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East and South Asian grocery chains continue to perform well, with YoY visits outperforming the broader grocery segment in most cases, as seen in the chart below.
One factor behind the success of specialty grocery chains is their ability to serve as true destinations rather than just another place to pick up groceries, as visitor behavior data suggests that these grocers engage their visitors more deeply than traditional grocery chains.
Shoppers spend more time in these specialty grocery stores (27 to 41 minutes per visit on average compared to 23 minutes at traditional supermarkets). Consumers are also more likely to visit on weekends – the grocery category as a whole receives less than 33% of its visits on weekends, compared to H Mart, 99 Ranch Market, Mitsuwa Marketplace, and Patel Brothers where 39.3% to 42.4% of visits take place over the weekend. Together, these patterns reinforce the positioning of East and South Asian grocers as experiential, destination-driven retailers rather than routine errand stops.
Looking ahead, some chains are working on opening more stores, with H Mart slated to open four new locations in Florida, Texas, and California, while 99 Ranch just opened its first New York City location. These expansions signal continued momentum in both established and new markets.
The success of Southeast and East Asian grocers may highlight a broader consumer shift: shopping trips that feel purposeful, engaging, and even entertaining are increasingly valued in an age where routine purchases can be easily fulfilled online. Traditional grocers looking to tap into this trend may need to rethink their formats, merchandising, and in-store experiences, potentially leaning more into specialty assortments, foodservice options, or community programming. More broadly, for retailers of all types, the success of Asian grocers illustrates the growing importance of creating destination-driven experiences that transform shopping into an outing rather than a chore. Retailers who cultivate environments that invite discovery, linger time, and weekend traffic may find themselves better positioned to capture both customer loyalty and discretionary spending.
For the latest up-to-date grocery trends, check out our free tools.
Costco (COST) has maintained an impressive growth streak since the pandemic, with visits up year-over-year (YoY) every quarter since Q2 2021, as shown in the chart below.
Importantly, although the retailer has expanded significantly during this time, this growth has not been fueled by expansion alone: Same-store visits have also consistently increased during this period – indicating that the retailer is driving more traffic to existing stores and quickly building strong member bases at its new warehouses.
The latest data suggests that Costco has no plans of slowing down. Overall visits continued to grow in 2025 while same-store visits increased or held steady. And even as brick-and-mortar retail traffic softened over the summer, Costco bucked the trend: August 2025 traffic to Costco grew 5.5% YoY while same-store visits rose 4.0% – likely boosted by back-to-school demand.
In-store consumer behavior also highlights Costco's consumer appeal. Visitors to the chain spend considerably more time per visit than visitors to other superstores or grocery chains. This longer dwell time not only increases the likelihood of larger basket sizes, but also highlights the effectiveness of Costco’s curated merchandising strategy that offers consumers an engaging experience while encouraging cross-category shopping.
Macro conditions may help Costco grow even further in the near future. Gas prices have fallen recently, reducing the cost of driving to warehouse clubs often located outside dense residential areas. Grocery inflation has cooled as well, relieving pressure on households that might have pulled back from bulk purchases, while keeping value top of mind. Together, lower fuel costs and moderating food prices reduce friction and reinforce steady trip frequency to value-oriented, drive-to formats like Costco.
Looking ahead, Costco’s combination of consistent traffic growth, favorable macro conditions, and industry-leading in-store engagement underscores its resilience in a challenging retail environment. For investors, these trends point to continued revenue durability supported by membership economics and strong spend-per-visit. For retailers, Costco offers a blueprint: build loyalty through value and elevate engagement with experience. This approach has made Costco not only a standout performer today, but also one of the best-positioned retailers to sustain growth into the next cycle.
For more data-driven retail 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.
The state of the consumer was top of mind during second-quarter 2025 earnings calls, as restaurant executives consistently described a more cautious and discerning customer. Leaders from major brands like McDonald's, Chipotle, and Starbucks noted that lower-income consumers, in particular, are feeling the pressure of a challenging economy and are pulling back on the frequency of their visits.
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski framed it as a "two-tier economy," where affluent consumers continue to spend while lower-to-middle income households face significant cost-of-living pressures. This trend is visible in visitation data, which shows quick-service (QSR) and fast-casual restaurants underperforming full-service restaurants and coffee chains in recent months.
This consumer caution has led to a "trade-down" effect, where customers actively seek value-oriented promotions or skip add-ons like a beverage to manage their check size. In response, brands are emphasizing affordable meal bundles – like McDonald’s Extra Value Meals and Taco Bell’s Decades Y2K throwback menu featuring fan-favorites under $3 – and leveraging their loyalty programs to retain these budget-conscious patrons.
