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McDonald’s ended 2025 with clear visit momentum, reversing earlier softness and posting steady gains in the back half of the year. Same-store visits followed a similar trajectory, indicating that growth was driven by stronger underlying demand rather than unit expansion. This late-year rebound positions McDonald’s with solid visit momentum heading into 2026, suggesting improving consumer engagement as the year closed.
Some of the visit growth is likely due to the chain's popular Q4 LTOs – but diving deeper into the visit frequency data suggests that McDonald’s long-term investment in its loyalty program is also playing a part. The company's launch of MyMcDonald’s Rewards in 2021 seems to have succeeded in shifting traffic toward higher-frequency, incremental visits rather than relying on new customer acquisition.
Compared to pre-loyalty levels in H2 2019, a growing share of McDonald’s visits now comes from diners visiting an average of 4+ times per month, with the share of visits from consumers visiting the chain an average of 8+ times per month showing the most dramatic growth. Grouping YoY visit trends by visit frequency also shows that visits from high-frequency diners grew the most compared to H2 2024 and H2 2019. This dynamic points to a core benefit of loyalty-led growth: driving incremental visits from existing customers is typically far more efficient than acquiring new ones, especially in a mature, highly penetrated category like quick service restaurants.
McDonald’s executives have been explicit that loyalty is designed to increase frequency, not just enrollment. The continued growth of the program through 2025 – including deeper integration with value offers and digital ordering – suggests McDonald’s is still finding room to extract incremental visits from an already loyal base.
For other restaurant chains, McDonald’s experience points to the value of using loyalty as a lever for incremental growth, particularly once a customer has already been acquired. While many QSR brands continue to drive expansion by entering new markets or opening additional locations, McDonald’s data illustrates how meaningful gains can also come from increasing visit frequency among existing customers. Even without McDonald’s scale, the underlying strategy is broadly applicable: converting first-time or occasional visitors into higher-frequency customers can serve as a complementary – and often more efficient – path to growth alongside physical expansion.
Will these lessons shape the QSR space in 2026? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
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.
In 2024, Dollar Tree capitalized on the liquidation of the 99 Cents Only chain to execute a strategic "land grab" in the notoriously tight US retail market. By acquiring designation rights for 170 leases across priority markets like California, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas, the retailer aimed to bypass zoning hurdles and accelerate growth.
AI-powered location analytics indicates the selection process was highly disciplined: Looking at over 85 California stores that were converted from 99 Cents Only to Dollar Tree reveals that Dollar Tree cherry-picked high-performing sites that were generating 6.0% more foot traffic than the 99 Cents Only chain average in 2023. This suggests the acquisition was a calculated move to secure proven, high-quality real estate.
However, 2025 performance data reveals that capitalizing on this opportunity comes with distinct operational costs. Total visits to the converted stores have dropped 38.8% compared to their 2023 baselines. While some of this decline is structural – Dollar Tree operates a lower-frequency "treasure hunt" model compared to the high-frequency grocery model of the previous tenant – a significant portion is self-inflicted through network overlap.
A staggering 36% of the new sites are located less than a mile from an existing Dollar Tree, which inevitably dilutes local traffic through cannibalization. This serves as a critical lesson for retailers considering bulk acquisitions: purchasing a portfolio "en masse" often prevents perfect network optimization, forcing the acquirer to manage the friction where new footprints compete with the old.
Still, despite this cannibalization and the drop in raw volume, the transition offers a potential "healthy correction" for the business. The previous tenant collapsed under the weight of "rising levels of shrink" and low-margin grocery sales. By shifting the model, Dollar Tree is effectively filtering out non-paying visitors and low-value transactions, trading chaotic volume for a more controlled, margin-focused operation. The discrepancy between the sharp drop in total visits (-38.8%) and the more moderate dip in visits per square foot (-25.0%) suggests Dollar Tree is already rightsizing these operations, leaving some "ghost space" inactive rather than over-investing in labor to manage the entire cavernous floor.
And this excess square footage is only a liability if it remains empty; turning it into an asset requires leveraging the fundamental change in who is now shopping these aisles. The shift in shopper demographics – where "Wealthy Suburban Families" have replaced the "Young Urban Singles" and "Melting Pot Families" of the previous tenant – is crucial for Dollar Tree's future. This new audience, which is less price-sensitive, provides the ideal environment for Dollar Tree to deploy its "Multi-Price" strategy.
