Five Below Bucks Retail Trends as it Opens Dozens of New Stores, Remodels Others

As many retailers struggle during the pandemic and against online competition, Five Below Inc. has defied both challenges and has seen sales rise, new stores open and its share price climb back up to pre-pandemic levels.

The Philadelphia-based discount retailer opened a record 63 new stores in the second quarter and by the end of the year expects to have a total of 1,020 stores in its portfolio. That’s up from 900 it had at the beginning of the year.

The company is also spending heavily to remodel some of its older stores to reflect changes brought on by the pandemic, what its target consumer — tweens and teens — wants these days and areas where it sees growth. Think gaming, nesting and “snarky” T-shirts.

The company most recently completed a two-week renovation to its 13,000-square-foot store at 1529 Chestnut St. in Center City, which is its among its largest. The company opened the location in September 2015 and will hold a toned down grand re-opening of the store this Friday.

While the cost of fitting out a new store is about $300,000, company officials declined to divulge how much a remodeling job costs.

In a recent CNBC interview, CEO Joel Anderson said that the retailer “is about being a little snarky, catering to kids and having a great time when you come to store.”

The renovated Chestnut Street store reflects all of that. The store has new graphics that capture its home of Philadelphia, brighter lighting as well as new displays and check out registers that are six-feet apart. A constant drone of up beat music adds to the shopping experience.

The renovated store has expanded several departments that are selling well these says such as T-shirts and beauty. “Casual wear has been great for us and tough for others,” said George Hill, executive vice president of retail operations for the company.

Mainstays such as books, basketballs and other toys remain. It has bulked up on items that cater to school and work from home, such as risers for desks and stay-at-home items such as blankets, room décor, puzzles, games and crafts. There are also other pandemic-related products such as masks and hand sanitizer. Pet items, such as wipes, beds and shampoos, also take up more shelf space than before in a reflection of more people owning pets during the coronavirus outbreak.

While it always had an expansive candy selection, Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE) is delving deeper into providing a larger line of grocery-related products including snacks items such as cheese balls and pistachios along with grab-and-go food such as ramen and cereals.

 

While its founding strategy was to sell items for $5 or less, it has expanded that into what it calls “Five Beyond,” which are items sold for $10 or less. It tested the concept out in 25 stores over the last couple of years. Customers suggested that they preferred they didn’t mind paying more than $5 for an item but wanted those products in a separate, designated section.

At the Chestnut Street store, Five Beyond products are on the second floor and part of the company’s expansion into gaming products that also compliment the company’s foray into esports and its partnership with Nerd Street Gamers. Last week, Nerd Street Gamers opened the first of its Localhost locations in Five Below stores in Philadelphia and Texas, with plans for a third near St. Louis.

Localhosts are an esports venue where people can train, compete in tournaments or play video games casually. The Philadelphia location is inside a Five Below store in the Bakers Centre shopping center in East Falls.

Five Below is also launching an exclusive line of what is calling Bugha products that is part of its partnership with Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, winner of the Fortnite World Cup. Those products will be available online this week and eventually put in stores nationwide.

The remodels, new stores and products have bolstered its bottomline in spite of the pandemic. When the company reported fiscal second quarter results last month, it saw sales increase by 2.1% to $426.1 million from $417.4 million in the same period a year ago. However, comparable stores sales — locations opened at least a year — decreased by 12.2% as a result of all of its stores closing as part of the pandemic-related shutdown over the spring. Though its shoppers aren’t frequenting its stores as often as they used to, they are buying more items on each trip.

Income rose to 53 cents a share, up from 51 cents in the second quarter of fiscal 2019. The company’s stock closed on Oct. 20 at $134.90 a share. In mid-March, it had been at around $52 a share, having started the year at $127.65.

All of which appears to be an anomaly in these times when retailers are either filing for bankruptcy or shuttering stores.

“This time we’re in right now, parents and families are all living in a different situation and they are looking for a place to save money, have a great experience and be in a safe environment and I think we’re doing all three for them,” Anderson said on CNBC.

*Articles Courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journals

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier  Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Philly Retail Space for Lease in South Philadelphia

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Wine, Beer, Barbecue and ‘Sally the Robot’: Acme Readies New Grocery Store in University City

A flurry of activity was underway this week in preparation for the opening of a new Acme at 40th and Walnut streets in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Three years ago, Acme Markets signed a long-term lease with the University of Pennsylvania on 34,500 square feet that had once been occupied by Fresh Grocer, a brand operated by ShopRite, which is a division of Wakefern Food Corp.

