In its 2018 report on America’s middle class, the Brookings Institution identified the 15 metro areas nationwide – all of them small and mid-size –with the largest shares of middle-class households. Brookings defined “middle-class households” as those falling in the middle 60% of the national income distribution (meaning households that earn more than the bottom 20% of household income but less than the top 20% of households nationwide), adjusted to account for household size and for local differences in the cost of living.
Our latest white paper, Who’s in the Stands? An In-Depth Look at Arena and Stadium Visits uses location analytics tools to uncover the demographic and psychographic traits of sporting event attendees – including Super Bowl fans. With the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in the books, we reexamined some of our favorite analyses from the report using visit metrics from the latest Super Bowl. For the full report, click here.
With another holiday season behind us, and as high prices threaten to continue holding retail back in 2023, we dove into the foot traffic and location intelligence data to understand what lies ahead for Target, Walmart, and other leading superstores. Superstores such as Target and Walmart were one of the pandemic’s major retail beneficiaries. The category’s strength continued in the first half of 2022 as some shoppers traded down in the hopes of stretching their budgets in the face of ongoing inflation.
In our pre-holiday department store check-in, we noted positive trends for both the mid-range and luxury department store segments. In this blog, we’ll analyze the latest visit metrics for the department store space. Specifically, we’ll dive into Nordstrom, the visits share leader in the luxury department store category, and the impact of some of its brick-and-mortar strategies aimed at increasing efficiency and driving visits.
Off-price apparel was a notably resilient segment during the pandemic, with the major players even expanding their physical retail presence over the past couple of years. Now that inflation has replaced COVID as the major challenge facing retail, we dove into the data to see how the segment is performing and what might lie ahead in 2023.
With January coming to a close, we checked in with our Nationwide Office Index. Are workers being required to come into the office more than they did in 2022? And what do January office visit trends portend for the rest of the year? Despite a growing number of reports that many employers want workers to spend more time in the office, the data shows that at least for now, the office visit patterns that took hold in the second half of 2022 remain strong.
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The fitness industry experienced an exceptionally tumultuous period over the past few years asCOVID-19 restrictions kept many away from their workouts, leading some to question their continued viability. But gyms proved resilient, with foot traffic to major fitness chains recovering as soon as vaccines became widely available and the pandemic began to subside. Now, with the sector’s strongest month of the year behind us, we take a closer look at the segment's January performance to see how major chains are doing post-COVID and explore specialty fitness brands.
When we look back at mall performance in 2022, the general takeaway is one of relative success for a segment that had been uniquely challenged by the pandemic and its retail effects. This was especially impressive considering that the impact of COVID was rapidly replaced by economic headwinds that limited a full return to business as usual. In short, 2022 was marked by volatility that hindered a full visit recovery for many within the mall sector.
Artists and concert venues know how many tickets are sold to every show – but they don’t necessarily see who is attending each event. Location intelligence can shed light on the unique visitor profile each artist attracts and how audience demographics and psychometrics can vary within a single venue depending on the performer. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also known as Bad Bunny, was one of the most popular musicians of 2022.
2022 saw the coffee space impacted by high inflation and the curbing of discretionary spending. But amidst these setbacks, the leading coffee chains expanded their footprints, rolled out perennial favorites, and welcomed crowds of loyal visitors. In recent months, many consumers saw coffee as an affordable luxury and were once again enchanted by coffee’s seasonal charm.
With its high concentration of government institutions, universities, and thriving art scene, Washington, D.C. has long attracted out-of-towners willing to relocate to take advantage of the city’s unique professional, academic, and cultural opportunities. And while the population influx slowed over COVID, domestic migration trends appear to have fully bounced back, with both D.C. and its surrounding counties looking stronger than ever. We took a closer look at migration patterns and demographic trends over the past three years to explore who is moving in and who is moving out of the capital city and its surrounding areas.
With the announcement of Macy shuttering some additional stores in 2023, we dove into the location intelligence data to understand the rationale behind the brand’s store fleet optimization strategy. Macy’s first announced its Polaris transformation strategy in February 2020 – a month before COVID-19 upended the brick-and-mortar retail landscape. The three-year plan involves closing 125 stores – mostly in malls or in underperforming locations – along with opening smaller, stand-alone venues, revamping the brand’s loyalty program, and ramping up investment in private labels.
For over a century, grocery shopping has been an essential part of our daily lives. And because inflation has led many Americans to opt for more meals at home, supermarkets have become an even bigger part of our routines. But that doesn’t mean that grocery shopping has to be a dull affair. Thankfully, many exciting experiences can be found at grocery stores across the country, and perhaps the most exciting development is the infusion of technology into how we shop for food.
Convenience stores (c-stores), once dismissed as uninspiring places to grab a quick cup of coffee or a sugar-laden snack, are re-inventing themselves as go-to, affordable places to shop, pick up tasty, ready-made meals, and splurge on low-cost treats. In the face of rising prices and shifting post-pandemic work routines – with more people working from home and commuting less often – this positioning has helped the sector sustain remarkable growth despite economic headwinds.
When we last checked in with McDonald’s and Chipotle, both were outpacing their category peers and introducing new initiatives to help drive foot traffic and sales. With 2022 in the rearview, we dove into the quarterly performance of both chains and consider what might lie ahead for them in 2023. McDonald’s and Chipotle enjoyed impressive foot traffic growth all months analyzed. Much of this success is tied to the expansion both chains have undergone – Chipotle has grown from around 2,500 stores in 2019 to nearly 3,100 in 2022, and plans on opening an additional 250 locations in 2023.
The past couple of years haven’t been easy ones. But the uncertainty and stress brought on by the pandemic and the rising cost of living haven’t stopped consumers from seeking out fun things to do with friends and family – in fact, quite the opposite. Even though budgets are tight, many have a new post-pandemic appreciation for going out and continue to prioritize recreational activities as a way to de-stress and find joy and fulfillment. We analyzed foot traffic for three leading brands – Dave & Buster’s, Bowlero, and X-Golf – and broader entertainment categories in order to take a closer look at the impact demand for fun is having on visits.
Placer.ai’s Q4 Quarterly Index Report presents location intelligence data for beauty & self care brands, discount & dollar stores, superstores, grocery brands, malls, fitness chains, and offices. Using yearly, quarterly, and weekly visit patterns, the report reveals how these key categories fared in 2022 and what their performance tells us about consumer behavior and brick-and-mortar retail in the new normal.
With 2022 in the rear-view mirror, we checked in to see how the grocery sector is faring at the start of the new year, zooming in on two chains that are outperforming industry averages: H-E-B and Trader Joe’s. Since H-E-B is located in Texas, we focused our analysis on the Lone Star State. Despite somewhat different strategies, both chains have succeeded in garnering highly devoted and loyal customer bases, thanks in part to their focus on in-store customer experience.
Despite moves by some companies to cut down on remote work, a full-time return to the office still appears unlikely. But what will remote and hybrid work patterns look like in 2023? How many people are coming into the office each day, and what are their schedules? What trends can be identified in different major cities across the country? With the new year upon us, we dove into our office index data for 2022 to get a better understanding of evolving work habits.
Until recently, luxury shopping in the US was typically concentrated in cities such as New York and Los Angeles. But now, a shift is underway as new wealth centers emerge across the country, including Sunbelt states. We took a closer look at some of these markets to see how demographic changes are creating new retail opportunities and understand what may lie ahead for the brick-and-mortar luxury sector.