While CFO Jeff Davis has cited "start-up costs" regarding these conversions, the long-term opportunity is clear: if Dollar Tree can utilize the extra square footage to showcase this higher-margin assortment, these locations could evolve from overlapping burdens into profitable flagships that capture a share of wallet the traditional small-box fleet never could.
For more data-driven CRE 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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It’s mid-January, and you promised yourself this would be the year you finally join a gym and get in shape.
But let’s be honest – choosing a gym is about more than fitness goals alone. You’ll still need to judge the equipment, locker rooms, and showers for yourself (we’re not here to do your dirty work) but there are other, less obvious factors that can determine which gym feels like the right fit – and that’s where we come in.
Trying to dodge the morning rush? Hoping to make new friends? Curious where other singles work out? Letting AI-powered location analytics do some of the heavy lifting, we analyzed major fitness chains to uncover the patterns that could help you find your ideal gym in 2026.
Few things derail motivation faster than showing up ready to work out – only to find every treadmill and weight machine taken. To understand which gyms are most likely to offer breathing room during the busiest parts of the day, we analyzed hourly visit patterns across the nation’s largest fitness chains.
The analysis shows clear differences in how morning traffic is distributed. For early risers, LA Fitness recorded the lowest share of daily visits between 5:00 AM and 8:00 AM in 2025, at just 8.9%. 24 Hour Fitness and EōS Fitness also kept morning traffic below the 10% mark, suggesting these chains may be better options for members looking to avoid crowded early workouts.
If after-work workouts are more your style – and minimizing crowds is the priority – the data points to a few clear standouts.
Among the analyzed gyms, Club Pilates recorded the smallest share of visits between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM at 16.5%, followed by Orangetheory (17.3%) and Burn Boot Camp (18.7%). That lighter early-evening traffic likely reflects the structured nature of class-based formats, which can help limit overcrowding even during peak hours.
Looking specifically at traditional gyms, EōS Fitness, Life Time, and Vasa Fitness saw the lowest share of early-evening visits – making them potential options for those hoping to squeeze in a workout while avoiding the after-work rush.
If getting in shape and finding love are both on the agenda this year, there may be a way to double up. Using AI-powered captured market data, we analyzed major gym chains to understand where members are most likely to be single – which may mean a higher chance of meeting someone special.
The analysis shows that Genesis Health Clubs had the highest combined share of one-person households and non-family households – i.e. people living alone or with roommates – in its captured market, at 36.6%. Crunch Fitness followed closely at 35.8%, with Planet Fitness just behind at 35.2%. These household segmentation patterns suggest that these gyms may offer more opportunities to meet other singles while getting in a workout.
If you’re looking for love, or simply to make new friends, age demographics may be something to consider when choosing a gym.
Our analysis of major fitness chains shows that the potential markets of Fitness Connection, Vasa Fitness, and In-Shape Family Fitness – i.e. the areas from which each chain draws its visitors – skewed younger in 2025, with large shares of visitors under 30.
By contrast, gyms such as The Edge Fitness Club, Retro Fitness, and Life Time tended to attract older audiences, with large shares of visitors 45 and older. For members looking to work out alongside peers closer to their own age, these demographic patterns could help narrow the field.
Age is just a number, right? So if you’re looking to make a real connection at the gym this year, you might look for some common areas of interest with other members. Our analysis highlights which gyms are most likely to attract visitors with your shared passions.
For dog lovers hoping to meet a fellow fitness enthusiast who’s just as excited about the dog park as leg day, Burn Boot Camp stands out. The chain over-indexed most strongly for the “Dog Lovers” segment, based on Spatial.ai: Proximity and AI-powered captured market data.
Prefer bonding over a good book? Genesis Health Clubs led the pack for the “Bookish” segment, suggesting a higher likelihood of members who enjoy reading as much as a solid workout. Coffee aficionados may find their people at 24 Hour Fitness, which showed the strongest over-indexing for the “Coffee Connoisseur” segment.
For those with travel on the brain, Workout Anytime over-indexed for the “Wanderlust” segment – pointing to a member base more likely to dream about their next destination. And if your ideal post-workout plan includes a movie or live show, 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym emerged as standouts, over-indexing for the “Film Lovers” and “Live & Local Music” segments, respectively.
Ultimately, choosing the right gym goes beyond equipment, pricing, or proximity. Visit patterns, demographics, and shared interests all shape the experience – influencing when you’ll work out, who you’ll see, and how the gym fits into your broader lifestyle. While no dataset can guarantee a perfect match, these patterns offer a data-backed starting point for finding a gym that aligns with how you want to train, socialize, and show up in 2026.
