Concerns over the coronavirus are changing retail operations and configurations, and some of those changes may be here to stay. Lockdown orders were prolonged enough that risk-averse behaviors such as shopping online and dining at home became widespread and habitual,...
Shopping is, for the most part, discretionary. But everyone’s got to eat, which is perhaps the simplest reason the food and beverage (F&B) industry is the hottest sub-sector of retail real estate. Not surprisingly, a closer look at trends reveals other factors...
“Healing is a matter of time,” Hippocrates wrote, “but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” As evidenced by the pox of vacant storefronts, American malls are ailing. Competition from e-commerce is largely to blame for store closures. Malls with no surviving...
When big box stores close, they leave behind a big hole. Standalone stores surrounded by acres of parking leave an even bigger hole, along with the impression that the neighborhood is going downhill. Nobody wants to see that, but with thousands of big-box stores...
There are at least two beneficiaries of the retail sector’s grim performance of late: the industrial sector and business reporters. What’s bad for retail is good for industrial. As for reporters, they’ve had a heyday coming up with ways to describe the retail sector’s...