New Economic Realities // July 26, 2025
Modern Retail Podcast: The state of malls and P.F. Candle Co.’s Made in America strategy
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On this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, senior reporters Melissa Daniels and Gabriela Barkho are joined by Modern Retail reporter Mitchell Parton. The team discusses a package that ran on Modern Retail this week, called The State of the Mall. The package highlights how malls are under pressure to continuously reinvent themselves, with topics spanning American Dream’s delayed Miami expansion and Tanger’s modern take on outlet mall design.
Later in the episode, Daniels and Barkho are joined by Kristen Pumphrey and Thomas Neuberger, owners of P.F. Candle Co., to talk about how brands with Made in America products are still being affected by ongoing tariff policies.
They discuss:
- The increased challenges of securing raw material overseas
- How reciprocal tariffs impact components such as candle jars and packaging
- The upsides of producing goods domestically
- Leaning into “Made in America” as a marketing message