The Geric shopping center celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. What do you promise for this special anniversary taking place this week?
Jean-Marie LOUIS, director of Geric: “From this Wednesday, October 20 and for ten days, we offer our customers the opportunity to discover or rediscover the center through a great popular festival. We will also invite them to participate in the Geric Quiz, which will be led by Julien Lepers on October 30. We chose this very dynamic and affordable TV personality because it looks like the mall. We will also welcome fourteen Brazilian dancers for a daily parade and contests with a car to be won will be organized. Geric’s fifty-year retrospective through a photo exhibition is not to be missed. It will bring back memories to our regulars. “
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Exactly, what do you retain from this half-century of existence?
“A love story has been created between Geric and his clients. The center is really well established in the Thionville landscape today and has become a must. In fifty years, it has undergone several transformations. I retain that of 1995, where it became a real shopping center, with its seventy shops and two main aisles, and then in 2000, with the complete overhaul of the parking lot and its four new more practical accesses. In 2004, Geric expanded with around thirty additional stores, the arrival of a cafeteria and the creation of a foot court , a common living space to eat in the heart of the center. I would also like to point out the establishment, in 2009, of a loyalty program, with 60,000 members, which does not exist elsewhere in France. And then of course, all the events that have marked Geric’s life, with the arrival of many celebrities: Johnny Hallyday, Michel Drucker, Salvatore Adamo… ”
How did the center experience the health crisis?
“I won’t hide from you that it was complicated, especially since we were faced with longer closings than downtown businesses. We tried to stay in touch with our customers, especially by email. From May 19, we celebrated our reunion with games and activities in the gallery. This anniversary also allows us to meet again. “
This crisis has also upset the consumption patterns of the French, who are more willing to turn to small local shops and who shun large structures like yours. Do you feel it and do you plan to put in place a strategy to boost the attractiveness of the center?
“The dynamic, it’s true, has been lost a bit. During this period, some customers have changed their habits. But it is not irreversible. We are going to go back to basic, so that our customers can reclaim their shopping center. With in particular an exemplary customer experience: parking spaces available, clean and lighted interiors and exteriors, clear signage, music… We are planning to create rest areas, an outdoor play area. An even more welcoming and friendly Geric. We are also relaunching the Children’s Day in February 2022. It has been Geric’s flagship event since 1995. The children of the time who have become parents today will be delighted to share it in their turn. ”
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