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Final Four weekend capped off the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournaments with a full schedule of fan experiences on both the men’s and women’s sides of the ball.
The Women’s Final Four took place between April 4th and 7th, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio with on-court action at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. “Tourney Town” – an interactive basketball exhibition – ran concurrently at the Huntington Convention Center.
The Men’s Final Four commenced on April 5th at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, culminating with the championship game on April 8th. The multi-day exhibition “Final Four Fan Fest” took place at the Phoenix Convention Center.
We dove into the location analytics and audience segmentation for visitors to several Final Four events to better understand the fans in attendance throughout the tournament weekend.
The men and women’s Final Four weekend attracted spectators from near and far, with each event attracting a unique mix of out of town tourists and locals.
Both men and women’s championship games attracted a relatively large share of out-of-town guests, likely due to the excitement surrounding a national title game. Analysis of visitors by home location revealed that the men and women’s championship games had the smallest share of visitors from less than 100 miles away – 29.8% and 33.3% respectively. In other words, these two events had the largest share of visitors that lived more than 100 miles from the venues.
The men’s open practice appeared to be more popular with long-distance travelers than the women’s, perhaps because all four men’s teams participated – as opposed to just two at the women’s open practice. The men’s practice was also followed by an all-star game which likely increased its appeal for visitors traveling from afar in the hopes of spotting their favorite players. The data revealed that more than half of the spectators traveled over 250 miles to watch the men’s practice, as opposed to under a quarter of spectators for the women’s practice.
Meanwhile, the women’s experiential exhibition at Huntington Convention Center drew more out-of-towners than the men’s exhibition at Phoenix Convention Center – only 23.3% of visitors to the women’s exhibition came from under 30 miles away, compared to almost half (48.3%) of the men’s exhibition visitors. The larger share of out-of-town visitors to the women’s exhibition may be because the event was close to the arena, making it a more convenient stop for non-local fans. On the other hand, the distance between the men’s exhibition in downtown Phoenix and the stadium in Glendale meant that the off-court experience was more out-of-the-way for tourists who had traveled specifically for the on-court action.
Analysis of Final Four visitors by income level provides further insight into the differences between each event’s fan base. According to the STI: Popstats dataset, the women’s events generally drew visitors from areas with a lower median household income (HHI) compared to the men’s events, although the gaps between the men and women’s visitor bases varied from event to event. Some of the difference in trade area HHI may be due to regional variance and the mix of locals and tourists at each event.
The visitor bases of the men and women’s championship games exhibited the widest disparity, with the men’s championship spectator base coming from areas with a median HHI of $99.9K, compared to $74.6K for the women’s championship’s trade area. The difference may be due to the relatively higher face value of tickets to the men’s championship game – even though the star-power of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark drove up the price of women’s tickets on the secondary market. In contrast, both the men’s and women’s practices and exhibitions were free or nearly free events and drove traffic from relatively lower-income areas – even though visitors to the men’s practice still came from more affluent areas than the trade area of the women’s championship match.
Visitors to the men and women’s convention center exhibition displayed the smallest income differences, with respective trade area median HHI of $80.0K and $76.6K. The data also reveals that visitors to the women’s exhibition came from a trade area with a median HHI that was higher than the median HHI for both the championship game and the open practice, perhaps because the exhibition drew a relatively large share of tourists who could afford to be in town for a slightly longer stay.
Further demographic analysis indicates that a greater share of singles – who tend to be on the younger side – attended the women’s Final Four events than the men’s. During the women’s championship, 41.0% of households in the trade area of the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse were made up of one-person households. This segment also made up 34.2% and 36.3% of the households in the trade areas of the venues for the women’s practice and exhibition, respectively. On the men’s side, singles comprised just 29.3% of the championship’s trade area, 28.4% of the practice’s, and 27.0% of the exhibition’s.
This reflects the growing popularity of women’s college basketball players on social media which is bringing more viewership to the sport.
Want more data-driven visitor insights for sporting events? Visit Placer.ai.
This blog includes data from Placer.ai Data Version 2.0, which implements improvements to our extrapolation capabilities, adds short visit monitoring, and enhances visit detection.
During last week’s solar eclipse, people from all over the country converged on cities within the path of totality to witness the excitement first hand. And for municipalities and local businesses, the influx of tourists was expected to generate a boon.
But just how did the celestial event impact business activity on the ground? Which sectors benefited from the hype – and which geographic areas saw the biggest visit spikes?
We dove into the data to find out.
