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Location intelligence for Walmart and Target highlights two distinct storylines in the superstore space – one defined by sustained momentum, and the other by the early stages of a rebound.
Over the past several months, Walmart has recorded consistent year-over-year (YoY) visit growth, with same-store visits closely tracking overall traffic – suggesting that gains are being driven primarily by existing locations rather than new store openings. This trend aligns with the company’s previously reported transaction growth, reinforcing the strength of underlying demand and serving as a positive signal as Q2 2026 progresses.
Target, on the other hand, entered 2026 under pressure, as visits trailed prior-year levels in both November and December 2025 – partly reflecting continued softness in discretionary categories, which represent a significant portion of its business.
January 2026, however, appeared to mark the beginning of a notable shift, with both overall visits and same-store visits stabilizing. The months that followed brought a meaningful traffic rebound, indicating that February’s positive sales trends may have continued, and new CEO Michael Fiddelke’s turnaround strategy may be bearing fruit. These improvements are particularly noteworthy in light of ongoing weakness in consumer sentiment and the impact of energy price hikes.
An analysis of visits to both brands by day of week adds further context to their recent performance. At Walmart and Target alike, weekday visits rose sharply YoY in Q1 2026 – marking a clear improvement for both retailers – while weekend visits remained essentially flat YoY.
For Target, this stabilization in weekend visits is notable, as prior declines had weighed on overall performance. This matters because weekends tend to capture more discretionary browsing and higher-margin categories that are central to Target’s model.
At the same time, with non-essential spending under pressure, growth anchored in steady weekday demand – reflecting routine, need-based shopping trips – suggests that both brands are reinforcing their roles as essential retail destinations. A measured, but steady, start to 2026.
AI-powered location intelligence indicates that Walmart continues to benefit from steady, need-based demand, while Target appears to be regaining traction after a softer period. Whether Target can build on this early momentum and translate it into sustained growth may be one of the more closely watched dynamics in the sector in the months ahead.
For updates, visit Placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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We're living through one of the most consequential technology shifts of our lifetimes. Generative AI is reshaping how people analyze information, make decisions, and do their work at a pace that would have seemed implausible only a few years ago. For industries like ours, where professionals rely on data to make high-stakes decisions about the physical world, the opportunity is especially exciting. Insights that once took weeks can now surface in minutes. Analytical workflows that once required specialized training can become accessible to anyone.
But that opportunity comes with real responsibility. The same capabilities that make GenAI so powerful also introduce risks such as bias, accuracy, privacy, and misuse - and those risks compound when the underlying technology is moving faster than the norms and regulations around it. The companies building with AI today are, in many ways, writing the operating rules in real time. How we choose to do that matters.
At Placer, we want to be clear about how we choose to do it. Placer doesn't build its own large language models (LLMs). Instead, we use well-established, trusted models from leading providers - the same foundation models that power the most widely adopted AI tools in the enterprise today. That's a deliberate choice. Our value to customers comes from the depth and quality of our data and the analytical expertise built around it, not from reinventing general-purpose AI infrastructure.
But not building the models ourselves doesn't let us off the hook for how we use them. If anything, it raises the bar. When we embed GenAI into our platform, whether as an analytical assistant, an automated summary, or a future agent that helps professionals move faster through their workflows, our customers trust us with the outcome. They're trusting us to pick the right models, apply the right guardrails, protect their data, and be transparent about what the technology is and isn't doing.
That's why we're publishing our Responsible AI Principles today. They're clear, concise, and they reflect how we actually operate.
The four Responsible AI principles address the issues we believe matter most to the professionals who rely on Placer every day:
Fairness and bias mitigation. AI systems can reflect and amplify existing biases in their training data. Our core defense is something we've been doing since long before GenAI: continuously validating our models, monitoring our AI practices and de-biasing outputs where appropriate.
Transparency and accountability. When we use GenAI in customer-facing features, we say so. We build feedback mechanisms into the product and treat that feedback as a real input to how the system evolves.
Privacy by design. Our AI tools are built to identify patterns about places and brands, not individuals. The same strict privacy measures that govern the rest of the Placer platform apply to every new GenAI feature we ship.
Security and safety. We are responsible custodians of our customers' data and are committed to safeguarding its integrity using industry leading standards.
We've also published a clear statement on how Placer's GenAI capabilities may be used and what restrictions we apply. These aren't new restrictions; they extend the responsible-use commitments that have always governed how our data can be used.
