Ответ:

In this two-part episode, Trademark’s VP of Experience, Chuck Steelman, sits down with Al Urbanski, Real Estate Editor at Chain Store Age, to discuss the building blocks of experiential shopping. Al gives a peak behind the journalist curtain to share what properties across the nation are doing to better their retail experiences. He and Chuck talk about CSA’s Top 10 Retail Center Experiences of 2021 list and how Trademark’s Galleria Dallas earned its No. 3 spot. Learn what still surprises Al about the industry, even after 10 years working with it, and the top 10 list.

Leaning In is published every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Be sure to follow the show on your preferred podcast app to hear our next episode.

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TRANSCRIPT

Chuck Steelman: This is Chuck Steelman, Trademark’s Vice President of Experience. Today, I’m speaking with Alan Urbanski, Real Estate Editor and Manager of Chain Store Age Magazine. Al is actually our very first media guest, and today he’s going to explain his unique perspective of the industry, and we’re going to dive into what made Trademark’s Galleria Dallas number three on Chain Store Age’s list of Top 10 Retail Center Experiences for 2021.

Hey, Al, you currently serve as the Real Estate Editor for Chain Store Age, the country’s oldest retail focus publication. Can you please share your background and how you got to where you are today and a brief overview of CSA’s current editorial focuses?

Al Urbanski: Yeah, absolutely. And good to be with you, Chuck. I’ve been in this business quite a long time, and I mostly have covered sales, marketing, consumer products, and retail. It’s only been five years ago that I took over the real estate beat at Chain Store Age. And I just got to tell you, from my perspective, and I’ll tell you about the magazine, I find it to be the best, most fascinating thing I’ve ever covered with the greatest people, of which you’re one of them, Chuck. But seriously, real estate people, in all areas of real estate and commercial real estate, are just like passionate people. And I think, for many retailers watching this, real estate people have to have the vision 10, 15, 20 years ahead of time because a lot of money and planning goes into buying and building those spaces. And so that’s a good lead in for this because that’s kind of what’s going on now – there’s a recharge. And as for Chain Store Age, yeah, they’ve been around I think 98 years, focused on operations. So, we don’t write a whole lot about marketing, but we’ll write about financial issues, expansions, we have a trade show that’s coming up this month called SPECS that’s for the construction trades, architects. So, we’re involved in kind of a lot of what you are, what’s coming up.