On April 8th, 2024, hotels in CBSAs where the eclipse could be viewed in all its glory (or close to it) experienced major visit boosts. And mapping hotel visits on the big day to CBSAs nationwide – compared to year-to-date daily averages – shows just how significant the cosmic alignment was for areas lucky enough to be located along or near the path of totality.
Within metropolitan CBSAs (CBSAs with at least 50,000 residents), Danville, IL – where visitors could either view a near-total eclipse or drive to a nearby location with 100% totality – experienced the biggest jump in Hotel visits, with visits to the category up 111.3%. But urban centers from north to south – including in New York, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, and Missouri – also experienced substantial hotel visit spikes.
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Hotels weren’t the only locations to reap the rewards of the solar eclipse. Fast Food & QSR chains in and around the path of totality enjoyed meaningful April 8th visit spikes of their own. And while the Hotel visit increases were more closely concentrated in prime viewing areas, Fast Food & QSR visits increased along a wider radius as people likely grabbed a bite to eat while making their way to a sun-gazing hotspot.
And the impact of the solar eclipse wasn’t limited to locations located in or near the path of totality. Retailers and dining chains nationwide got in on the action with special deals and limited-time offers meant to make the most of the unique interstellar opportunity.
In the week leading up to April 8th, 2024, Warby Parker drew crowds with the promise of free solar eclipse glasses. And while a burger joint may not be the first place people associate with eyewear, fast food favorite SONIC Drive In also attracted astronomy aficionados with a limited-time Blackout Slush Float that came with free eclipse viewing gear.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, for its part, marked the occasion with a limited-edition Total Solar Eclipse Doughnut. And though Mondays aren’t typically busy days for the chain, the special offering produced a clear visit uptick nationwide. In states along the path of totality, Krispy Kreme visits were up 55.5% on April 8th when compared to an average Monday this year, and in the rest of the country they were up 33.9%.
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For retailers across categories, landmark events from movie launches to cosmic occurrences have the potential to drive visit spikes and generate business. What other big opportunities lie in store for retailers this year?
Follow Placer.ai’s data-driven retail analyses to find out.
This blog includes data from Placer.ai Data Version 2.0, which implements improvements to our extrapolation capabilities, adds short visit monitoring, and enhances visit detection.
This year’s March Madness really lived up to its name, buoyed by the star power of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Juju Watkins driving viewership to new heights. For the first time in history, the NCAA women’s basketball title drew more viewers than the men’s at 18.9M for the women’s and 14.8M for the men’s, per Nielsen.
Tickets to the Final Four cost $532 on average, an 82% increase over last year, and for the championship game, Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Stadium in Cleveland, OH was packed to the gills.
In the days leading up to the women’s final, nearby hotels saw visits increase as well.
Last week, we took a look at where the retail sector stood after Q1 2024, with a focus on superstores, home improvement, athletic footwear and apparel, and beauty. This week, to mark the release of short visit data with Placer’s Data Version 2.0 (which better captures visits that lasted 1 minute or longer for QSR/drive-thru locations) and the publishing of our latest dining whitepaper (The QSR Dining Advantage), we thought we’d take closer look at where the restaurant sector stands after Q1 2024.
When we looked at the restaurant category in January, most chains were reporting that visits were down on a year-over-year basis (which was partly a byproduct of inclement weather across much of the country) but that there was a sense of optimism about 2024. Looking at trends by category, we see that operators were justified in this optimism, as visit trends have increased on a year-over-year basis for most categories since late January. After adjusting for calendar shifts for both Valentine’s Day and Easter, we also see strong fine dining visits for these holidays, indicating that consumers remain motivated by holiday and events (a theme we called out several times last year).