We're excited about the era of GenAI and about the value these new capabilities will create for our customers. The AI principles we're publishing are part of a broader effort across the company that’s grounded in a simple idea: trust isn't something we claim once and move on from. It's something we earn in every feature we ship.
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April 2025 set a high bar for movie theater performance, with A Minecraft Movie (April 4) and Sinners (April 18) driving significant spikes in foot traffic. Against this strong comparison, year-over-year (YoY) theater visits trended negative through much of April 2026. This followed a stronger March 2026, when releases like Scream 7 and Project Hail Mary – and easier comparisons – helped sustain significant YoY traffic gains
While the highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 (released May 1) did not generate a meaningful YoY uplift – given the difficult April 2025 comparison – it appears to have helped stabilize visitation trends, halting the declines seen in prior weeks.
Overall, the data reinforces that theater traffic remains highly blockbuster-driven, with consumers still willing to return to theaters when content feels like a must-see experience. With a slate of major releases ahead – including Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu in late May and Toy Story 5 in mid-June – the sector is likely to see renewed spikes in visitation tied to tentpole premieres.
For more data-driven consumer insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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April data indicates positive momentum for the mall sector, with year-over-year (YoY) traffic increases across all three formats analyzed – indoor malls, open-air shopping centers, and outlet malls. This performance is particularly notable given the strong April baseline last year, when traffic rose between 3.7% and 4.3% across formats compared to April 2024.
Open-air centers came out on top, extending a trend in place since December 2025, with visits rising 3.5% YoY. This marks a return to the top growth position after ceding the lead to indoor malls for much of 2025. Indoor malls followed with a 2.2% increase, while outlet malls lagged behind, posting a modest 0.5% YoY gain in April 2025 – potentially reflecting greater sensitivity to elevated gas prices in recent weeks.
At the same time, the average visit duration declined YoY, with all formats experiencing a shift toward shorter visits (under 30 minutes) and a corresponding drop in longer visits (45+ minutes).
This divergence between rising traffic and shorter dwell times suggests that a growing share of consumers are engaging in more mission-driven trips – visiting with a specific purpose in mind rather than for extended browsing. As a result, malls may be seeing more targeted, efficiency-oriented behavior that could concentrate spend within fewer stores per trip.
Still, this shift does not signal a wholesale move away from malls as destinations: across formats, over 40% of visits continue to last more than 60 minutes, indicating that a significant segment of consumers remains engaged in longer, more experiential visits even as quick trips become more prevalent.
April’s data suggests that malls are evolving to meet a wider range of consumer needs. The combination of rising traffic and varied visit lengths suggests that malls are successfully functioning both as convenient, mission-driven retail hubs and as destinations for longer, experiential outings. This dual role may ultimately prove to be a strength, enabling operators and tenants to capture multiple trip types and occasions. If sustained, these trends position the sector for continued resilience, with opportunities to further optimize tenant mix, merchandising strategies, and on-site experiences to align with increasingly dynamic consumer behavior.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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The home improvement category has faced sustained headwinds in recent years – from elevated mortgage rates to sluggish existing-home sales and a consumer base hesitant to take on major remodeling projects. But after a prolonged stretch of year-over-year (YoY) visit declines, both Home Depot and Lowe’s have returned to growth – and the foot traffic data suggests this shift is more than just a seasonal uptick.
Both home improvement leaders closed Q1 2026 with YoY visit gains – Home Depot up 1.9% and Lowe’s up 2.0% – building on the stabilization seen in Q4 2025. This improvement aligns with their latest financial results: Home Depot reported U.S. comparable sales growth of 0.3%, while Lowe’s posted a stronger 1.3%. And for both chains, the return to positive territory suggests a long-awaited recovery may finally be underway.
Monthly data also suggests that while inclement weather contributed to the segment's strong performance in January, the underlying recovery is genuine. Home improvement benefits from unusual weather events, and January's strong gains for both chains – Home Depot +2.5%, Lowe's +3.9% – were partly fueled by Winter Storm Fern, which impacted communities across more than thirty states. But the momentum carried into February, and while growth moderated in March – and for Home Depot again in April – neither brand slipped into negative territory.
That resilience is an encouraging signal for the category during the critical spring home improvement season, particularly given renewed headwinds like rising gas prices and softening consumer sentiment. Lowe's stronger performance in April 2026, supported by easier comparisons, may also reflect its greater exposure to DIY customers tackling smaller repairs and at-home projects as consumers redirect spending closer to home.