As 2025 progresses, QSRs face intense competition not just from each other, but from a growing array of value-oriented retailers. Driven by rising menu prices at fast-food chains, highly price-conscious consumers are actively seeking more affordable meal options. Value-oriented grocery stores, dollar stores, and convenience stores have aggressively expanded their grab-and-go and prepared food offerings, making them direct rivals for lunch and dinner.
As the price gap between dining out and eating at home widens, these channels are successfully capturing a greater "share of stomach," particularly from consumers who now view a trip to the grocery or dollar store as a more economical alternative to a QSR visit. We see this in our visitation data, where the number of McDonald’s and other other QSR visitors are increasingly visiting Aldi and other value-oriented options.
The lunch hour has become a key battleground, with fresh-format and value grocers seeing a notable increase in foot traffic as they expand their high-quality, convenient, and affordable grab-and-go options. This has siphoned off a portion of the traditional lunch crowd from fast-casual restaurants, as consumers – particularly office workers – increasingly opt for a trip to the grocery store.
This pressure contributed to weaker-than-expected results for premium fast-casual chains like Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and CAVA. While these brands were up against tough comparisons from product launches a year ago (Chicken al Pastor for Chipotle, steak options for sweetgreen and CAVA), the slowdown was more significant than anticipated.
What’s to make of this slowdown? In addition to tougher comparisons, the explanation is likely a multi-faceted consumer response to a challenging economic environment and a crowded marketplace. Like QSR chains, many budget-conscious fast-casual customers began trading down, either opting for less expensive fast-food alternatives or simply reducing the frequency of their visits to these pricier lunch spots.
At the same time, a segment of their health-conscious consumer base increasingly turned to specialty grocers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, where they could assemble their own high-quality bowls for a lower cost. Compounding the issue was a growing sentiment of "slop bowl" fatigue, a perception that the once-innovative format had become commoditized, with little differentiation between the chains, leading some consumers to seek out more unique dining experiences.
Chili's continued its significant outperformance of the restaurant industry in the second quarter of 2025 by successfully executing a multi-faceted strategy centered on a compelling value message that resonated with increasingly price-conscious consumers. The brand's success was largely driven by the popularity of its heavily marketed "3 for Me" bundled meal deal and its "Triple Dipper" appetizer promotion, which together attracted a surge of new and repeat customers. This effective value messaging was supported by substantial investments in marketing and crucial back-of-house operational improvements, which enhanced food quality and service consistency, allowing Chili's to capture a significant share of visits while many competitors in the casual dining space struggled with declining traffic.
It’s not just Chili’s however. Applebee's, for instance, managed to drive a 4.9% increase in same-store sales during its most recent quarter, a significant turnaround attributed to its own value-driven promotions and menu innovations that successfully boosted customer traffic. Olive Garden delivered a solid performance in its most recent quarter, achieving a 2.0% increase in same-restaurant sales. This growth was largely fueled by the success of its value promotions and a significant nearly 20% surge in takeout sales, which helped attract a younger, more frequent customer base according to management.
As the restaurant industry moves into the second half of 2025, the second quarter's results paint a clear picture of a market defined by a strategic, value-seeking consumer. The resounding success of casual dining chains like Chili's and Applebee's, which leaned heavily into affordable, bundled meals, demonstrates that a compelling value proposition can still drive significant traffic and sales. Conversely, the fast-casual and QSR segments are facing an identity crisis, squeezed by intense competition from lower-priced grocery and convenience store alternatives and the aggressive promotions from sit-down restaurants.
Ultimately, the brands that will thrive for the remainder of the year will be those that can master the art of delivering a strong, clear value equation – whether through price, experience, or convenience – to a customer who is more discerning with their dining dollars than ever before.
For more data-driven 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.
Since June 30, 2025, Costco has offered Executive members an extra hour to shop at many warehouses, and by September the perk expanded company-wide. Traffic data shows that the extended hours are already reshaping shopping patterns, with measurable impacts on both visit timing and dwell times.
The chart below compares Costco visit patterns between April and June 2025, before extended Executive Member hours were introduced, with July and August 2025, when most warehouses began offering exclusive early access from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The additional morning hour appears to have encouraged some Executive members to shift their trips earlier in the day, which in turn reduced traffic concentration during late-morning and afternoon peaks.
This redistribution helps create a more balanced flow of visitors, likely improving the shopping experience for members overall.
The impact of early openings extends beyond when members shop – it also affects how they shop. The chart below, which tracks visit lengths before and after the introduction of early Executive openings, shows that the share of Costco visits lasting 30 to 45 minutes increased in July and August while the share of visits lasting 45 to 60 minutes fell.