Want more data-driven insights for the real world? 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.
*This article excludes data from Washington State due to local regulations
Brick-and-mortar retail ended 2025 on a high note, with offline retailers posting a 2.4% increase in traffic in Q4 2025 relative to Q4 2024. This growth underscores the sector’s continued relevance even amid ongoing e-commerce growth and reinforces that retail growth is not a zero-sum dynamic, but one in which physical and digital channels increasingly coexist and complement one another.
The traffic gains during the holiday season also highlights the particular appeal of physical retail during the holiday season, when demand for in-person shopping experiences is particularly high. And as retailers refine store formats, right-size footprints, and better integrate physical locations into omnichannel strategies, brick-and-mortar retail is well positioned to remain a critical growth and engagement channel heading into 2026.
Foot traffic to e-commerce distribution centers remained consistently positive YoY throughout 2025, underscoring the strength of the logistics segment and signaling durable demand for logistics space rather than short-term fluctuations. This pattern aligns with the broader trajectory of e-commerce in the U.S., where online retail sales are projected to continue expanding, and reflects a broader structural shift in how goods move through the economy, with fulfillment infrastructure playing an increasingly central role.
This consistency is driven by long-term forces shaping retail and supply chains, including omnichannel fulfillment, faster delivery expectations, and inventory decentralization. As retailers rely more heavily on regional distribution nodes to support ship-from-store, curbside pickup, and next-day delivery, logistics facilities have become essential infrastructure rather than optional back-end operations. Even as growth moderated slightly later in the year, the persistence of positive YoY traffic points to sustained operational intensity and long-term relevance.
Year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic to U.S. manufacturing facilities points to volatility rather than sustained growth, reflecting a sector that is actively managing uncertainty. Visits declined during much of the year, suggesting restrained hiring as manufacturers appear to be operating lean – adjusting labor and on-site activity quickly in response to demand changes. Productivity gains and automation are likely also playing a role, allowing facilities to maintain output with less consistent physical presence. As a result, the foot traffic volatility may be reflecting operational flexibility rather than simple expansion or contraction.
Against this backdrop, December stands out with a clear uptick in manufacturing visits, signaling increased end-of-year activity. This rise likely reflects a mix of year-end production runs, inventory adjustments, maintenance work, and preparation for early-year demand. The December traffic increase reinforces that U.S. manufacturing – still one of the largest and most economically significant sectors globally – is adapting, not retreating, maintaining operational relevance even as it recalibrates for efficiency, automation, and selective growth.
For more data-driven retail & CRE insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Pacsun has seen its fair share of challenges in its more than forty years of business. Now, the brand is entering a new phase of growth, with a major brick-and-mortar expansion alongside concrete steps to engage Gen Z consumers. We dove into the data for several Pacsun locations outperforming their host malls to understand what a growing footprint could mean for shopping centers and how the brand is connecting with young consumers online and off.
Pacsun has faced its share of challenges over the years. More recently, however, the legacy brand and mall staple appears to be in the midst of a renaissance – with plans to further expand its domestic brick-and-mortar footprint in 2026.
Foot traffic data for several Pacsun locations that experienced notable foot traffic growth in 2025 suggests that the brand’s stores have the potential to help drive traffic to the shopping centers that host them. At The Promenade Shops at Centerra in Colorado, visits to Pacsun rose 35.7% YoY in 2025, significantly outpacing the -5.5% visit gap of the mall as a whole.
Psychographic segmentation suggests that beyond driving visits, these locations also help attract key young demographics to the mall.
At Winter Garden Village, for example, the Gen Z-aligned "Young Professionals" segment accounted for 19.4% of the Pacsun store’s captured market, compared to the mall’s 16.2% share of the segment.
These locations may be an example of how Pacsun’s physical retail presence works together with its social-sales strategy to engage with a younger generation; driving traffic, in part, by serving as spaces to experience products seen on trusted social channels or at creator-led events.
And Pacsun appears firmly committed to its younger audience as part of its wider strategy. Although the brand looks to move upmarket, the latest example of which being the launch of a premium eyewear collection, by maintaining what it views as an accessible price point, Pacsun remains focused on consumers yet to reach their peak earning years.
Pacsun’s ability to drive traffic from this key demographic makes it an attractive potential tenant for malls looking to build long-term loyalty among younger audiences with earning potential.