Interest rates remain elevated and the housing market sluggish – but those same forces may now be working in the category's favor, as homeowners staying put begin to tackle a growing backlog of deferred repairs and maintenance. The bigger question is whether that momentum eventually unlocks the large discretionary projects both retailers say consumers are still holding back on – especially amid continued tariff uncertainty and elevated prices at the pump.
For more data-driven retail insights, follow Placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
There may be more digital entertainment than ever before, but consumers still seek out places to socialize and have fun in the physical world. And in-person entertainment venues – from stadiums to experiential viewing concepts – are attracting unique audiences that span a range of psychographic segments.
A closer look at venues in the Dallas and Los Angeles areas reveals how this diversity plays out across markets, and what it could signal for stakeholders in the business of out-of-home entertainment.
In-person entertainment includes a variety of venues and formats. In the Dallas area, legacy venues AT&T Stadium, American Airlines Center, and Globe Life Field – and eatertainment concepts, movie theaters, and “shared reality” experiences such as Cosm – are just some of the in-person entertainment options.
And in the Dallas region, AI-powered trade area analysis reveals that affluent and suburban families dominate the out-of-home entertainment scene. Across every analyzed venue and entertainment category, either Ultra Wealthy Families or Wealthy Suburban Families ranks as the top audience segment – reflecting the region's family-oriented, suburban fabric.
That said, each venue or category attracts a distinct audience mix. Cosm Dallas and the American Airlines Center over-index on Ultra Wealthy Families and draw a relatively higher share of Young Professionals than other venues. This likely reflects their premium positioning: Cosm as a novelty experience, and the AAC as an upscale urban destination where higher costs may skew attendance toward more affluent consumers.
By contrast, Wealthy Suburban Families lead at Globe Life Field (home to the Texas Rangers) and AT&T Stadium (home to the Dallas Cowboys), both of which also attract meaningful shares of blue-collar suburban audiences.
And there is clear demand for in-person entertainment among Dallas’s up-and-coming and working-class consumers. Blue Collar Suburbs and Young Urban Singles segments tend to favor eatertainment venues and movie theaters – more affordable options for going out.
Greater Los Angeles offers a similarly diverse mix of entertainment anchors: SoFi Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, and Crypto.com Arena – as well as a Cosm location, eatertainment chains, and movie theaters.
However, audience segmentation for in-person entertainment in the region shows a distinct profile compared to Dallas – shaped by SoCal’s urban density and demographic diversity. Near-Urban Diverse Families represent the largest segment across every analyzed venue and entertainment category, while Wealthy Suburban Families also account for a significant share of visitors across formats – particularly at Angel Stadium, likely due to its suburban Orange County location. The prevalence of these two segments suggests that urban, middle-class family audiences are the backbone of entertainment demand in the region while higher-income, suburban households play a strong supporting role in out-of-home entertainment consumption.
Two other patterns also jump out from the data.
First, Cosm Los Angeles and Crypto.com Arena’s audiences draw more heavily from the Educated Urbanites and Ultra Wealthy Families segments, which could point to a somewhat more premium-leaning audience mix at these destinations.
Second, the Young Urban Singles segment accounts for a relatively consistent audience share across all categories – suggesting broad-based entertainment preferences. With no single entertainment format commanding outsized engagement from this young cohort, operators in the Los Angeles market have an opportunity to further tailor experiences and potentially shape future demand among this audience.
In both Dallas and Los Angeles, the composition of out-of-home entertainment audiences reflects each market’s underlying demographics and urban structure.
And yet, certain consumer segments prefer particular entertainment venues or formats over others, and understanding who shows up is critical. Operators and advertisers that tailor their offerings to the dominant segments – whether through pricing or programming – may be better positioned to capture sustained demand and attain better ROI within their market.
For more insights, visit Placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
Physical retail is increasingly defined by a small group of dominant players – Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale, and Dollar General – that span grocery, essentials, and discretionary categories at a scale no other retailers can match. These chains serve as bellwethers of consumer behavior, revealing where Americans are spending, how often they shop, and what drives their decisions. And understanding their visitation patterns sheds light on the key dynamics shaping both their performance and the broader blueprint for retail success in 2026.
Retail giants Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale, and Dollar General continue to capture a growing share of brick-and-mortar visits nationwide.
