Retail smackdown: Few winners, many losers

If you want to see a couple of industry sectors that are scared, threatened, and desperately trying to secure their own futures, check out the current stoush between shopping centre landlords and their retail tenants.

As the Financial Review captioned its story:

“Base rates for new leases have fallen by up to 20 per cent but big chains are pushing for turnover-based rents and resisting landlords’ claims for online sales.”

Now, I’m not going to pretend that either side is a homogenous group, or that there aren’t a decent number of ambit claims trying to take advantage of uncertainty and economic weakness…

… but let’s just say there’s a heck of a land-grab going on.

Retailers, according to the article, want to link…