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The Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index: The office building index analyzes foot traffic data from some 1,000 office buildings across the country. It only includes commercial office buildings, and commercial office buildings with retail offerings on the first floor (like an office building that might include a national coffee chain on the ground floor). It does NOT include government buildings or mixed-use buildings that are both residential and commercial.
While headlines trumpeting an imminent return to traditional office life fueled by corporate mandates have become increasingly common in recent months, ground-level data reveals a more complex reality. Office building foot traffic indicates that the office recovery has slowed, with February visits down by 36.3% compared to pre-pandemic levels in February 2019. This data suggests that despite top-down pressure and RTO mandates at several major U.S. companies, hybrid and remote work models remain widespread.
Diving into the market-level data reveals that the nationwide average office occupancy metric was driven by relatively significant visit gaps across most analyzed cities, with the exception of New York City and Miami that continued to lead the return to office (RTO) trends, followed by Atlanta. Houston, Washington D.C., and Dallas all experienced year-over-five-year (Yo5Y) visit gaps of 34.6% to 38.4% – close to the nationwide average – while the Yo5Y office visit gaps for Boston, Los Angeles, and Denver was 43.5%, 45.1%, and 46.6%, respectively.
But one metric did stand out in the February data that could hint at a relatively localized RTO acceleration. For the first time since we started tracking the post-pandemic office recovery, San Francisco (47.5% Yo5Y visit gap) outperformed Chicago (48.5%) – perhaps indicating that RTO mandates in the tech world are beginning to move the needle in the country’s tech capital.
The slowing return to office (RTO) trends also emerge when analyzing the year-over-year (YoY) data. Although some visit gaps were to be expected given the comparison to a 29 day February in 2024, most cities – with the exception of Miami, Boston, and San Francisco – saw a larger dip in office visits than the approximately 3.5% visit gap that could be attributed to the calendar shift.
The dip in office visits compared to 2024 suggests that the RTO mandates are not having a significant impact on office occupancy patterns in most major cities and further underscore the enduring impact of remote and hybrid work models.
The RTO data reveals a complex and evolving landscape shaped by both corporate directives and the enduring preferences of a workforce that has experienced the flexibility and autonomy of remote work. At the same time, disparities between major cities – with New York and Miami in the lead and Chicago and San Francisco lagging behind – highlight the influence of local economic factors, industry concentrations, and perhaps even cultural preferences on office occupancy. As businesses continue to navigate this transition, a deeper understanding of these regional nuances and of the underlying drivers of in-person work will be crucial for companies looking to formulate RTO policies that best serve their broader goals.
For more data-driven insights, visit placer.ai.
This year is expected to present challenges for many restaurant operators, including (1) an uncertain macroeconomic environment; (2) growing encroachment from grocers, warehouse clubs, and convenience stores; and (3) difficulties connecting with consumers as they prioritize both value and convenience. Against this backdrop, Chipotle’s management is forecasting low- to mid-single-digit comparable sales growth for the full year. The company faces tough year-over-year (YoY) comparisons—our data shows a 4.2% increase in visits per location in 2024, placing Chipotle among the top-performing restaurant chains with more than 100 locations. However, despite the uncertain landscape, our data highlights several reasons why Chipotle may surpass this forecast.
Between 2020 and 2024, Chipotle introduced several new protein options that significantly contributed to its growth and customer engagement. In 2021, the launch of Smoked Brisket became a fan favorite, leading to its return in 2024 due to popular demand. The re-introduction of Chicken al Pastor also played a role in boosting visits, significantly lifting visits trends during the second quarter of 2024. These innovative protein additions have not only diversified Chipotle's menu but also resonated with customers, driving sales and enhancing the brand's market presence.
Chipotle introduced Honey Chicken as a limited-time protein option systemwide on March 7th 2025. According to management, Honey Chicken was the brand’s best-performing limited-time offer test, excelling in both early sensory testing and broader market trials. To validate this claim, we examined YoY visitation data for the 55 locations in Sacramento and 25 locations in Nashville where Honey Chicken was tested in the fall of 2024. Launched on August 27th, 2024, our data indicates an immediate boost in visits per location in Sacramento and sustained outperformance in Nashville.
While it’s difficult to extrapolate the success of a limited-time product nationwide based on its performance in a few test markets, our data indicates that Chipotle’s Honey Chicken will likley be among the best performing new product launches in 2025.
In recent years, Chipotle Mexican Grill has experienced notable success by expanding into smaller markets across the United States. This strategic move has led the company to increase its long-term goal from 6,000 to 7,000 North American locations, with many new restaurants opening in towns with populations around 40,000. These small-town locations have demonstrated unit economics comparable to or even surpassing those in larger markets.
Our data shows continued visit outperformance in smaller markets in 2024, with Chipotle locations in non top-25 markets seeing greater visits per location than locations in top 25 markets. And this strategic expansion sets the stage for continued outperformance as store openings in the company’s smaller markets continue to enter the comparable sales base in 2025.