• The share of physical retail traffic captured by these giants rose from 16.8% in 2019 to 17.5% in Q1 2026, signaling continued sector consolidation.
• The scale advantage enjoyed by retail giants is increasingly self-reinforcing: Larger players benefit from superior data, stronger vendor leverage, and operational efficiencies that in turn further widen the gap.
• As these advantages compound, direct competition becomes less viable. Instead, smaller retailers should focus on owning specific trip missions – such as convenience, fill-in, or discovery – where format, assortment curation, and in-store experience can more directly shape consumer choice.
• For CRE operators, the growing dominance of these retail giants increases reliance on top-tier anchors, potentially driving performance gaps between centers with strong national tenants and those without.
• For CPG companies, the consolidation in the offline retail space heightens channel concentration, making success with a handful of large retailers critical while increasing those retailers’ negotiating leverage.
Traffic trends across the four giants reveal meaningful divergence in performance.
• Costco and Dollar General are driving the strongest visit growth, supported by both substantial fleet expansions and rising visits per location. In 2025, visits per store exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 18.1% for Costco and 10.2% for Dollar General, with both brands also seeing steady increases in their share of total brick-and-mortar retail chain visits.
• Walmart remains the largest player by far, accounting for 9.7% of traffic to major brick-and-mortar chains in 2025. And though the behemoth’s share of visits declined slightly in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, it has held steady over the past three years.
• Target’s visit share has remained relatively flat over the past three years, reflecting stalled momentum. Still, early 2026 trends point to emerging signs of recovery – with Q1 visits up 8.3% compared to Q1 2019.
• Value retail is winning, but in more specialized forms: Dollar General (extreme value + convenience) and Costco (bulk value + loyalty) are driving the strongest traffic growth and rising visits per store, while Walmart’s broad “everyday value” remains steady with slower growth. Target, for its part, is lagging – likely a reflection of the broader bifurcation in retail which has left middle-market players caught between consumers trading down to value and those trading up to quality.
• For retailers and CPG companies, the broader lesson is that value perception is becoming more nuanced. It’s no longer just about offering low prices at scale, but about how value is delivered – whether through small packs vs. bulk, or quick trips vs. stock-up missions. Success increasingly depends on prioritizing these distinct value formats and investing in channels where store-level productivity is improving.
• For CRE operators, the outperformance of retailers with clearly defined value propositions underscores the importance of mission-driven tenant mix. As shoppers visit with increasingly specific missions in mind, retailers that cater to those missions are outperforming. Tenant strategies should reflect this shift, ensuring complementary offerings that reinforce a cohesive shopping mission.
Walmart remains the dominant brick-and-mortar retailer nationwide and across all fifty states. Still, the data suggests there is room for multiple runners-up to succeed across geographies and customer segments.
• Dollar General, Target, and Costco each attract distinct audience segments. Dollar General attracts a disproportionately high share of the “Mature and Retired Living” segment, while Costco leads among family households, with Target also over-indexing with this group. Among younger “Contemporary Households,” meanwhile – a segment encompassing singles, married couples without children, and non-family households – Target commands the highest share, slightly over-indexing compared to the nationwide baseline.
• Regional strengths vary significantly, with Dollar General concentrated in the South, Costco dominant in the Northwest, and Target showing more dispersed areas of strength.
• Despite similar overall visit share, Dollar General leads in more states (26 vs. 17 for Target), reflecting broader geographic dominance.
• For retailers, the data suggests that growth opportunities are increasingly shaped by localized demographic and geographic dynamics – meaning that targeted, market-specific strategies may be more effective than uniform national approaches.
• Younger “Contemporary Households” remain less locked-in than older demographics, representing a key battleground for future growth.
• For CPG companies, this data highlights that channel strategy is really about building the right mix of retailers, since even large national players reach different types of consumers.
• CRE operators should ask "which anchor is right for this trade area" rather than "which anchor is strongest," as mismatched tenants can underperform even if they’re nationally dominant.
After remaining essentially flat in 2025, average visits per location to Walmart grew 3.5% YoY in Q1 2026. And the retailer’s solid Q1 performance across the U.S. underscores its unique ability to resonate across income levels, geographies, and shopping missions.
• Walmart posted year-over-year visit growth across nearly all U.S. markets in Q1 2026, reinforcing its role as a universally relevant retailer.
• The giant’s comparative softness in small parts of the Northeast suggests an opportunity to double down on region-specific assortments, urban-friendly formats, or partnerships to better match local shopping behaviors.