We’ve also been fielding several questions about daypart shifts given that the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index (an index of data from some 1,000 office buildings across the country) continued to show an uptick in visits during March 2024 and now stands at about 67.3% of March 2019 visits. Below, we show the percentage of visits by daypart for quick-service restaurant (QSR) and full-service restaurant chains. Given the lift in office visits, it’s not surprising that we continue to see improvement in early morning (6:00 AM-9:00 AM) visits, but it’s notable that we continue to see strength in late morning (9:00 AM-12:00 PM) and afternoon (3:00 PM-6:00 PM) visits. We’ve already seen many QSR chains test new menu items that better address consumer preferences in these dayparts–McDonald's CosMc’s is just one example--and we’d expect more in the months ahead. We also continue to see strength in late night QSR visits, something that we’ve called out in the past. On the full-service dining front, we see 2023 visits still down compared to 2019 levels, but with improvement versus 2021 in most cases. Here, it’s interesting that the afternoon visits to full-service dining chains in 2023 is down only slightly compared to 2019, while the gap during the evening daypart is much wider. This reinforces some of our previous analyses on earlier dining times
With our Data Version 2.0 update, we can now more accurately monitor dwell time by restaurant channel. After bottoming-out in Q2 2020 as most chains shifted to a largely takeout model, we’ve seen dwell time steadily increase across most restaurant channels the past several years. The QSR and fast casual categories remain below pre-pandemic levels, which isn’t a surprise given an increase in drive-thru and takeout orders compared to 2019 levels. Still, some of the operators we’ve spoken to have indicated that drive-thru bottlenecks have become more of an issue in recent quarters, which may reflect in the increase in dwell times for the QSR category the past 4-5 quarters. On the other side of the spectrum, dwell time for casual dining chains has fully recovered. We believe this has been helped by the continued popularity of eatertainment concepts, which have almost twice the average dwell time as most casual dining chains. We also see that fine dining dwell time now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, which may be the result of consumers’ aforementioned focus on holiday/event dining, which tends to drive dwell times higher.
Restaurant chains still face obstacles–the spread between food at home (grocery prices) and food away from home (restaurant prices) remains high and the $20 minimum wage for QSR workers recently went into effect in California (our data does not indicate major visit changes going into effect as it may be too recent for behavioral changes to be noticeable). However, March and early April visitation trends help the optimism that many restaurant operators felt at the beginning of the year. With Panera (and other chains) evaluating a possible IPO and many other brands finally accelerating growth plans (with an increased emphasis on higher-growth markets in the Southern/Southeastern U.S.), we’d expect visitation trends to remain positive on a year-over-year basis in the months to come.
Say the word New Mexico and one might picture the stunning cliff dwellings at Bandelier Monument, rich troves of Native American Pueblo culture, or the stunning artworks of Georgia O’Keefe. This vibrant state’s largest city is Albuquerque, but Santa Fe also lays claim to fame by being the oldest state capital in the United States.
In Albuquerque, a large development is taking place centered around the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. While one may be a bit surprised at its location, which is within an outdoor shopping center, it serves as a perfect anchoring point for a convention or a leisure trip. The museum features insights into 19 Pueblo cultures, and also hosts an authentic Indian kitchen where one can try indigenous favorites such as red chile beef stew, calabacitas, and assorted fruit pies. There is a Holiday Inn Express & Suites and a Towneplace Suites by Marriott just across the street for those who need accommodations. Meetings, parties, and events can be held onsite with particularly memorable experiences to be had in the outdoor arena and fire pit. One can even hold a wedding at the venue. And in a sign of the convenience store trend we are seeing towards localization, Four Winds offers a walk-in humidor with cigar selection, the ability to fill a growler with local craft beers, and an assortment of food, beer, wine, liquor, and tobacco.
Further afield, an hour away in Santa Fe, visitors flock to the galleries galore, restaurants and bars like Coyote Cantina, or simply enjoy an ice cream while people watching at Santa Fe Plaza. One of the highlights for opera lovers around the world is coming to Santa Fe Opera House during its season, which runs from the end of June to the end of August. Here, one can enjoy the unique open-air aspect of the opera house while sobbing along to the sad fate of Violetta in La Traviata.
Junior Rangers might enjoy exploring Carlsbad Caverns, Aztec Ruins National Monument, or venture to Petroglyph National Monument. Adults seeking R&R can ski the day away in Taos or opt for a therapeutic visit to Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa. A review of the resort describes it as “Just you, the blue New Mexico sky, peace and quiet.” Add to that a massage or spa treatment, and it sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
One of the major employers in New Mexico is Los Alamos National Laboratory. A visit to the National Historic Park there will take you on an intriguing journey of key sites that were relevant to the Manhattan Project. Between last summer’s Oppenheimer blockbuster and current global sensation The Three-Body Problem fanning interest in cutting-edge science, this is a must-see location.
Albertsons Companies is one of the largest grocers in the country, with around 20 grocery banners in its portfolio boasting around 2,200 stores in 34 states. Aside from its eponymous brand, Albertsons, the company owns major chains like Safeway and Vons, as well as smaller regional banners.
With Q1 2024 under wraps, we take a closer look at visit trends to some of Albertsons Companies’ main banners, examine the top-performing chains by state, and dive into the demographics in the company’s two largest markets.