This shift suggests that early-access shoppers are more purposeful and efficient, taking advantage of lighter crowds and easier store navigation. Importantly, Costco did not assign additional staff hours to cover the new morning window – a decision that seems to be validated by the data. With members shopping more efficiently, the company managed to enhance customer experience without increasing operational costs.
A Win-Win for Members and Retail Operations
By extending special hours to Executive members, Costco not only rewards high-value customers but also reduces congestion during traditional peaks. The smoother distribution of visits and more efficient shopping trips underscore how strategic adjustments to operating hours can drive meaningful changes in consumer behavior.
As retailers navigate evolving shopper expectations, Costco’s example highlights the power of data-driven scheduling to enhance both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
For more data-driven retail 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.
The 2025 US Open Tennis Championships once again transformed New York City into a global stage for sport, culture, and entertainment. Hosted at the iconic USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the tournament drew thousands of fans across two distinct phases: Fan Week (August 18-23, 2025) and the Main Draw (August 24-September 7, 2025).
Fan Week, a series of mainly free events, features player practices, qualifying matches, music, and more, has grown into a family-friendly celebration of tennis, opening the gates to casual fans and tennis enthusiasts seeking a festival-like atmosphere. In contrast, the ticketed main draw is the core of the Grand Slam competition, where men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles champions are crowned.
With the US Open ostensibly split into two phases, we dove into the data to find out how visitors to Fan Week and the main draw compared in terms of visitor behavior and demographic characteristics.
The US Open seems to be deliberately branding Fan Week as the particularly family-friendly portion of the tournament, with kids’ meal deals and “Arthur Ashe Kids Day” designed to engage fans of all ages.
And analyzing the National Tennis Center’s trade area (in the chart below) shows that the pre-Grand Slam audience did indeed encompass slightly more households with children than the main tournament. But the share of families in the National Tennis Center’s trade area still fell well below the national average – suggesting that the US Open still has white space to drive traffic from more families during both Fan Week and the main draw.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the low shares of family attendees, the US Open attracts an outsized share of singles. “One Person” and “Non Family” households overrepresented during Fan Week – and even more so in the main draw – perhaps thanks to their greater flexibility to attend high-profile sporting events, and especially late-night matches.
The prevalence of singles during both phases of the Open also indicates that focusing on this audience segment, perhaps with after-hours events – can help cement the US Open as a social, lifestyle-driven experience and not just a tennis championship.
Whether attended by singles or families, further analysis of audience differences between Fan Week and the main draw reveals that the US Open 2025 was a premier destination for high-income consumers.
The main draw’s captured market median household income HHI reached $152.7K – perhaps no surprise given the steep cost of tickets and the heavy presence of influencers, celebrities and other VIPs.
And despite the mostly free Fan Week events, visitors to Flushing Meadows before the main draw still came from areas significantly more affluent than the New York State median, as seen in the chart below. The added costs of travel, lodging, and time away likely mean that even mostly-free Fan Week resonates most with households that have greater flexibility and resources.
Fan Week’s affluent audience creates opportunities for premium partnerships, from luxury brand sponsorships to exclusive experiences like tastings, wellness events, or VIP meet-and-greets. At the same time, reducing barriers for less affluent households, through transit discounts, local outreach, or weekend-heavy programming could broaden participation and grow the fan base, strengthening Fan Week’s role as a community event.
Although there are an array of supplementary events that take place at the US Open, tennis remains at the center of the action.
Visit data reveals that nearly 70% of visits during the main draw in 2025 lasted more than 150 minutes, with the average visit lasting 237 minutes, within the range of a typical professional match. And during Fan Week – with its extensive off-court programming – 50% of visits also exceeded 150 minutes with an average visit of 176 minutes, a time consistent with typical 3-set qualifying match play times. What’s more, the graph below shows that the share of shorter visits remained relatively low and evenly distributed between visits of 15 minutes and 150 minutes in length.
This suggests that few fans made quick trips out of their US Open visit, but rather stayed long enough to watch entire matches, proving that tennis itself continues to anchor the US Open experience.
The 2025 US Open highlighted the unique character of its two phases – Fan Week and the main draw – but also revealed important similarities in how visitors engaged with the event. While Fan Week strives to be family-friendly and accessible regardless of wealth, it continues to resonate strongly with singles and high-income households, although to a lesser extent than the main draw. But the length of visits showed that fans across both phases centered their experience on the matches themselves – proving that tennis remains the heart of the U.S. Open.
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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.
Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) latest foot traffic provides an under-the-hood look at how the dining operator is navigating shifting consumer behavior, portfolio dynamics, and expansion in a challenging environment. In its most recent quarterly earnings, management reported sales of $2.9 billion, up 6% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $2.03, topping analyst expectations.