• Walmart’s broad-based growth shows that even as consumers are increasingly willing to visit multiple retailers to get what they want, its Superstore model has solidified its role as a primary stop on the American shopping journey – making it a uniquely reliable anchor for CRE operators.
• For smaller retailers, this underscores the opportunity to win the “second stop” – capturing trips through curated assortments and more tailored in-store experiences that Walmart’s scale is less optimized to deliver.
• For CPG companies, Walmart stands out as a highly attractive partner for broad, efficient reach, given its consistent traffic across markets.
Target’s recent performance suggests early momentum in reversing prior softness.
• Q1 2026 visits to Target rose 5.1% year over year, marking the chain’s first positive visit growth in more than a year, and suggesting that the chain’s new turnaround strategy may be bearing fruit.
• Gains were driven primarily by visits lasting 30 to 45 minutes, which accounted for 19.6% of overall visits to Target in Q1 2026 – pointing to stronger in-store engagement rather than quick, mission-driven stops.
• Target’s return to traffic growth – driven by increases in mid-length trips – signals a sustainable recovery on the horizon, strengthening its reliability as a traffic-driving tenant for CRE operators.
• Target's turnaround shows retailers how increasing shopper engagement can generate growth by converting quick trips into higher-value, multi-category experiences.
• For CPG companies, the rise in mid-length visits indicates a more receptive in-store environment for discovery and trade-up, making Target an increasingly attractive channel for innovation, merchandising, and premium offerings.
Dollar General is becoming embedded in consumers’ daily routines.
• Visitor frequency to Dollar General is on the rise. In Q1 2026, nearly a quarter of visitors frequented the chain at least four times in an average month, up from 21.2% in Q1 2022.
• Dollar General is becoming increasingly local in nature: As its footprint expands, more visits originate nearby, with 28.0% coming from within one mile – reinforcing its role as a neighborhood store of choice.
• Dollar General’s visitation patterns point to a growing ownership of the convenience mission. Its expanding store density is creating a self-reinforcing network effect, where proximity fuels frequency, and frequency strengthens long-term defensibility.
• For retailers, Dollar General’s rising share of nearby and high-frequency visits shows that proximity can drive habit, making convenience a powerful lever for building repeat behavior.
• For CRE operators, the data highlights the strength of hyper-local, necessity-driven traffic, positioning Dollar General as a stable tenant that anchors consistent, repeat visitation.
• For CPG professionals, the increase in frequent trips signals a high-velocity purchase environment, favoring smaller pack sizes and products that align with regular replenishment cycles.
Costco continues to grow and diversify its audience despite higher membership fees and stricter food court access policies, highlighting the strength of its value proposition and loyalty model.
• In September 2024, Costco raised its membership fees for the first time in seven years – and more recently tightened enforcement of member-only access to its food courts. Despite these changes, visitation has remained strong, highlighting the company’s pricing power and deep customer loyalty.
• At the same time, Costco’s shopper base is broadening, with median household income trending slightly downward while remaining relatively affluent.
• Offering strong value to a relatively affluent consumer base can be a winning formula in 2026. Retailers that combine quality, trust, and perceived savings – rather than competing solely on low prices – are well positioned to drive both loyalty and sustained traffic growth.
• For CRE operators, Costco’s sustained traffic growth and broadening shopper base reinforce its value as a standalone, high-demand traffic magnet that can anchor entire trade areas and drive surrounding retail development.
• For CPG companies, the combination of high traffic and declining median HHI signals that Costco is evolving into a scaled channel reaching beyond affluent shoppers, requiring more diversified assortment and pricing strategies.
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It’s been decades since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, and anticipation continues to build. While the matches themselves will deliver thrilling moments for fans inside the stadium, a far broader audience is expected to engage from beyond the gates – gathering at bars, watch parties, and living rooms across the country.
Drawing on insights from recent sporting and cultural events, this analysis examines how the World Cup may impact consumer behavior and audiences across stadiums, host cities, and nationwide.
In 2025, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ hosted a wide range of concerts and sporting events. And an examination of three – Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s tour stop, the FIFA Club World Cup Final, and a Week 17 New York Jets matchup against division rivals and the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots – reveals clear differences in audience composition across event types.
Trade area analysis showed that the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Final drew the largest share of single visitors and the highest median household income (HHI) of the three events – a pattern that could reflect the premium tickets and travel typically associated with a quadrennial championship match.