Diving into 2023’s visits shows that the company’s eight major banners – Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, ACME Markets, Shaw's Supermarket, United Supermarkets, and Tom Thumb – enjoyed year-over-year (YoY) visit growth during every quarters of the year. Visits to Jewel-Osco, and Shaw’s Supermarket were particularly elevated, with Q4 2023 visits YoY up 5.8%, and 5.9%, respectively.
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Albertsons Companies’ positive performance has continued in 2024. Visits to most of the chains remained positive YoY in January despite the chilling retail impact of early 2024’s arctic blast, and all banners saw significant growth in February and March.
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Albertsons Companies is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and its eponymous banner is highly popular in the western United States. But the company has also gained a foothold in the South, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast – and solidified its dominance in the West – through several successful mergers.
The company’s strategy of acquiring regional channels means that most states now have an Albertsons Companies’ banner catering to local grocery shoppers. Nationwide, the company’s most visited chains are Albertsons and Safeway – likely due to the sheer number of locations – but regional chains like Tom Thumb in Texas and Jewel-Osco in the Midwest are still the reigning Albertsons Companies banners in their areas.
California and Texas, the country's two most populous states, also boast the highest number of Albertsons Companies-owned grocery chains. Analyzing the demographic differences between the trade areas of the top three Albertsons Companies banners in each of the two states shows how the company leverages its banner variety to reach a larger audience.
According to the STI:Popstats 2023 dataset, the median household income (HHI) in Texas is $75.9K. Two of the top three Albertsons Companies’ banners in the state had a trade area median HHI below the Texas statewide median – United Supermarkets at $58.7K/year, and Albertsons at $68.3K/year – while Tom Thumb drew visitors from neighborhoods with a median HHI of $99.5K. And in California, although all three most visited Albertsons Companies banners drew visitors from neighborhoods with a median income above the statewide median, the trade area HHI also exhibited a range – from $99.2K/year for Albertsons to $115.0K/year for Safeway.
The variance in median HHI by banner and state highlights the benefit of operating grocery banners that can attract a range of shoppers from all along the income scale. By offering shopping options that cater to shoppers of all kinds, Albertsons Companies can hope to maximize its market reach and attract a diverse array of consumers.
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Albertsons Companies has set up shop across the country and offers a wide range of shoppers multiple grocery experiences across regions and price points. Will its grocery banners continue to see elevated foot traffic into 2024?
Visit placer.ai to stay on top of the latest grocery developments.
This blog includes data from Placer.ai Data Version 2.0, which implements improvements to our extrapolation capabilities, adds short visit monitoring, and enhances visit detection.
Return-to-office (RTO) trends have been closely watched over the past few years, with relevant stakeholders trying to puzzle out the impact remote and hybrid work have had on business operations and worker performance. And while visits to office buildings, overall, remain below pre-pandemic levels, office recovery varies from city to city – reflecting the complex and nuanced nature of regional economic trends, workforce preferences, and industry-specific needs.
This white paper harnesses location analytics to explore office recovery in the country’s second-largest economy – Los Angeles. The first part of the report is based on an analysis of foot traffic data from Placer.ai’s Los Angeles Office Index – an index comprising 100 office buildings in LA (including several in the greater metro area). The second part of the report broadens the lens to analyze visits by local employees to points of interest (POIs) corresponding to four major LA-area office districts: Century City, Downtown LA, Santa Monica, and Culver City. The white paper examines the impact that return-to-work mandates have had on visits to office buildings, discovers which demographic groups are driving the RTO, and explores the connection between commute time and return-to-office rates.
The return to office in Los Angeles has consistently lagged behind other major cities, underperforming nationwide recovery levels since the pandemic ground in-office work to a virtual halt. Still, the city’s office buildings are seeing a steady increase in visits, with foot traffic tending to spike at the beginning of each year. This indicates that even though office visits in LA are still below national averages, they are on a steady growth trajectory – a promising sign for stakeholders in the city.
A closer examination of Los Angeles office buildings also shows that despite the overall lag, some top-performing buildings in the LA metro area are defying the odds. Visits to the 20 local office buildings with the narrowest Q2 2024 post-COVID visit gaps were down just 8.7% in June 2024 compared to January 2019 – significantly outperforming the nationwide average.
So while overall office recovery in the city is still behind nationwide trends, these top-performing buildings indicate an optimistic outlook for the city’s office spaces.
Diving into the demographics of visitors to LA’s top-performing office buildings reveals an important insight: these buildings are attracting younger workers. This cohort has shown a stronger preference for in-person work compared to their older colleagues.
