ICSC seminar told: watch out for silver-grey tsunami

Shopping centre developers and owners need to take heed of the silver-grey tsunami set to wash over Europe in the next decade, Jesper Bo Jensen, Futurist and CEO of Denmark-based Fremforsk, warned at the European Research Seminar of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) in Amsterdam in early November.

Bo Jensen pointed out that consumers will be 30% richer in 10 years, but the question is whether they still be buying goods from shopping centres. He claims it’s not the under-30s, cash-rich, time-poor urbanite that most shopping centres are geared towards at the moment - or not exclusively, anyway. The previously overlooked over-fifties are more likely to have the time and the spending power, he argued.

'If you see this tsunami coming to your shopping centre and you are catering for the younger consumer, watch out,' he said. His advice for this target group: forget huge shopping centres and think small, well-targeted shopping centres well positioned alongside residential areas in city centres with plenty of community space and other services.

'Shopping is not about visiting a shopping centre - these days that happens before you go, through advertising and on-line research. A shopping centre needs to have plenty going on to attract the consumer.'

Countries like Turkey and Iceland, where the birthrates are higher, form an exception, he said, but added that in parts of Central Eastern Europe, the birthrates are very low.