With the 2026 World Cup elevating the level of global competition, stadiums set to host matches this summer – including MetLife – may see even more dramatic shifts in their audience relative to other events.
While spectators attending World Cup matches are likely to differ from those drawn to other events throughout the year, audience shifts are likely to occur also within the tournament itself. As the competition progresses and the stakes rise, the visitor profile at host stadiums may trend progressively higher-income, as suggested by an analysis of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA during the recent NFL season and Super Bowl.
During the Super Bowl, the stadium’s captured market median HHI surpassed that of every 49ers home game during the 2025-26 season – a pattern consistent with the event’s premium ticket pricing, national draw, and high levels of out-of-market travel.
And since the World Cup only takes place every four years, and necessitates international travel for die-hard fans, attendees are likely to be even more affluent than Super Bowl go-ers. Moreover, as the tournament reaches its later stages, each match becomes more significant and carries the potential to drive an even more affluent in-person audience.
Diving deeper into last year’s FIFA Club World Cup Final and Semifinal matches at MetLife Stadium provides further insight into the significance of the in-person audience that doesn’t make it into the stands. While FIFA generally places restrictions on tailgating, the behavior was still observed at MetLife and several other tournament venues in 2025. To put the phenomenon into perspective, location intelligence indicates that on the day of the Club World Cup final, combined visits to MetLife and its parking lots were 24.8% higher than visits to the stadium alone.
AI-powered trade area analysis further contextualizes the economic significance of this audience. During the semifinal matches, MetLife Stadium’s captured market median HHI remained nearly identical – just over $100K – with and without parking lot visitors. A similar pattern held for the Final, where median HHI for both the stadium-only and combined stadium-plus-parking visitors both rose above $115K, with the stadium-only figure only marginally higher.
This suggests that tailgaters represent a significant cohort with discretionary income to spend on the broader match-day experience, even if they opt out of spending big money on tickets.
With tailgating during the 2026 World Cup likely to remain limited due to FIFA regulations, the spending power of fans just outside the stadiums could create opportunities for alternative forms of engagement. Fan zones and other nearby hospitality events may offer effective ways to capture demand.
Nearby dining and entertainment venues are among the most accessible experiences for fans in the stadium area, and these stand to benefit significantly from elevated game-day foot traffic.
Analysis of recent FIFA Club World Cup matches reveals the impact of match-day activity on local businesses. Visitor journey data from the June 25th, 2025 matchup between Inter Milan and River Plate at Seattle’s Lumen Field, and the June 28th, 2025 meeting between Palmeiras and Botafogo at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia reveals that a significant share of stadium visitors also stopped at nearby dining and recreation venues on the day. Location intelligence also shows that, on the day of the match, each stadium-adjacent venue received a significant visit boost compared to its 2025 daily average.
This pattern underscores the potential impact of the World Cup on the surrounding commercial ecosystem. The stadium may anchor the experience, but fan engagement will likely spill into adjacent areas – creating opportunities for both organizers and local businesses. To take full advantage, restaurants and bars can position themselves as fan-friendly destinations through watch parties, extended hours, and even mobile or outdoor offerings in stadium corridors.
Previous major sporting events – including the Super Bowl – demonstrate that the impact of large-scale sporting moments often extends beyond the immediate stadium vicinity into the broader regional economy.
In the weeks leading up to the latest Super Bowl in Santa Clara, CA on February 8th, 2026, both the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkley and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CBSAs saw a notable uptick in year-over-year dining traffic – outperforming the nationwide average. The timing suggests that early-arriving travellers combined with locals enjoying pre-event concerts and events helped fuel demand. In contrast, nationwide dining traffic saw a more pronounced lift the following week – likely tied to Valentine’s Day on February 14.
This pattern indicates that regions hosting – or located near – World Cup 2026 matches could experience similar pre-event dining tailwinds. As out-of-town visitors arrive and local engagement builds in the days and weeks leading up to key matches, restaurants and hospitality may benefit from elevated demand – particularly when supported by ancillary events and fan experiences.
Other recent examples suggest that cities hosting major events like the World Cup stand to benefit from an influx of out-of-town visitors – particularly those with higher spending power.
Since the beginning of 2025, New Orleans has hosted a series of popular events that drove significant non-local traffic. AI-powered trade area data indicates that during these periods, out-of-market visitors consistently exhibited a higher median HHI than both local residents and typical commuters into the city.
