Retailers Persist Through Global Economic Challenges: ICSC Panel

ICSC New York kicked off at the Javits Center near Hudson Yards on Wednesday, as commercial real estate leaders got a feel for the market going into 2026 and reflected on where it has been.

The first panel of the day, “State of the Customer — Insights Shaping Buyer Behavior,” found retail leasing honchos revealing a tone of uncertainty as they reflected on the results of providing optimal consumer experiences.

The notion that tariffs, a retreat in consumer spending and tightening supply could add friction to an otherwise healthy market was undeniable, but these issues are not without solutions.

“For some of our hard goods, soft goods and fashion-oriented clients, there’s a higher level of impact from tariffs,” said Cassie Durand, executive vice president at CBRE. “We may have clients that were doing 20 deals last year and now they’re doing eight, and three of them are going to be outside of the U.S. Othership is a spa client of ours that we’re scaling nationally. They’re running a machine they already built, not importing goods. So I think there has been zero impact [for experiential].”

But markets where retailers are forced to downsize are finding a “survival of the fittest” atmosphere as they try to make compelling cases to consumers who are tightening their budgets.

“It’s really hard to take a known experience and downsize it. You have to really understand what people want from a smaller format. If you’re delivering something that doesn’t meet their expectations, the consumer votes right away,” said Barrie Scardina, president of retail services for Cushman & Wakefield. “There are people living paycheck to paycheck. The middle income is going to become really difficult, and we’re going to see stores pull back because the consumer is going to pull back.”

Even if retailers want to expand, it might be a challenge to find retail space no matter how impressive the brand name is, considering the number of tenants who are bullish on brick and mortar.

“Looking at the competitive landscape for sites, it has become increasingly more fraught with additional competitors, whether those are direct or indirect,” said Angele Robinson-Gaylord, senior vice president of store development for Starbucks. “Lots of people want the same type of sites, so it’s requiring us to be a little more creative.” 

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.