Report: Manhattan Is 'United Nations of Retail'
A recent survey conducted by C&W finds that nearly 40% of Manhattan retailers hail from overseas.
Retail experts from C&W’s Research Center of Excellence surveyed 906 retailers in Manhattan’s leading shopping districts of Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and SoHo to determine the retailers’ nations of origin. The first-of-its-kind survey found a veritable “United Nations” of merchants with retailers hailing from 26 different countries.
“Manhattan is a powerful, global magnet for retailers,” says C&W Vice Chairman and Head of North America Retail Services Gene P. Spiegelman. “A retail presence in New York City has a potential audience of more than 76 million people per year. That kind of mega-audience makes this market irresistibly attractive to retailers worldwide.”
While the survey finds that retailers in the area are predominantly American, comprising 61% of the overall sample, several countries have quite the presence in the Manhattan retail market, led by second-place Italy with 11% of the overall retail occupants surveyed. France and the UK came in third and fourth, with 7% and 5% of the surveyed retailers hailing from those two countries, respectively.