Acme has spent several million dollars — the company declined to be more specific — to prepare the space at 4001 Walnut St. for shoppers amid a pandemic and changing consumer buying habits. The store reflects both of those situations as well as the neighborhood in which it is located. It officially opens Oct. 23.

The space that serves as the actual store is about 20,000 square feet, which is much smaller than a typical Acme that comes in at between 45,000 to 50,000 square feet. About 200 employees, most part-time, will work at the University City location.

The new location gives Acme an opportunity to pilot an expanded prepared foods and deli area that will include new items to the grocery chain including five varieties of poke bowls, sushi party platters, barbecue dishes such as brisket and pulled pork, focaccia pizza, and hoagies.

“We try to meet every single customer and really take care of the community,” said Angie Marshall, deli sales manager. In University City, that means providing items that appeal to students as well as families.

Because of the coronavirus, grocery stores such as Acme have eliminated self-serve buffet stations and are finding alternative ways to provide customers with prepared foods that are packaged or served by an employee. When it comes to salads, Acme is testing out what is being called “Sally the Robot.”

“It is a solution to the salad bar that no one wants to do because of Covid,” said Jim Perkins, Mid-Atlantic division president of Albertsons Cos., which owns Acme, and executive vice president of retail operations.

The devices contain 21 different items including romaine lettuce, spinach, quinoa red peppers and three different types of dressing that a person can select to make a salad.

Based on some of its research of what sold at the Fresh Grocer, Acme knew better than to put in a large display of ready-made cakes – though it will make them for customers. It also knew to bulk up on the deli, grab-and-go food items, snacks, produce and dairy but back off on meat and cooking ingredients. It added a floral department.

Acme bought a liquor license for the store and will sell beer and wine, though, as Perkins points out, that doesn’t compensate for softening sales of sodas and other sugary drinks as a result of the Philadelphia soda tax. A Starbucks kiosk will also operate from the new store.

Acme routinely looks for opportunities to open new stores, though it has also been closing locations throughout the region. If the company closes a store, then it wasn’t making money, Perkins said. “It’s all a financial equation,” he said.

The company has been renovating the stores it is retaining and will spend $20 million this year on remodeling locations. It so far has finished renovating 164 stories and, after this year, will have fewer than 50 to tackle.

One of those locations that will get an overhaul is at 5th and Pine streets in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. It is the chain’s smallest location at about 7,000 square feet of store space. Acme will address that location next year with a total interior renovation that will require it to close for nine to 10 weeks. It will get a new layout as well as a liquor license that will enable it to sell beer and wine.

“That will be extremely fast,” Perkins said. “Closing it is the safest and easiest way to do it.”

While shelves were being stocked at the new University City location this week, there were signs that the pandemic is still affecting the availability of some products such as household cleaners and some frozen food items. Spaces where those products would otherwise go were empty, waiting until they become available again. “There are still about 500 items you can’t get,” Perkins said.

*Articles Courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journals

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier  Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Gap to Close Two-Story Center City Store After More Than 20 Years

Gap Inc. is vacating its store at 1510 Walnut St. in Center City and laying off 32 employees as a result of the closure, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Gap has been a Walnut Street mainstay, having been in space on the street for two decades. In that span, Walnut Street became Center City’s most expensive retail corridor. It was also a period in which Gap saw its rise as a trendy, preppy retailer that was catapulted into popularity with catchy commercials such as the “Khaki Swing.”

In August, Gap said it would close more than 225 Gap and Banana Republic stores amid a wave of other retailers indicating they would also shutter hundreds of stores or file bankruptcy.

The vacancy comes as Walnut and Chestnut streets have suffered from a precipitous decline in retail demand that has been compounded by the pandemic and civil unrest at the end of May that led to looting and damage to stores.

Gap (NYSE: GPS) first moved to the location when it consolidated its Gap Kids and Gap located in the 1700 block of Walnut into a single store. Gartner said he is seeing some interest in the space by single and multiple tenants.

*Articles Courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journals

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier  Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Amazon Grocery Store Coming to Northern Liberties Project

Amazon.com Inc. has signed a lease for one of its new grocery stores in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, according to sources familiar with the deal.