Following several months of slower traffic, Q2 2025 visits to all Darden concepts rose 2.4% YoY, with same-store visits climbing 1.1%. Monthly visit data also showed consistent upward growth, with strong gains in May (4.6%) and August (4.3%). And even slight visit dips in June were quickly followed by renewed growth, underscoring the company's resilience.
Some of this growth may be tied to Darden’s steady unit expansion, including its recent acquisition of Tex-Mex chain Chuy’s. But the increase in same-store visits shows that growth isn't just from new locations – existing restaurants are also attracting more diners, underscoring the strength and resilience of the company's portfolio.
Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse are by far the two largest chains in Darden’s portfolio, and both enjoyed solid visit growth over the period, as shown in the chart below. The standout, however, was Yard House, which posted a 6.2% increase in overall visits alongside a 4.3% gain in same-store visits in Q2 2025.
Yard House attracts a more affluent customer base with a trade area median household income of $82.6K compared to $69.0K to $70.1K for LongHorn and Olive Garden, respectively. This higher income profile may be making Yard House visitors less vulnerable to current consumer headwinds and helping boost the chain's traffic. Yet the continued strength of Olive Garden and LongHorn – despite their lower-income trade areas – underscores the resilience of these brands and shows how their broad appeal allows them to thrive even in more cost-sensitive markets.
Meanwhile, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Darden’s third-largest concept, maintained visits largely in line with 2024 levels, showing stability but not the same growth momentum as other Darden brands. As the chain with the lowest-income customer base – Cheddar's draws from trade areas with a median household income of just $64.0K – its softer trajectory likely reflects greater budget constraints among its diners. Still, its steadiness underscores Darden’s success in cultivating concepts that resonate across the income spectrum: Yard House is thriving with more affluent guests, Olive Garden and LongHorn are performing strongly among middle-income households, and Cheddar’s continues to hold its ground with more cost-sensitive customers. Together, these dynamics show how Darden’s brands remain relevant to a broad swath of diners even in a challenging economic climate.
More than half (51.1%) of all Darden visits in H1 2025 went to Olive Garden, making it the company's top traffic driver. But the company is still expanding its existing brands, with LongHorn and Olive Garden leading new location openings.
The map below highlights the brand – Olive Garden or LongHorn – that experienced the greatest YoY visit growth in each state in Q2 2025. This map reveals that LongHorn beat out Olive Garden in terms of YoY growth on most of the East Coast as well as in California and parts of the Midwest and Southeast – suggesting that the brand is capturing share in densely populated coastal markets. So while Olive Garden continues to anchor the business with sheer volume, LongHorn seems to be driving much of the incremental growth, giving Darden two powerful engines for expanding and solidifying its hold on the casual dining segment across the country.
Darden's recent traffic data reveal resilience in the face of a wider slow down in consumer dining trends, powered by a mix of steady performance and faster growth from its four largest brands. Continued unit expansion, alongside the recent addition of Chuy’s, should further broaden its reach while diversifying its customer base.
For up-to-date consumer dining trends, check out Placer.ai’s free tools.
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
Grocery chains in the United States are increasingly investing in on-site healthcare clinics, transforming their stores into hubs for both food and wellness. While grocery stores have long featured pharmacies and some basic healthcare services like vaccinations, recent years have seen a shift towards more extensive healthcare offerings.
Today, many grocery stores offer a range of services – from primary and urgent care to dental and mental health care. In addition to providing an important community service, grocery-anchored healthcare clinics can boost foot traffic at chains, help health providers reach more patients, and allow shoppers to manage their health and home needs in one convenient trip.
This white paper examines the impact these in-store clinics have on grocery chain visitation patterns and trade area characteristics. Are shoppers more or less likely to make repeat visits to grocery stores with healthcare services? And how does the addition of a clinic affect the demographic profile of a grocery store’s captured market? The report examines these questions and more, offering insights for stakeholders across the grocery and healthcare industries.
Analyzing foot traffic to grocery stores with and without in-store clinics shows the positive impact of these services: Across chains, locations with on-site healthcare offerings drew more visits in H1 2024 than their chain-wide averages.
The Kroger Co., which operates numerous regional banners as well as its own eponymous chain, has been a leader in in-store healthcare services since the early aughts. The company introduced its in-store medical center, The Little Clinic in 2003 – and today operates over 225 Little Clinic locations across its Kroger banner, as well as regional chains Dillons, Jay C Food Stores, Fry’s, and King Soopers.
And in H1 2024, the eight Dillons locations with clinics saw, on average, 93.0% more visits per location than the chain’s banner-wide average. Jay C, which offers two in-store clinics, also saw visits to these venues outpace the H1 2024 banner-wide average by 92.9%. For both chains, relatively small overall footprints may contribute to their outsize visit differences: Indiana-focused Jay C operates just 22 locations, all in the Hoosier State, while Kansas-based Dillons has some 64 locations.