Analyzing the buildings’ captured markets with psychographics from AGS: Panorama reveals that these buildings are attracting visitors from areas with larger shares of "Emerging Leaders" and "Young Coastal Technocrats" than the broader metro area.
"Emerging Leaders'' – upper-middle-class professionals in early stages of their careers – make up 20.3% of households in the trade areas feeding visits to these top-performing buildings, compared to 14.9% in the broader LA CBSA. Similarly, "Young Coastal Technocrats," young and highly educated professionals in tech and professional services, account for 14.7% of households driving visits to the top-performing buildings, compared to only 12.1% in the broader area.
The trend suggests that companies in these high-performing office buildings employ many early-career professionals eager to accelerate their careers and work in-person with colleagues and mentors. This is a positive sign for the future of the office market in the LA metro area, indicating that it is attractive to key demographic groups that are likely to drive future growth and innovation.
Over the past few years, the debate regarding return-to-office mandates has been a heated one. Will employees follow return-to-office requirements? Can companies enforce the return to office after offering remote and hybrid work options? Recent location analytics data suggests that, at least in the Los Angeles metro area, some return-to-office mandates have been effective.
Three major tech companies – Activision Blizzard, TikTok, and SNAP Inc. – recently made their return-to-office policies stricter. Activision mandated a full return to the office in January 2024. TikTok has also intensified its return-to-office policy while seeking to expand its office presence in the greater Los Angeles area. And SNAP Inc. required employees to return to the office earlier this year as a condition of continued employment.
Visitation patterns at each of these companies' respective headquarters suggest that their policies have directly impacted visit frequency. Since the beginning of the year, the share of repeat office visits (defined as two or more visits per week) has increased for all three locations. Activision saw its share of repeat office visits grow from 52.1% in H1 2023 to 61.4% in the same period of 2024. TikTok’s repeat visits grew from 49.5% to 61.0%, and SNAP’s repeat visits increased from 36.6% to 42.8%.
These numbers highlight how return-to-office policies can lead to noticeable changes in office visit patterns and offer a blueprint to other businesses looking to foster a stronger in-office workforce.
Los Angeles is the second-largest metro area in the country, with several distinct business districts across its sprawling landscape. And a closer look at four major office hubs in the greater LA area – Century City, Downtown LA, Santa Monica, and Culver City – highlights how the office recovery can vary, not just by city or demographic, but on a neighborhood level.
Weekday visits by local employees to all four analyzed business districts have rebounded significantly since 2020 – though each area has followed its own particular trajectory.
Culver City, home to major businesses including Sony Pictures and Disney Digital Network, saw the least pronounced drop in employee visits during the early days of the pandemic. And in Q2 2024, weekday visits by local workers were down just 18.4% compared to Q1 2019.
Century City, on the other hand, saw the most marked drop in local employee foot traffic as the pandemic set in. But the district’s recovery trajectory has also been the most dramatic – with a Q2 2024 visit gap of just 28.5%, smaller than Downtown LA’s 29.7% visit gap. Perhaps capitalizing on this momentum, Century City is expanding its business district with the addition of a major new office building, set to be completed in 2026 and serve as the headquarters for Creative Artists Agency. Santa Monica, for its part, finished off Q2 2024 with a 23.3% visit gap.
Century City stands out within the Los Angeles metropolitan area for its dramatic decline and subsequent resurgence in local employee foot traffic. And looking at another metric of office recovery – employee commute distance – further underscores the district’s remarkable comeback.
The share of employees commuting to Century City from three to seven miles away has nearly returned to pre-COVID levels – suggesting a normalization of commuting patterns by local workers living in the area. In H1 2019, 33.5% of workers in Century City commuted between 3 and 7 miles to work; in 2022, that number had dropped to 29.8%. But by 2024, the share of visitors making that commute had grown to 32.5% – much closer to pre-COVID numbers.
Similarly, the region’s trade area size, which had contracted significantly in the wake of the pandemic, bounced back significantly in 2024. This serves as another indication of Century City’s rebound, cementing Century City’s status as a key business hub within the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Five years after the upheaval caused by the pandemic, office spaces are still changing. Although the Los Angeles area has taken longer to recover than other major cities, analyzing local visitation data shows significant potential for the city’s business areas. With young employees leading the return-to-office charge, the city is poised to keep driving its strong economy and adjust to an evolving office environment.
Retail media networks (RMNs) have cemented their roles as the future – and present – of advertising. These networks enable advertisers to promote products and services through a retailer’s online properties and physical stores, when consumers are close to the point-of-purchase and primed to buy.
