated it would be, particularly in Q3. We see that customer actually coming back for a second visit and our retailers are saying to us, what are you doing to get the customer in earlier for back for holiday shopping? So that's what we're working on right now. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, of course, hand-in-hand with tariffs is geopolitical tensions with other countries. And we know that there have been foreign fewer foreign visitors to the US. Anecdotally, domestic travel is up, but maybe fewer Canadians coming to the US. Is that showing up in any material way at your malls? You know, most of our shopping centers are really drive through domestic tourist destinations, places like Savannah, Charleston, Hilton Head. So we're still seeing a lot of those folks who are going on their holidays come and visit and shop with us. In fact, our summer traffic numbers were outstanding this year. But what's more important is that our centers that, you know, ten or 15 years ago, the narrative went outlets were they were far away from, you know, most most of the centers of of the cities. We're seeing a lot of folks moving back to those geographies of secondary homes, becoming primary homes just because of how the customer's working today. And because of that, we're seeing a lot of traffic during the week. So our traffic continues to build in those domestic tourism markets and it's also driven by the local consumers. But I am curious, obviously Tanger has a very specific focus that allows that brick and mortar model to shine through in a way that maybe it doesn't for other segments of retail. I mean, we were joking before this or kind of mentioned that you had a connection to Gap. You were basically the real estate guy, although many moons ago, and we had Mickey Drexler, your former colleague on a couple of weeks ago, kind of talking about the transitions that we've seen in that space. Is there hope for maybe the more higher end retailers or the retailers that maybe need to be more e-commerce focus? Is there still a place for brick and mortar in their strategy? Well, I certainly believe so. You know, in fact, I think a younger consumer wants to shop brick and mortar. I think online is definitely part of the journey. So customers like to window shop online, but they like to execute in store, particularly if they're buying fashion items. So if they're you know, if they're buying, whether they're buying cap or they're buying product, the customer wants to feel the fabric. They want to try things on. And I find that to be true in footwear as well as accessories as well as as fashion. About there's also been I mean, you've made some expansions and changes to the Tanger model itself, making it a little bit more, I guess, experiential for lack of a better phrase. A talk about how much progress you've made on that so far and whatever plans you can disclose publicly to go further with that, more that I mean, that's an important part of our business. You know, pure play outlet shopping was a real fun thing ten years, 15 years ago. But now what we're finding, particularly as our centers have become more and more important to the communities that they serve, that the consumer wants more when they get off the couch and come to shop life. And that's better. Food and beverage offerings, more entertainment opportunities, whether it's a a Dave Buster's, a main event or movie theater, they're looking for better amenities. And also with Tanger Loyalty, we're gamifying the situation. When people come and shop our centers, we're rewarding the customers for coming to shop with us. So the more they spend, the more there rewarded. And they can use those words across any type of shopping center across our entire portfolio. Stephen, I'm wondering if you've observed whether there is a saturation point for the number of factory stores for certain brands. I just looking at J.Crew, for instance, it has about 117 regular stores across the US, but there are about 369 factory stores. And some could make the argument that that is devaluing the brand and watering down the brand. And I wonder how that might show up, you know, at across your outlets. Sure. But first of all, I love what J.Crew is doing. And J.Crew not only presents, there are outlet brand in outlet centers. You're seeing a lot of J.Crew outlet stores in non outlet centers as well. So I think J.Crew is identified the fact that there's a customer that loves their brand, loves their style, loves their fabrications. What's it in that value price point. And if if J.Crew can provide that customer, the value price point is their entry level. Get them into the store. Get them to buy the product. I think it's then J. Crew's opportunity to trade that consumer up to the more expensive products and make that customer our customers alive. Do these kinds of companies, whether it's in J.Crew or another kind of company, need to provide more than just apparel? Can they turn themselves into a lifestyle brand at an outlet level? Well, you know, that's what I think is so exciting about the outlet stores. You know, there's plenty of places to buy discount. There's there's secondary discount stores. There's there's discount stores that sell product by the pound. There's just get skort stores that use that classification merchandising where they'll take five or ten brands that compete and put them on the same rack just because they're the same size in the same classification. I think outlet provides the opportunity for all the retailers to do just to to show that their product soup to nuts, the entire lifestyle. So if you're a fan of a brand, I use Ralph Lauren as an example. If you're a fan of Ralph Lauren, you can buy such buy shoes, belts, hats, shirts, housewares, sheets, towels. The entire product assortment from end to end is available for the consumer. And it's all Ralph Lauren product. And I think that that is not only the consumer an opportunity to shop the way they want to shop. Yeah. More importantly, it gives the brand the opportunity to showcase all of their product lines at an entry level price point that ultimately turns that consumer into a lifelong consumer for that for that brand.

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Tariffs Have Been Driving Foot Traffic: Tanger CEO

Stephen Yalof, Tanger President and CEO, says customer traffic is rising, especially during back-to-school. He tells Romaine Bostick and Scarlet Fu on “The Close” that shoppers want more from in-person visits, including entertainment, food, and experiences. (Source: Bloomberg)

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