But similar patterns, if somewhat less pronounced, could be observed at Kroger (43.0%), Fry’s (19.2%), and King Soopers (16.5%) – as well as at H-E-B (14.5%), which boasts its own expanding network of in-store clinics.
Analyzing the trade areas of grocery stores with healthcare clinics shows that these services tend to draw more affluent visitors from within the stores’ trade areas.
For some chains, including King Soopers, H-E-B, and Jay C, the clinics are positioned to begin with in areas serving higher-income communities. The median household income (HHI) of King Soopers’ in-store clinic’s potential markets, for example, came in at $92.3K in H1 2024 – significantly above the chain’s overall potential market median HHI of $88.1K. Similarly, the potential markets of H-E-B and Jay C Food Stores with clinics had higher median HHIs than the chains’ overall averages.
And for all three chains, stores with clinics tended to attract visitors from captured markets with even higher median HHIs – showing that within these affluent communities, it is the more well-to-do customers that tend to frequent these venues. (A chain or store’s potential market is obtained by weighting each CBG in its trade area according to the size of the population – thus reflecting the general composition of the community it serves. A chain or store’s captured market, on the other hand, is obtained by weighting each CBG according to its share of visits to the business in question – and thus represents the population that actually visits it in practice.)
Other brands, including Fry’s, Kroger, and Dillons, have positioned clinics in stores with potential market median HHIs slightly below chain-wide averages. But within these markets, too, it is the more affluent consumers that are visiting these stores, pushing up the median HHI of their captured markets.
These patterns highlight that, for now, grocery store clinics tend to attract consumers on the upper ends of local income spectrums. This information can be utilized by healthcare professionals and grocery store owners to pinpoint neighborhoods that may be open to grocery-anchored clinics, or to take steps to increase penetration in other areas.
Supermarket giant Kroger is a major player in the world of grocery-anchored healthcare, offering visitors access to pharmacies, clinics, and telehealth options via its grocery stores. What impact has the company’s embrace of healthcare had on visits and loyalty?
An analysis of household compositions across the potential and captured markets of Kroger-owned stores with and without Little Clinic offerings suggests that families with children are extremely receptive to these services.
In H1 2024, Kroger, King Soopers, Fry’s, Jay C, and Dillons all featured captured markets with higher shares of STI: PopStats’ “Households With Children” segment than their potential ones – highlighting the chains’ appeal for families. But the share of parental households in those stores with Little Clinics jumped significantly higher for all five banners.
The share of families with children in King Soopers’ overall captured market stood at 28.3% in H1 2024, higher than the 27.2% in its potential one. But the households with children in the captured markets of King Soopers locations with Little Clinics was significantly higher – 30.6% – and similar patterns emerged at Jay C, Dillons, Kroger, and Fry’s.
This special draw is likely linked to the clinics' focus on family health services like physicals, nutrition plans, and vaccines. The convenience of being able to take care of healthcare, grocery shopping, and pharmacy needs all in one go makes these stores particularly attractive to parents. And this jump in foot traffic shows the strategic advantage of incorporating healthcare services into the retail environment.
Providing essential healthcare services at the supermarket can establish a grocery chain as a crucial part of a shopper's daily life, enhancing visitor loyalty, and helping nurture long-term customer relationships. Indeed, in-store clinics offer a unique opportunity for grocery providers to connect with customers on a level that extends beyond the transactional.
An analysis of several Kroger-branded locations in the Cincinnati metro area showcases the profound impact in-store clinics can have on customer loyalty. In H1 2024, stores with Little Clinics had significantly higher shares of repeat visitors – defined as those making six or more stops at the store during the analyzed period – than those without.
For instance, 36.4% of visitors to a Kroger Marketplace store with an in-store clinic in Harrison, Ohio, frequented the location at least six times during the first half of 2024. But over the same period, only 29.0% of visitors stopped by at least six times to a nearby Kroger location in Cleves, Ohio – just ten miles away. Similarly, 30.7% of visitors to the Beechmont Ave. Kroger Food & Drug location with a clinic visited at least six times in H1 2024, compared to 23.0% for the nearby Ohio Pike Kroger store.
This trend was consistent across the analyzed locations, with those offering in-store clinics attracting significantly higher shares of loyal visitors. These metrics support the value of offering additional services as a draw for frequent visitors, while also providing the clinics themselves with the visitor volume needed to operate profitably.
Texan grocery chain H-E-B is beloved across the state – and though the chain isn’t new to the healthcare scene, it has been doubling down on wellness. In 2022, H-E-B launched H-E-B Wellness, a healthcare platform that offers patrons a variety of medical services, including – as of today – some 12 primary care clinics, many of them inside stores.