The online retailer has taken 40,000 square feet of 60,000 square feet that is proposed for a new apartment complex at 5th and Spring Garden streets, the sources says. The project calls for a 13-story building with 382 apartments and underground parking with 206 spaces, according to plans filed earlier this year with Philadelphia’s Civic Design Review. The retail portion that Amazon would anchor faces 6th Street at Spring Garden, the plans show.

Officials at Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment. The project at 5th and Spring Garden would rise on a site that involved five different owners and took six months to negotiate.

In its ongoing quest to expand its grocery footprint beyond Whole Foods, Amazon has narrowed down two other locations in the Philadelphia suburbs for its new chain of stores. The two locations that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has zeroed in are in Bucks County. One deal has Amazon leasing 36,000 square feet of a 49,000-square-foot former Giant at Creekview Center off Easton Road in Warrington. Another site is 41,000 square feet of a former Kmart at the Brookwood Shopping Center on Street Road in Bensalem.

Amazon been experimenting with a grocery concept that is different from its Whole Foods chain and unlike its Amazon Go, which is more like a convenience store with no cashier and more like a traditional grocery.

*Articles Courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journals

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier  Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Boyds Retail Rebuilds After Looting Damages Store and Plans a Suburban Outpost for the First Time in 83 Years

Kent Gushner was at home the evening protests turned into looting, violence and vandalism in Center City. He watched the scene unfold from security cameras installed at Boyds, one of Philadelphia’s oldest and vaunted retailers.

Glass doors and windows from his family-owned store at 1818 Chestnut St. were broken and marauders plundered any items they could get their hands on. “I was watching this in real time,” Gushner said.

Aside from the stolen merchandise, the three floors that make up the store suffered millions of dollars in damage. There was blood splattered on the carpeting and little could be salvaged.

“It was a crime scene,” he said. “The city’s handling of the civil unrest was abominable and completely unacceptable. It was very angering to me but even more angering was that I never heard from anyone in the city government. Not a word. Zippo.”

Gushner re-opened Boyds on Sept. 16, six months after he had closed because of the pandemic and government shut down orders. He, like other retailers and businesses, was preparing to open at the beginning of June, eager to make up for some lost ground when the protests and looting took place. It set not only the store back but also Philadelphia, he said.

That Gushner decided to re-open in Center City came after a lot of soul searching. For the first time, the third-generation owner of Boyd’s entertained moving the storied, 83-year old retailer out of Philadelphia.

Gushner, who isn’t one to make the situation a political commentary, said he was finally able to speak with Mayor Jim Kenney about his concerns and his worry not only for him but other retailers and the city on a whole. “I could go on and on about my emotions but I finally landed at a place where I felt comfortable,” he said. “We made a decision to stay and rebuild.”

Though that’s the case, Gushner has decided to dip Boyds into the suburbs. The retailer signed a three-month lease to occupy the former Urban Outfitters space at Suburban Square in Ardmore. This is the first time Boyds will have a second location and a presence in the suburbs.

“Some people think we’re crazy but I’d rather try and fail than not try at all,” he said of the pop up location.

In his quest to find the right location, Gushner looked at King of Prussia Mall, King of Prussia Town Center and Wayne before settling on Suburban Square. The store will be open at the beginning of October and run until January, when he will evaluate the situation.

The Ardmore location serves two purposes, Gushner said. It allows Boyds to attract and follow clients who are living in the suburbs and not coming into Center City for work or weekend excursions. It is also a test run for a permanent, second location in the suburbs. A migration of residents, particularly millennials having children, out of Center City had started but picked up during the pandemic as people began looking for more space and their own private yards.

In the time Boyds has been closed, Gushner and his team began to re-evaluate every aspect of the business. The company completed in 2019 a $10 million renovation to the 70,000-square-foot landmark building as it sought to position itself for the future. The damage that was caused by the looting made the investment all the more disheartening.

Looking to the future, everything was put under a microscope. Demand for fashion has changed during the pandemic, which accelerated some trends already underway. While Boyds had already begun to including more lines of casual clothes before, it intends to bolster its offerings to meet the current situation of people not dressing up for work or events and holding Zoom meetings in the comfort of their homes.