Today, we take a closer look at two newcomers to the retail media space: Costco Wholesale and Wawa. Both chains have an online presence – but both also excel at in-store experiences, offering unique opportunities for consumer engagement and exposure to new products.
This white paper dives into the data to explore some of the key advantages Costco and Wawa bring to the retail media table – and examine how the retailers’ physical reach can best be leveraged to help advertising partners find new audiences.
Wawa and Costco, the latest additions to the growing number of companies with retail media networks, exhibit significant advertising potential. Both brands boast a wide reach and diverse customer base, and both have access to troves of customer data through membership and loyalty programs.
Foot traffic data confirms the robust offline positioning of the two retailers. In Q1 2024, year-over-year (YoY) visits to Costco and Wawa increased 9.5% and 7.5% respectively – showing that their in-store engagement is on a growth trajectory.
And since consumers tend to spend a lot more time in-store than they do on retailers’ websites, Costco’s and Wawa’s strong brick-and-mortar growth positions them especially well to help advertisers reach new customers. In Q1 2024, the average visits to Costco’s and Wawa’s physical stores lasted 37.4 and 11.4 minutes respectively – compared to just 6.7 and 4.6 minutes for the chains’ websites. These longer in-store dwell times can be harnessed to maximize ad exposure and offer partners more extended opportunities for meaningful interactions with customers. Partners can also analyze the behavior and preferences of the two chains’ growing visitor bases to craft targeted online campaigns.
Costco’s retail media network will tap into the on- and offline shopping habits of its staggering 74.5 million members to inform targeted advertising by partners. And the retailer’s tremendous reach offers a significant opportunity to engage customers in-store.
But while Costco is dominant in some areas of the country, other markets are led by competitors like Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club. And advertisers looking to choose between competing RMNs or hone in on the areas where Costco is strongest can analyze Costco's performance and visit share – on a local or national level – to determine where to focus their efforts.
An analysis of the share of visits to wholesalers across the country reveals that Costco is the dominant wholesale membership club in much of the Western United States. But Costco also captures the largest share of wholesale club visits in many other major population centers, including important markets like New York, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Antonio. Costco’s widespread brick-and-mortar dominance offers prospective advertising partners a significant opportunity to connect with regional audiences in a wide array of key markets.
Another one of Costco’s key advantages as a retail media provider lies in its highly loyal and engaged audience. In May 2024, a whopping 41.4% of Costco’s visitors frequented the club at least twice during the month – compared to 36.6% for Sam’s Club and 36.0% for BJ’s Wholesale.
Moreover, Costco led in average visit duration compared to its competitors. In May 2024, customers spent an average of 37.1 minutes at Costco – surpassing even the impressive dwell times at Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
YoY visits per location to Costco, too, were the highest of the analyzed wholesalers, all three of which saw YoY increases. These metrics further establish the wholesaler’s position as an effective retail media provider.
Even when foot traffic doesn't show a brand’s clear regional dominance, location analytics can reveal other metrics that signal its unique potential. Take the Richmond-Petersburg, VA, designated market area (DMA), for example. In May 2024, BJ’s Wholesale Club led the DMA with 41.2% of wholesale club visits, while Costco was a close second with 37.3% of visits.
But despite BJ’s lead in visit share, Costco's Richmond audience was more affluent. Costco's visitors came from trade areas with a median household income (HHI) of $93.2K/year, compared to $73.1K/year for Sam’s Club and $89.5K/year for BJ’s. Additionally, Costco drew a higher share of weekday visits than its counterparts.
Analyzing shopper habits and preferences across chains on a local level can provide crucial context for strategists working on media campaigns. Advertisers can partner with the brands most likely to attract consumers interested in their offerings, and identify where – and when – to focus their advertising efforts.
Convenience stores, or c-stores, are emerging as destinations in and of themselves – and their rising popularity among a wider-than-ever swath of consumers opens up significant opportunities in the retail advertising space.
Wawa is a relative newcomer to the world of retail media, after other c-stores like 7-Eleven and Casey’s launched their networks in 2022 and 2023. But despite coming a bit late to the party, the potential for Wawa’s Goose Media Network is significant – thanks to a cadre of highly loyal visitors who enjoy the physical shopping experience the c-store chain offers.
In May 2024, Wawa’s share of loyal visitors (defined as those who visited the chain at least twice in a month) was 60.1%. In contrast, other leading c-store chains operating in Wawa’s market area – QuickTrip and 7-Eleven, for example – saw loyalty rates of 56.0% and 47.9%, respectively, for the same period.