As expected, the 2025 Super Bowl generated the most pronounced spike in out-of-market visitor median HHI among the events analyzed, but the pattern extends beyond one-time spectacles. Recurring events like Mardi Gras and major music festivals also attracted high-income visitors to the city – likely benefitting the local hospitality, dining, and retail industries.
Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup, host cities are likely to experience a similar dynamic. The tournament’s global draw will likely bring affluent travelers with discretionary dollars to the host regions – visitors that will spend not only on match tickets, but also on accommodation, dining, and shopping. By sponsoring tournament-related festivals, concerts, and experiences in or near retail corridors, cities can amplify the economic impact of the World Cup beyond the stadium.
The impact of the 2026 World Cup is unlikely to be confined to the select cities hosting matches. Major sporting events drive large-scale at-home viewership, generating ripple effects nationwide.
The Super Bowl offers a useful benchmark. In the days leading up to February 8th, 2026, visits to grocery stores and pizza chains rose above day-of-week averages for 2025, ultimately peaking on the day of the big game day as households appeared to pick up last-minute fixings and takeout for their watch parties.
This pattern indicates that the World Cup – with its extended schedule and multiple high-stakes matchups – could drive repeated waves of elevated grocery and take-out demand as fans gather together throughout the tournament.
Of course, at-home viewing is just one piece of the match-day equation. Many fans opt for a more communal experience – gathering at sports bars across the country to watch the game alongside fellow supporters.
Recent highly-anticipated soccer matches offer a clear signal of this behavior. During the recent Allstate Continental Clásico, MLS Cup Final, and SheBelieves Cup Final, top sports bars in key markets like Los Angeles and Miami recorded visit spikes above day-of-week averages.
Not every World Cup fan will be able to attend in-person or travel to a host city, but previous match-day lifts in sports bar traffic demonstrate that fans nationwide will participate in the tournament experience.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to engage a wide spectrum of fans – from casual viewers at home to dedicated supporters traveling to stadiums – shaping how and where demand emerges.
As a result, the tournament’s impact will be felt across multiple layers of retail, dining, and tourism. Stadium-centered spending, activity in surrounding corridors, host-city consumer demand, and gatherings of spectators nationwide all point to a broad and interconnected World Cup effect that is likely to shape both audience composition and behavior at scale.
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Indoor malls and open-air centers have posted consistent YoY visit growth, outlet declines have been modest, and early 2026 data shows renewed momentum across all three formats.
Growth in short visits and extended stays – alongside declines in mid-length trips – shows that consumers are gravitating toward trips with a clear purpose, favoring either efficiency or immersion.
Rising dwell times and strong engagement from younger, contemporary households position indoor malls as leading destinations for longer, experience-driven trips.
A higher share of short, weekday visits – along with strong appeal among affluent families – underscores their role as convenient, essential retail hubs.
As off-price and online alternatives erode their treasure-hunt advantage and long-distance visitation softens, outlets face a strategic choice between deepening local relevance and reinvesting in destination appeal.
The malls that thrive will be those that intentionally optimize for convenience, experience, or a disciplined integration of both.
Despite economic headwinds, intensifying e-commerce competition, and fragile consumer confidence, shopping centers continue to defy the “dead mall” narrative – reinventing themselves and, in many cases, thriving.
What can location analytics tell us about the state of the mall in 2026? Which trends and audiences are driving their performance – and how can operators and retailers best capitalize on the opportunities within the category?
Over the past two years, both indoor malls and open-air shopping centers have posted consistent year-over-year (YoY) traffic growth. And while outlet malls experienced slight declines, the pullback was modest – signaling a period of stability rather than erosion.
Early 2026 data also points to continued momentum, with all three mall formats recording mid-single-digit YoY traffic gains in the first two months of the year. Although it’s still early days – and YoY comparisons in 2026 were boosted by an additional Saturday – the positive start suggests that the industry is entering the year on a solid footing.
With e-commerce always within reach, hybrid work anchoring more consumers at home, and ongoing economic uncertainty influencing spending decisions, trips to physical stores are becoming more intentional. Shopping center visit data reflects this shift as well, with growth in both quick convenience visits and extended experiential outings – alongside a decline in mid-length trips.
In 2025, quick trips (under 30 minutes) increased across all formats, underscoring malls’ growing role as convenient, high-utility destinations for picking up an online order, grabbing a quick bite, or making a targeted purchase. At the same time, extended visits of more than 75 minutes increased at indoor malls and open-air centers, reflecting sustained appetite for immersive, experiential outings.
