Heartland Mall recently held its quarterly merchants’ meeting with some outstanding results to report. They ended the year with a 3% gain in 2011, which was in line with the national shopping center average. First quarter sales show a positive trend up with seven merchants receiving sales awards for outstanding 1st quarter sales gains.
Chick-Fil-A, which is an original tenant to the mall when it was opened, received the Champions Awards from their National Headquarters. Owners, Mary Beth and Justin Leach, were flown to Florida and treated like VIPs for this most prestigious award. Two things were required to get the Champions Award: maintain a certain percentage sales increase, along with a certain percentage profit, which they did both. In fact, the sales volume for 2011 was the highest in the store’s history of 32 years! Chick-Fil-A also received an award from the Heartland Mall merchants association for their 1st quarter 2012 sales increase.
Other merchants who received sales awards were: Hollywood Theater, Peddlers, Bon Worth, GNC, Gallery Furniture, and Corn Dog 7. Each quarter, a store is graded and awarded on quality customer service with Brittany Edwards, owner of Dazzling Divas, winning this award.
Since the economy’s decline in 2008, retail has taken one of the biggest hits. But Heartland Mall’s unique position as well as on-site management and marketing team, report that they are outperforming other properties in their portfolio as well as malls in urban areas.
Traffic for the 1st quarter of 2012 is trending up over 2011 as much as 17.5%. This increase in traffic has translated into increased sales.
“We saw consumer confidence waver a bit last year, but finished 2011 with a strong 3% increase which is right in line with the national average of other retail centers”, said Charlotte Parrack, Property Manager. “We are very pleased with the way we are trending up for 2012 and expect another strong finish in the fourth quarter.”
Heartland Mall was the first business in Brown County to utilize QR codes. Since then, they have gone social. You can follow them on their website, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Pictured at top are Chick-Fil-A owners, Mary Beth and Justin Leach who won the 1Q 2012 Sales Increase Award.
Pictured above: Customer Service Award winner Brittany Edwards, owner of Dazzling Divas.