Additionally, Wawa visitors browsed the aisles longer than those at other convenience retailers. In May 2024, 39.9% of Wawa visitors stayed in-store for 10 minutes or longer, compared to 29.6% at QuickTrip and 25.7% at 7-Eleven.
Wawa's loyal customer base and longer visit durations make it a strong contender in the retail media space. By harnessing this high level of customer engagement, Wawa can draw in advertisers and develop targeted marketing strategies that resonate with its dedicated shoppers.
Wawa has been on an expansion roll over the past few years, with plans to open at least 280 stores over the next decade in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. The chain has also been steadily increasing its footprint in Florida – between January 2019 and April 2024, Wawa grew from 167 Sunshine State locations to 280, with more to come.
And analyzing changes in Wawa’s visit share in one of Florida’s biggest markets – the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale DMA – shows how successful the chain’s local expansion has been. Between January 2019 and April 2024, Wawa more than doubled its category-wide visit share in the Miami area (i.e. the portion of total c-store visits in the DMA going to Wawa) – from 19.0% to nearly 40.0%.
A look at changes in Wawa’s Miami-Ft. Lauderdale trade area shows that the chain’s growing visit share has been driven by an expanding market and an increasingly diverse audience.
In April 2019, there were some 55 zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale DMA from which Wawa drew at least 3,000 visits per month. By April 2021, this figure grew to 96 – and by April 2024, it reached 129.
Over the same period, the share of “Family Union” households in Wawa’s local captured market – defined by the Experian: Mosaic dataset as families comprised of middle-income, blue collar workers – nearly doubled, growing from 7.4% in April 2019 to 14.4% in April 2024.
Retail media networks that make it easier to introduce shoppers to products and brands that are closely aligned with their preferences and habits offer a win-win-win for retailers, advertisers, and consumers alike. And Costco and Wawa are extremely well-positioned to make the most of this opportunity.
Everybody loves coffee. And with some 75% of American adults indulging in a cup of joe at least once a week, it’s no wonder the industry is constantly on an upswing.
In early 2024, year-over-year (YoY) visits to coffee chains increased nationwide – with every state in the continental U.S. experiencing year-over-year (YoY) coffee visit growth.
The most substantial foot traffic boosts were seen in smaller markets like Oklahoma (19.4%), Wyoming (19.3%), and Arkansas (16.9%), where expansions may have a more substantial impact on statewide industry growth. But the nation’s largest coffee markets, including Texas (10.9%), California (4.2%), Florida (4.2%), and New York (3.5%), also experienced significant YoY upticks.
The nation’s coffee visit growth is being fueled, in large part, by chain expansions: Major coffee players are leaning into growing demand by steadily increasing their footprints. And a look at per-location foot traffic trends shows that by and large, they are doing so without significantly diluting visitation to existing stores.
On an industry-wide level, visits to coffee chains increased 5.1% YoY during the first five months of 2024. And over the same period, the average number of visits to each individual coffee location declined just slightly by 0.6% – meaning that individual stores drew just about the same amount of foot traffic as they did in 2023.
Drilling down into chain-level data shows some variation between brands. Dutch Bros., BIGGBY COFFEE and Dunkin’ all saw significant chain-wide visit boosts, accompanied by minor increases in their average number of visits per location.
Starbucks, for its part, which reported a YoY decline in U.S. sales for Q2 2024, maintained a small lag in visits per location. But given the coffee leader’s massive footprint – some 16,600 stores nationwide – its ability to expand while avoiding more significant dilution of individual store performance shows that Starbucks’ growth is meeting robust demand.
What is driving the coffee industry’s remarkable category-wide growth? And who are the customers behind it? This white paper dives into the data to explore key factors driving foot traffic to leading coffee chains in early 2024. The report explores the demographic and psychographic characteristics of visitors to major players in the coffee space and examines strategies brands can use to make the most of the opportunity presented by a thriving industry.
One factor shaping the surge in coffee visit growth is the slow-but-sure return-to-office (RTO). Hybrid work may be the post-COVID new normal – but RTO mandates and WFH fatigue have led to steady increases in office foot traffic over the past year. And in some major hubs – including New York and Miami – office visits are back to more than 80.0% of what they were pre-pandemic.
A look at shifting Starbucks visitation patterns shows that customer journeys and behavior increasingly reflect those of office-goers. In April and May 2022, for example, 18.6% of Starbucks visitors proceeded to their workplace immediately following their coffee stop – but by 2024, this share shot up to 21.0%.