H-E-B stores with primary care clinics are helping to cement the grocer’s role as a convenient one-stop for local residents – allowing them to drop in to a nearby location for both daily grocery needs and wellness care.
H-E-B has always placed a premium on community, stepping up to help local residents in times of need. And though the chain as a whole draws an overwhelming majority of its visitors from nearby areas, those with clinics do so even more effectively. In H1 2024, some 83.6% of visitors to H-E-B came from less than 10 miles away. But for locations with primary care clinics, this share increased to 88.0%.
This suggests that wellness services are particularly appealing to nearby residents, strengthening H-E-B’s connection with local consumers even further. And for a grocery store centered on community engagement, the integration of health services into its offerings is proving to be a winning strategy.
H-E-B has been steadily expanding its primary care offerings since it launched the Wellness concept, adding two primary clinics at locations in Cypress, TX and Katy, TX in June 2023. Following the opening of these clinics – which operate Mondays through Fridays – both locations saw marked increases in the share of “Urban Cliff Dwellers” in their weekday captured markets. This STI: Landscape segment group encompasses families both with and without children, earning modest incomes and enjoying middle-class pleasantries.
Between June 2022 - May 2023, the share of “Urban Cliff Dwellers” in the weekday captured markets of the Cypress and Katy locations stood at 9.5% and 7.2%, respectively. But once the stores had clinics in place, those numbers jumped to 12.4% and 11.0%, respectively.
This increase in the stores’ reach among “Urban Cliff Dwellers” immediately following the clinics’ openings suggests that in addition to more affluent consumers, middle-class families also harbor considerable interest in these services. As more retailers continue making inroads into the healthcare sector, they may find similar success in attracting diverse groups of convenience-seeking shoppers.
As grocery stores lean into healthcare, they are transforming into multifaceted hubs that offer both essential health services and everyday shopping needs. Retailers like Kroger and H-E-B are reaping the benefits of boosted foot traffic, higher-income visitors, and strengthened community ties – while offering their shoppers convenience that helps streamline their daily routines.
Walmart, Target, and Costco are three of the most popular retailers in the country, drawing millions of shoppers through their doors each day. Each of these retail giants boasts distinct strengths and strategies that cater to their unique customer bases, allowing them to thrive in a highly competitive market.
This white paper takes a closer look at some of the factors that are helping the three chains flourish. How does Walmart’s positioning as a family-friendly retailer help it drive visits in its more competitive markets? How can Target leverage its reach to drive more loyal visits? And what does the increase in young shoppers frequenting membership warehouse clubs mean for Costco?
We dove into the location analytics to explore these questions further.
Examining monthly visitation patterns for the three retail giants shows Costco’s wholesale club model leading the way with consistent year-over-year (YoY) visit growth – ranging from 6.1% in stormy January 2024 to 13.3% in June. Family favorite Walmart followed closely behind, seeing YoY foot traffic growth during all but two months, when visits briefly trailed slightly behind 2023 levels before rebounding.
Target, meanwhile, had a slower start to the year, with visits trending below 2023 levels for most of January to April. Over this same period (the three months ending May 2024), Target reported a 3.7% decline in YoY comparable sales. But since then, things have begun to turn around for the chain, with YoY visits rising in May (2.5%), June (8.9%), and July (4.7%). This renewed visit growth into the second half of the year bodes well for the superstore – and the ongoing back-to-school season may well push visits up further as the summer winds down.
For all three chains, Q2 2024’s visit success has likely been bolstered in part by summer deals and intensifying price wars – as the retailers slash prices to woo inflation-weary consumers back to the store.
Over the past few years, consumer behaviors have been changing rapidly in response to shifting economic conditions. This next section explores some of these changes at Walmart, Target, and Costco, to better understand what may be driving these shifts.
One way that consumers have traditionally responded to inflation and other headwinds has been through the adoption of mission-driven shopping – making fewer, but longer, trips to retailers, so that every visit counts. Superstores and wholesale clubs, which offer one-stop shopping experiences, have long been prime destinations for these extended shopping trips. And even during periods when visits have lagged, these retailers have often benefited from extended dwell times – leading to bigger basket sizes.
A look at changes in average dwell times at Walmart and Target suggests that as YoY visits have picked up, dwell times have come down – perhaps reflecting a normalization of consumers’ shopping patterns. With inflation stabilizing and gas prices lower than they were in 2022 and 2023, customers may feel less pressure to consolidate shopping trips than they have in recent years.