The company is expanding in other areas. It intends to hire someone to head up a new outside sales division that will serve customers in their homes or offices. Boyds intends to also bolster its in-store personal shopping services. To that end, it built out a private area on the fourth floor where a customer can go before the store opens to the public at 11 a.m. and try on clothes and get assistance in selecting items.

The retailer also plans to improve the skills of its sales staff to sell merchandise virtually in what Gushner calls a hybrid of e-commerce and traditional shopping.

“In a weird way, I believe our business has more potential to grow in other ways rather than through e-commerce,” he said. “We are experts in personal commerce.”

In other words, taking care of existing customers, who are loyal, and attracting new ones is the mainstay to its business strategy.

Being small is allowing Boyds to be nimble and adapt quickly to meet the times and customers’ needs, Gushner said. Surveys it conducted during the pandemic indicated that Boyds’ clients would rather shop smaller — not in an enclosed mall — and local where they felt it was safer.

“That gave me a road map,” he said. “Our business model is going to serve us well and when it’s over, I think we are going to grow exponentially.”

*Articles Courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journals

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier  Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

 

Premier Philly Retail Space for Sale in Langhorne PA

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Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philly commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philly commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, warehouse properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail spaces and other Philly commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers. Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philly commercial properties for sale or lease through our Philly commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Columbus Crossing, Bensalem Crossing shopping centers sell 

Paramount Realty Services of Lakewood, N.J., has purchased Columbus Crossing, a 140,418-square-foot shopping center in Philadelphia for roughly $40 million.

Anchored by T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Ulta Beauty, Columbus Crossing was fully leased at the time of sale.

In another, separate transaction, Bensalem Crossing also recently sold for $11.5 million and highlights how investors continue to snap up certain retail assets that have determined are nearly pandemic proof.

At 67,215 square feet, Bensalem Crossing is anchored by a ShopRite and also counts CVS and Verizon as tenants. The property was put up for sale in April.

In Philadelphia, Columbus Crossing was sold by an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners, which acquired the property as part of a larger portfolio of 49 retail properties sold in 2016 by Riocan Real Estate Investment Trust. The property at 1851 S. Columbus Blvd. has also has Walmart and Home Depot as tenants on separate pad site and those were not part of the transaction. Walmart and Home Depot own their respective properties.

Both properties have tenants that continue to do well even in an pandemic.

The site where Columbus Crossing is located is zoned CMX-5, which allows for dense, mixed-use development, and totals 11 acres fronting the Delaware River. “It is perfectly positioned within the path of growth along the river,” Munley said. Demand for the center was high, which was due in most part to the zoning and potential for future development, he said.

Paramount put the property under agreement in December and the transaction was scheduled to close on March 28 but was delayed as a result of the coronavirus and protests. The stores were closed and boarded up. The buyer and lender wanted to make certain tenants would pay rent and that the deal still made sense before finalizing the transaction.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philly retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Amazon closes in on sites for Philadelphia-area grocery stores

Amazon closes in on sites for Philadelphia-area grocery stores

Amazon.com Inc. is reportedly closing in on three Philadelphia locations for its new chain of grocery stores with two sites being eyed in Bucks County and at least one in Center City with the goal of opening them by the end of the year.

The Philadelphia region is competitive when it comes to vying for shoppers dollars and Amazon will be yet another grocery chain entering the mix. New chains, such as Lidl and Aldi, have been entering the market while existing retailers such as Giant Co. and Wawa have been adding locations and all looking to grab more of shopper’s weekly food budgets.

Amazon owns Whole Foods but has been experimenting with a grocery concept that is different from the organic grocery chain and unlike its Amazon Go, which is more like a convenience store with no cashier. The Amazon grocery will be more like a traditional grocery store. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that it had plans to open a dozen stores in the Los Angeles area and intended to launch other locations in Philadelphia and Chicago.

Two locations that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has reportedly zeroed in on locally are stores vacated by other retailers in Bucks County with a third in Center City, according to a Food Trade News report and sources familiar with the situation. One deal has Amazon leasing 36,000 square feet of a 49,000-square-foot former Giant at Creekview Center off Easton Road in Warrington. Another site is 41,000 square feet of a former Kmart at the Brookwood Shopping Center on Street Road in Bensalem, according to Food Trade News.

Amazon has been building out a warehouse distribution network throughout Philadelphia and leases an industrial building in Langhorne and is working on another deal in Bensalem.