Over the same period, the percentage of early morning (7:00 to 10:00 AM) Starbucks visits lasting less than 10 minutes also increased significantly – from 64.3% in 2022 to 68.7% in 2024. More customers are picking up their coffee on the go – many of them on the way to work – rather than settling down to enjoy it on-site.
Dunkin’ is another chain that is benefiting from consumers on the go. Examining the coffee giant’s performance across major regional markets – those where the chain maintains a significant presence – reveals a strong correlation between the share of Dunkin’ visits in each state lasting less than five minutes and the chain’s local YoY trajectory.
In Wisconsin, for example, 50.9% of visits to Dunkin’ between January and May 2024 lasted less than five minutes. And Wisconsin also saw the most impressive YoY visit growth (5.9%). Illinois, Ohio, Maine, and Connecticut followed similar patterns, with high shares of very short visits and strong YoY showings.
On the other end of the spectrum lay Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida, where very short visits accounted for a low share of the chain’s statewide total – under 40.% – and where visits declined YoY.
Dunkin’s success with very short visits may be driven in part by its popular app, which makes it easy for harried customers to place their order online and save time in-store. And this is good news indeed for the coffee leader – since customers using the app also tend to generate bigger tickets.
Dutch Bros.’ meteoric rise has been fueled, in part, by its appeal to younger audiences. Recently ranked as Gen Z’s favorite quick-service restaurant, the rapidly-expanding coffee chain sets itself apart with a strong brand identity built on cultivating a positive, friendly customer experience.
And Dutch Bros.’ people-centered approach is resonating especially well with singles – including young adults living alone – who may particularly appreciate the chain’s community atmosphere.
Analyzing the relative performance of Dutch Bros.’ locations across metro areas – focusing on regions where the chain has a strong local presence – shows that it performs best in areas with plenty of singles. Indeed, the share of one-person households in Dutch Bros.’ local captured markets is very strongly correlated with the coffee brand’s CBSA-level YoY per-location visit performance. Areas with higher concentrations of one-person households saw significantly more YoY visit growth in the first part of 2024. (A chain’s captured market is obtained by weighting each Census Block Group (CBG) in its trade area according to the CBG’s share of visits to the chain – and so reflects the population that actually visits the chain in practice).
The share of one-person households in Dutch Bros.’ Tucson, AZ captured market, for example, stands at 33.4% – well above the nationwide baseline of 27.5%. And between January and May 2024, Tucson-area Dutch Bros. saw a 6.0% increase in the average number of visits per location. Tulsa, OK, Medford, OR, and Oklahoma City, OK – which also feature high shares of one-person households (over 30.0%) – similarly saw per-location visit increases ranging from 3.6% - 7.0%. On the flip side, Fresno, CA, Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV, and San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX, which feature lower-than-average shares of single-person households, saw YoY per-location visit declines ranging from 1.5%-9.5%.
As Dutch Bros. forges ahead with its planned expansions, it may benefit from doubling down on this trends and focusing its development efforts on markets with higher-than-average shares of one-person households – such as university towns or urban areas with lots of young professionals.
Michigan-based BIGGBY COFFEE is another java winner in expansion mode. With a growth strategy focused on emerging markets with less brand saturation, BIGGBY has been setting its sights on small towns and rural areas throughout the Midwest and South. Though the chain does have locations in bigger cities like Detroit and Cincinnati, some of its most significant markets are in smaller population centers.
And a look at the captured markets of BIGGBY’s 20 top-performing locations in early 2024 shows that they are significantly over-indexed for suburban consumers – both compared to BIGGBY as a whole and compared to nationwide baselines. (Top-performing locations are defined as those that experienced the greatest YoY visit growth between January and May 2024).
“Suburban Boomers”, for example – a Spatial.ai: PersonaLive segment encompassing middle-class empty-nesters living in suburbs – comprised 10.6% of BIGGBY’s top captured markets in early 2024, compared to just 6.6% for BIGGBY’s overall. (The nationwide baseline for Suburban Boomers is even lower – 4.4%.) And Upper Diverse Suburban Families – a segment made up of upper-middle-class suburbanites – accounted for 9.6% of the captured markets of BIGGBY’s 20 top locations, compared to just 7.2% for BIGGBY’s as a whole, and 8.3% nationwide.
Coffee has long been one of America’s favorite beverages. And java chains that offer consumers an enjoyable, affordable way to splurge are expanding both their footprints and their audiences. By leaning into shifting work routines and catering to customers’ varying habits and preferences, major coffee players like Starbucks, Dunkin’, Dutch Bros., and BIGGBY COFFEE are continuing to thrive.