The Pacsun model demonstrates that physical retail remains a critical touchpoint for brands investing in digital engagement and younger audiences. With plans to open dozens of new locations over the next few years, Pacsun emerges as a compelling tenant for shopping centers seeking cultural relevance and the next generation of consumers.
For more 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 grocery category saw notable shifts in consumer behavior in 2025 as inflation and tariff uncertainty continued to weigh on household budgets. Analyzing consumer traffic trends for several grocery formats – including wholesale clubs, which serve as primary grocery destinations for many families – reveals how evolving consumer preferences shaped grocery performance in 2025 and highlights key lessons for grocers and CPG companies heading into 2026.
Like many retail categories in 2025, grocery was shaped by continued economic uncertainty and value-seeking behavior. But AI-powered location analytics shows that consumers also prioritized quality when forming a value perception in the grocery space.
The graph below shows that grocery visits increased across formats, likely reflecting consumers’ shift toward more meals at home as a way to save money in a persistently inflationary environment.
Fresh format grocers posted the strongest year-over-year (YoY) visit growth, perhaps due to their selection of prepared foods and salad bars as an alternative to eating out, as well as their emphasis on health and wellness – an emerging priority among grocery shoppers. Meanwhile, value grocers and wholesale clubs, known for their ability to deliver savings, consistently outperformed traditional grocers in YoY visit growth.
These patterns indicate that consumers are increasingly weighing up quality and price in the grocery aisle, a trend that is driving the expansion of private-label offerings.
As consumers substituted restaurant meals with more cost-conscious options, grocery stores also emerged as increasingly important destinations for quick, convenient lunches.
Analyzing relative visit share between the grocery category and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) shows that between 2024 and 2025, grocery stores claimed an increasingly large share of short midday visits – i.e. visits lasting less than ten minutes between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
And while some of QSR’s relative decline in short lunchtime visits could be due to discontent with rising fast-food prices among highly value-conscious consumers, it also suggests that a growing share of consumers see grocery stores – where they can pick up ready-to-eat items – as convenient options during the lunch rush. Traditional grocers saw the largest increase in short midday visits (from 15.9% to 16.6%) while value and fresh format grocers saw more modest increases. Notably, the share of short midday visits to wholesale clubs was unchanged between 2024 and 2025 (2.1%), perhaps since these chains don’t offer the same pre-prepared and small-package options like other grocery formats.
These metrics underscore the strong demand for on-the-go meal options and single-serving, shelf-stable products that both grocery stores and CPG companies can provide.
Beyond the lunchtime rush, celebration-driven demand continued to play a central role in grocery traffic this year. Like in past years, Turkey Wednesday – the day before Thanksgiving – was by far the busiest grocery shopping day of the year, with category visits up 80.5% compared to the 2025 daily average. Several of the year’s other busiest grocery days similarly fell immediately ahead of major holidays, including New Year’s Eve, Easter, Mother’s Day, and the 4th of July, as consumers stocked up ahead of gatherings with family and friends.
Leading up to Christmas, grocery shopping appeared to be spread across several high-traffic days rather than concentrated on a single peak; Christmas Eve and December 23rd had nearly identical foot traffic boosts of 57.9% and 58.0%, respectively. And even December 22nd – three days before Christmas – stood out as one of the year’s busiest grocery shopping days, with visits running 28.9% above average for 2025.
Some consumers may have made multiple “re-stocking” grocery trips in the days leading up to Christmas – potentially driven by the presence of out-of-town guests requiring ongoing food replenishment – or visited multiple stores to secure specific ingredients for holiday meals.
Grocers could leverage this trend by stocking a wide range of holiday-specific ingredients and rotating promotions that encourage repeat visits ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The grocery landscape in 2025 was also shaped by distinct shopping preferences across demographic groups.
AI-powered captured market data combined with the STI: PopStats dataset shows that singles – defined as non-family and one-person households – heavily favored fresh-format grocers, while households with children were most likely to visit wholesale clubs and value grocers.
Grocers and CPGs can unlock growth by tailoring assortments and promotional strategies to their target audience – emphasizing bulk value and price-driven messaging for family shoppers, while leaning into curated selection, prepared foods, and convenience to engage singles.
Several consumer trends shaped the grocery space in 2025 – including holiday visit surges, the prioritization of value, and convenient on-the-go meals.
How will these trends shape the grocery space in 2026? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
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.