At one point, Amazon had looked at a Tower Investments development on South Broad Street at Washington Avenue in Philadelphia but Giant ended up signing a lease at that site as well as another location with Tower at Columbus Boulevard along the Delaware River waterfront. Amazon is now scouring multiple sites in Center City, according to sources. A spokesperson from Amazon couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

The entry of Amazon will further shake up a competitive market. Giant nudged out ShopRite in Philadelphia area, ringing in $2.75 billion in sales over 69 stores during the last year, according to Food Trade News’ latest annual ranking of top retailers that sell groceries, drugs and general merchandise. Sales from Giant stores accounted for 15.4% of the market share, the report said.

ShopRite had $2.64 billion in sales over the same period that ended March 31, 2020, and 14.8% of the market share across the Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery and the South Jersey counties of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester. A year prior, ShopRite was the leader with $2.6 billion in sales, giving it 15.2% of the market compared with Giant’s then $2.56 billion in sales, or 15% of the market.

Acme Markets came in third with its 67 stores earning $1.5 billion in sales, then Wegmans with its nine stores bringing in $629 million in the eight-county area and Whole Foods fifth on the list with $416 million across 12 stores.

Both Lidl and Giant continue to expand in the city and across the region. Lidl opened its second store in Pennsylvania last September off Ridge Pike at Trooper Road in Lower Providence in Montgomery County. It opened its first store in Pennsylvania off McDade Boulevard in Folsom in late 2018.

Giant’s most notable expansion in the region has been in Philadelphia, where it has added four of its smaller format Heirloom stores.

Giant has had a presence in the suburbs for years and plans to open a new 50,000-square-foot store in Richboro next year. It has only recently started to expand into Philadelphia and intends to open its fourth Heirloom Market and a 65,000-square-foot regular store this year in Philadelphia. The company also intends to open a new grocery store on North Broad Street in the LVL North mixed-use project under development by Alterra Property Group, according to sources.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal, Natalie Kostelni

For more information about Philly office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

How far did foot traffic fall at Philadelphia-area shopping centers during the pandemic? Far. 

While it’s no surprise foot traffic at the region’s malls, power centers and retail strips fell during the stay-at-home orders throughout the Philadelphia region, an analysis by CBRE Inc. found it dropped by more than 66% between March 13 and March 27. Foot traffic bottomed out at 50% on April 12, which was Easter Sunday.

“Foot traffic has since gradually increased, albeit never rising above 50% of the lowest measure and averaging about 50% less than in the same weeks in 2019,” according to the report. 

The idea of looking at the data was to determine where foot traffic actually stood and whether it was as bad as everyone believed it was, said Brian Bruzek, a retail broker in CBRE’s Radnor office who represents landlords and tenants in lease transactions. 

What the analysis revealed was that the year started out on a strong note, with foot traffic across the board significantly higher than at the beginning of 2019. 

Between January 1 and March 13, foot traffic at the shopping centers studied in the nine-county Philadelphia region averaged 40% higher than in 2019. Foot traffic in January alone grew by an average of 47%, year-over-year. 

“We started at a really elevated level. Everyone was feeling pretty good about life before Covid,” Bruzek said. “Unemployment was low and we had a very mild winter.”

Then stay-at-home orders were implemented and foot traffic across the all retail types fell and fell quickly. 

Little by little it improved. Once consumers’ two-week supply of food dwindled and stay-at-home mandates were extended, foot traffic picked up at grocery-anchored centers. Those retail properties experienced a nearly 40% increase in foot traffic, year-over-year, according to CBRE. By comparison, non-grocery-anchored centers have seen foot traffic fall an average of upwards of 60%.

To that end, the data did reveal some winners and losers. Centers with grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants fared better and were more resilient than enclosed malls, which were closed.

As time went on, visits to retail centers began to pick up as restaurants, stores and consumers began to adapt. They tapped the likes of Doordash, curbside pick-up, online grocery delivery, Instacart and Amazon. Restaurants started to do meal kits. Other retailers did curbside pick up for online orders. 

Since the week of April 19, there has been an a steady uptick in foot traffic at the region’s retail centers and that may portend a renewed comfort level of people to return to in-person shopping as the region moves into the green phase and health measures such as social distancing and masks are in place. 

“There is pent up demand for some experience with proper protocols,” Bruzek said. 

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philly office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.