Kimco CEO: Retailers Can Compete With Amazon, Or Focus On 'Un-Amazonable' Products

Kimco Realty is in the “sweet spot of retail,” as its two largest tenants, TJX Cos and Home Depot, show positive same store sales trends, while department stores show negatives in the same area, Kimco CEO Conor Flynn (pictured) writes in a recent blog post.

Conor writes that TJX owes its success to its outpricing of Amazon through purchasing overstocked goods, while Home Depot’s integrated in-store and online approach puts it as “one of the 10 largest e-commerce businesses in the US.”

“There appears to be a fork in the road,” Conor writes, “where retailers can choose to compete with Amazon and invest heavily in e-commerce and delivery, or focus on goods and services that are ‘un-Amazonable.’” 

Amazon, for its part, has been trying to make more and more things “Amazonable,” with an expansion into private-label offerings, and even competing with Seamless and GruHub in the food-delivery business.

For all the talk of bricks vs. clicks, the e-commerce giant is even expanding its own brick-and-mortar locations—something Conor points to as the “single most important signal that there will always be a need for brick-and-mortar.”

Conor adds Kimco plans to focus on its high-quality assets in its top 20 markets, which will see continued growth through redevelopment opportunities.

“The demand for high-quality real estate allows Kimco to transform assets to meet the everyday needs of the shopper today, and in the future,” Conor writes. “Competition is a good thing for every industry, and disruption is a natural step in evolution.”