In contrast, Costco’s comparatively long dwell times have remained stable over the past several years. The warehouse club’s bulk offerings, plentiful free samples, and inexpensive food court encourage shoppers to spend more time browsing the aisles than they would at other retailers. And even if mission-driven shopping continues to subside, Costco customers will likely keep on making extra-long shopping trips.
While inflation is cooling faster than expected, prices remain high, and new players are stepping into the retail space occupied by Walmart, Target, and Costco – especially dollar stores. Though higher-income customers increasingly rely on the three retail giants for many of their purchases, customers of more modest means are often drawn to the rock-bottom prices offered at dollar stores.
And analyzing the cross-shopping patterns of visitors to Walmart, Target, and Costco shows that growing shares of visitors to the three behemoths also visit Dollar Tree on a regular basis. In Q2 2019, the share of visitors to Walmart, Target, and Costco who frequented Dollar Tree at least three times ranged between 9.8% and 13.7%. But by Q2 2024, that share rose to 16.7%-21.6%.
Dollar Tree is leaning into this increased interest among superstore shoppers. Over the past year, Dollar Tree added some 350 Dollar Tree locations, even as it shuttered nearly 400 Family Dollar stores. And the chain recently acquired the leases of some 170 99 Cents Only Stores – offering Dollar Tree access to a customer base accustomed to buying everything from groceries to household goods. As Dollar Tree continues to grow its footprint and expand its food offerings, the chain will be better positioned than ever to provide a real challenge to Walmart, Target, and Costco.
Still, the three retail giants each have unique offerings that distinguish them from dollar stores. This next section examines what sets Walmart, Target, and Costco apart – and how they can continue to strengthen their competitive edge.
With competition on the rise, Walmart, Target, and Costco must display agility in navigating an ever-evolving market landscape. This section dives into the data for each chain’s more successful metro areas to see what factors are helping them outperform nationwide averages – and what metrics the retailers can harness to try to replicate these results nationwide.
Target recently expanded its Target Circle Rewards program, rolling out three new tiers for its 100 million members. And this focus on loyalty has proven successful for the chain. Demographic and visitation data reveal a strong correlation between the median household incomes (HHIs) of Target locations’ captured markets across CBSAs (core-based statistical areas), and their share of loyal visitors in Q2 2024: CBSAs where Target locations’ captured markets had higher median HHIs also tended to draw more repeat monthly visitors.
Target’s captured markets in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, LA CBSA, for example, featured a median HHI of $89.8K in Q2 2024 – and 48.0% of the chain’s LA visitors frequented a Target at least twice a month during the quarter. Target stores in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI CBSA, where the chain’s captured markets had a median HHI of $88.7K in Q2 2024, also had a loyalty rate of 48.0%.
Target generally attracts a more affluent audience than Walmart. And even as the superstore slashes prices to attract more price-conscious consumers, the retailer is also taking steps likely to enhance its popularity among higher-income households. In April 2024, Target debuted a paid membership tier within its loyalty program offering perks like same-day delivery for a fee. Maintaining and expanding these premium offerings will be key for Target as it seeks to attract more affluent customers and replicate its high-performing results in CBSAs nationwide.
The persistent inflation of the past few years, while challenging for some retailers, has also created new opportunities – particularly for wholesalers. Membership warehouse clubs, including Costco, are gaining popularity among younger shoppers, a cohort often looking for new ways to stretch their more limited budgets. An October 2023 survey revealed that nearly 15% of respondents aged 18 to 24 and 17% of those aged 25 to 30 shop at Costco.
A closer look at some of Costco’s best-performing CBSAs for YoY visit-per-location growth highlights the significance of these younger shoppers: In H1 2024, the company’s YoY visit-per-location growth was strongest in areas with higher-than-average shares of young urban singles.
For example, the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA CBSA experienced visit-per-location growth of 10.4% YoY in H1 2024, while the nationwide average stood at 7.9%. And the CBSA’s share of Young Urban Singles, defined by the Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset as “singles starting their careers in trade and service jobs,” was 12.1%, well above Costco’s nationwide average of 7.3%.
Walmart is a one-stop shop for everything from affordable groceries to clothing to home furnishings, making it especially popular among families. The retailer actively courts this segment with baby offerings designed to meet the needs of both kids and parents, virtual offerings in the metaverse, and collectible toys.
And visitation data reveals a connection between the extent of different Walmart locations’ YoY visit growth and the share of households with children in their captured markets.
In H1 2024, nationwide visits to Walmart increased by 4.1% YoY, while the share of households with children in the chain’s overall captured market hovered just under the nationwide baseline. But in some CBSAs where Walmart outpaced this nationwide growth, the retail giant also proved especially adept at attracting parental households – outpacing relevant statewide baselines.
In Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA, for example, Walmart experienced 5.0% YoY visit growth in H1 2024 – while the share of households with children in the chain’s local captured market stood 7% above the Massachusetts state average. And in Grand Rapids-Kentwood, MI, where Walmart’s share of parental households outpaced the Minnesota state average by an even wider 15% margin, the retailer saw impressive 7.3% YoY visit growth. This pattern repeated itself in other metro areas, suggesting that there may be a correlation between local Walmart locations’ visit growth and their relative ability to draw households with children.
Walmart can continue solidifying its market position by leaning into its family-oriented offerings and expanding its footprint in regions with growing populations of young families.
Walmart, Target, and Costco all experienced YoY visit growth in the final months of H1 2024, with Costco leading the way. And though the three chains still face considerable challenges, each one brings unique strengths to the table. By continuously innovating and responding to changing market conditions, Walmart, Target, and Costco can not only overcome obstacles but also leverage them to reinforce their market positions and drive continued growth.
The first Lollapalooza – a four-day music festival – took place in 1991. Chicago’s Grant Park became the event’s permanent home (at least in the United States) in 2005, drawing thousands of revelers and music fans to the park each year.
This year, the festival once again demonstrated its powerful impact on the city. On August 1st, 2024, visits to Grant Park surged by 1,313.2% relative to the YTD daily average, as crowds converged on the park to see Chappell Roan’s much-anticipated performance. And during the first three days of the event, the event drew significantly more foot traffic than in 2023 – with visits up 18.9% to 35.9% compared to the first three days of last year’s festival (August 3rd to 5th, 2023).
Lollapalooza led to a dramatic spike in visits to Grant Park – and it also attracted a different type of visitor compared to the rest of the year.
Analyzing Grant Park’s captured market with Spatial.ai’s PersonaLive dataset reveals that Lollapalooza attendees are more likely to belong to the “Young Professionals” and “Ultra Wealthy Families” segment groups than the typical Grant Park visitor.
By contrast, the “Near-Urban Diverse Families” segment group, comprising middle-class diverse families living in or near cities, made up only 6.5% of visitors during the festival, compared to 12.0% during the rest of the year.
Additionally, visitors during Lollapalooza came from areas with higher HHIs than both the nationwide baseline of $76.1K and the average for park visitors throughout the year. Understanding the demographic profile of visitors to the park during Lollapalooza can help planners and city officials tailor future events to these segment groups – or look for ways to make the festival accessible to a wider range of music lovers.
Lollapalooza’s impact on Chicago extended beyond the boundaries of Grant Park, with nearby hotels seeing remarkable surges in foot traffic. The Congress Plaza Hotel on South Michigan Avenue witnessed a staggering 249.1% rise in visits during the week of July 29, 2024, compared to the YTD visit average. And Travelodge on East Harrison Street saw an impressive 181.8% increase. These spikes reflect the festival’s draw not just for locals but for out-of-town visitors who fill hotels across the city.
The North Michigan Avenue retail corridor also enjoyed a significant increase in foot traffic during the festival, with visits on Thursday, August 1st 56.0% higher than the YTD Thursday visit average. On Friday, August 2nd, visits to the corridor were 55.7% higher than the Friday visit average. These numbers highlight Lollapalooza’s role in driving economic activity across Chicago, as festival-goers venture beyond the park to explore the city’s vibrant retail and hospitality offerings.
City parks often serve as community hubs, and Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY, has been a major gathering point for New Yorkers. The park hosted one of New York’s most beloved summer concerts – Governors Ball – which moved from Governors Island to Flushing Meadows in 2023.
During the festival (June 9th -11th, 2024), musicians like Post Malone and The Killers drew massive crowds to the park, with visits soaring to the highest levels seen all year. On June 9th, the opening day of the festival, foot traffic in the park was up 214.8% compared to the YTD daily average, and at its height, on June 8th, the festival drew 392.7% more visits than the YTD average.
The park also hosted other big events this summer – a July 21st set by DMC helped boost visits to 185.1% above the YTD average. And the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival on August 3rd and 4th led to major visit boosts of 221.4% and 51.6%, respectively.
These events not only draw large crowds, but also highlight the park’s role as a space where cultural and civic life can find expression, flourish, and contribute to the health of local communities.
Analyzing changes in Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s trade area size offers insight into how far people are willing to travel for these events. During Governors Ball, for example, the park’s trade area ballooned to 254.5 square miles, showing the festival's wide appeal. On July 20th, by contrast, when the park hosted several local bands and DJs, the trade area was a much more modest 57.0 square miles.
Summer events drive community engagement, economic activity, and civic pride. Cities that invest in their parks and event hubs, fostering lively and inclusive spaces, can create lasting value for both residents and visitors, enriching the cultural and social life of urban areas.
For more data-driven civic stories, visit Placer.ai.