Meanwhile, mid-length visits (between 30 and 75 minutes) lagged across formats – falling indoor malls and outlet malls and remaining flat at open-air centers – suggesting shoppers are losing patience with undifferentiated trips that lack a clear purpose.
Still, although short visits increased year over year across all mall types, and long visits increased for both indoor malls and open-air centers, the distribution of dwell time varies by format. Short visits make up a larger share of traffic at open-air shopping centers, for example, while longer visits account for a greater share at indoor malls. This divergence underscores the need for format-specific strategies, with operators clearly defining the core shoppers and missions they are best suited to serve and aligning tenant mix, amenities, and marketing accordingly.
Indoor malls, for instance, have increasingly positioned themselves as experiential hubs – particularly for younger consumers. Recent survey data shows that 57% of shoppers aged 18 to 34 report visiting a mall frequently or often, and they are more likely than older cohorts to arrive without a specific purchase in mind.
Foot traffic patterns reinforce this experiential appeal. In 2025, 37.6% of indoor mall visits lasted more than 75 minutes, compared to 33.4% for open-air centers and 34.6% for outlets. Indoor malls also captured the largest share of visits from the young-skewing “contemporary households” segment – singles, non-family households, and young couples without children – indicating strong resonance with younger audiences.
As indoor malls expand their experiential offerings, visit durations are rising even further – even as they hold steady or even slightly decline at other formats. For operators, this shift highlights a significant opportunity for indoor malls to deepen their role as climate-controlled third places. And for brands, it means high-impact access to Gen Z consumers in discovery mode – top-of-funnel engagement that is increasingly difficult and expensive to replicate through digital channels alone.
If indoor malls excel at capturing extended, social visits, open-air centers are finding success through convenience. In 2025, open-air centers had the highest shares of both weekday visits (64.0%) and short, sub-30 minutes (36.8%) among the three formats. Grocery anchors, superstores, and essential-service tenants like gyms – more common at open-air centers than at other formats – help drive steady, non-discretionary traffic.
Demographically, open-air centers drew the highest share of affluent families, a key demographic for daily errands. This alignment with higher-income households, combined with weekday consistency, positions open-air centers as reliable errand hubs embedded in community life.
Outlet malls, for their part, have historically differentiated themselves by offering something shoppers couldn’t find elsewhere: an experiential treasure hunt featuring brand-name merchandise at compelling prices. But the decline in long visits shown above suggests that this positioning may be coming under pressure – likely from the rise of off-price and discount chains as well as other low-cost, convenient treasure-hunt alternatives like thrift stores. When shoppers can score attractive deals online or browse for bargains at a nearby T.J. Maxx or Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, the incentive to dedicate time and travel to an outlet trip may no longer feel as compelling – especially for outlet malls’ core audience, which includes meaningful contingents of middle and lower-income consumers with families.
And data points to a subtle but steady erosion in the share of visitors willing to go the extra mile to visit outlet malls. Since 2023, the share of outlet visits from consumers traveling more than 30 miles has slipped from 33.1% to 31.8%, even as long-distance visits to other mall formats have remained relatively stable. This softening of destination demand may be contributing to outlets’ recent traffic lags.
Still, despite these lags in foot traffic, major outlet companies continue to see YoY increases in same-center tenant sales per square foot. The format’s strong visit start to 2026 also suggests that outlets still have significant draw – and that with the right strategy, they could reinvigorate their traffic trends.
One option is for outlet malls to lean further into their immediate trade areas: Nearly 20% of visits to outlets already originate within five miles – a share that edged up from 19.4% in 2023 to 19.9% in 2025. These closer shoppers may be largely responsible for the segment’s rise in short visits, pointing to an opportunity to further augment BOPIS offerings and select essential-use tenants.
Another option is to strengthen outlets’ destination appeal with distinctive retail, dining, and experiential offerings that resonate with value-oriented, larger-household shoppers. But whether they focus on convenience or on justifying the journey – or attempt to balance both – success will depend on identifying who their shoppers are and which missions they are best positioned to own.
As in other areas of retail, shopping center success increasingly depends on strategic clarity. The malls that thrive will be those that clearly define their role in their customers’ lives and execute against it with intention – whether by decisively optimizing for efficiency, fully investing in experience, or thoughtfully integrating both.