Chipotle's “Chipotlane” format stores—which include a dedicated drive-thru lanes for digital order pickups—has significantly enhanced operational efficiency. According to management, Chipotlane location stores often see transactions completed in less than a minute, which compares favorably to traditional QSR drive-thru times. This swift service has led to a 10%-15% increase in sales at Chipotlane-equipped locations compared to traditional formats. Chipotle now has more than 1,000 Chipotlane locations, with plans to include this feature in the majority of new restaurants, aiming for an annual unit growth of 8% to 10%.
We grouped the first 100 Chipotlane locations with our data to better understand the impact on throughput and operational efficiency. Our data indicates that Chipotlane locations outperformed the chain average by a meaningful amount – especially during peak lunch and dinner hours – adding further support for the company’s potential outperformance in the year ahead.
Overall, while 2025 presents a challenging landscape for the restaurant industry, Chipotle appears well-positioned to navigate these headwinds and potentially exceed its growth expectations. The company’s proven track record of successful menu innovations, along with the promising early results of Honey Chicken, demonstrate its ability to resonate with consumers. Additionally, Chipotle's strategic expansion into smaller markets and the continued rollout of Chipotlane locations are key drivers that could boost visitation and operational efficiency. Despite a difficult macroeconomic environment and increased competition, Chipotle’s combination of menu innovation, market expansion, and enhanced convenience through Chipotlanes sets the stage for continued success in 2025.
Allbirds rose to prominence during the direct-to-consumer (DTC) boom, quickly gaining a loyal following. However, the brand faced challenges in recent years and, in 2024, made a strategic pivot to optimize its store fleet and significantly rightsize its retail footprint. How has this shift impacted foot traffic? We took a closer look.
Allbirds closed almost a third of its U.S. store fleet in the first three quarters of 2024 – downsizing from 45 U.S. stores at the end of 2023 to 31 stores as of September 2024 – leading to expected declines in overall visit numbers. But as the number of Allbirds stores in operation fell, visits per location increased steadily – suggesting that the company is successfully consolidating its physical footprint and funneling visitors to its most successful stores.
While Allbirds has locations in a number of states across the country, its main stronghold remains its home state of California. And diving into the visit data reveals that its rightsizing strategy has paid off handsomely in the state, with YoY visits per location surging by 28.2% in January 2025 compared to 19.8% YoY growth nationwide, suggesting that Allbirds is successfully optimizing its footprint to focus on high-performing markets.
Rightsizing typically allows brands to focus on their best-performing markets – and it looks like Allbirds has succeeded in that regard. Between January 2024 and January 2025, the median household income (HHI) in Allbirds’ captured market rose from $108.5K to $125.6K. Similarly, the share of "Educated Urbanites" and "Ultra-Wealthy Families" Spatial.ai: PersonaLive segments increased, indicating that the brand is now catering to a more affluent visitor base that could help it weather economic uncertainties and wider retail challenges.
Allbirds’ strategic repositioning seems to be delivering some of the desired results. By focusing efforts on high-performance locations and the shopper experience, the brand is seeing higher visits per location and a more engaged customer base.
Will Allbirds continue to soar?
Visit Placer.ai to find out.
Last year was a leap year, so February 2025 had one less day than February 2024 – leading to dips in year-over-year (YoY) monthly comparisons across the board, including in the mall space.
But comparing YoY at average daily visits – a more accurate analysis of YoY performance when comparing a regular year to a leap year – reveals that visits to indoor malls and open-air shopping centers held relatively stable in February 2025, despite the sharp drop in consumer confidence. And both mall types outperformed the wider retail YoY average – highlighting the ongoing resilience of the retail format.
Meanwhile, outlet malls continued lagging behind both overall retail numbers and the other two mall types. This mall type tends to attract a slightly lower-income visitor base, which could be more susceptible to economic uncertainties – and outlet mall shoppers may have avoided long travels in the cold, preferring to look for discounted items online or in off-price stores closer to home.
Malls’ unique position as both shopping centers and entertainment hubs likely contributed to malls’ stable February visitation patterns amidst the wider consumer headwinds. All three mall types saw significant visit increases on Valentine’s Day (February 14th) along with a rise in the share of evening (7 PM to 10 PM) visits. At the same time, only outlet malls saw a slight increase in the share of shorter visits (under 30 minutes) on Valentine’s Day.
This data suggests that malls played a role in many consumers’ Valentine’s Day celebrations – both in serving as a one-stop shop for gifts and as a centralized place with a variety of dining and entertainment options for the perfect Valentine’s date night.
The steady February foot traffic coupled with strong engagement on key holidays like Valentine’s Day underscores the enduring role of malls as more than just shopping destinations. As we move further into 2025, the ability of malls to adapt and cater to evolving consumer behaviors will remain a critical factor in their continued success.
For more data-driven retail insights visit placer.ai.
The beauty industry’s reign over specialty retail may be slowly coming to an end in 2025. In the post-pandemic retail economy, beauty had been an outlier as it continued to grow visitation despite declines in other discretionary categories and a general pullback in retail demand. Beauty retailers were primed for the interaction of mass and prestige beauty growth; brands at both the low and high end benefited as consumers' appetite for make up and skincare exploded.
But in 2024, consumers began to shift their focus away from beauty and back towards other discretionary categories, such as apparel and home furnishings. At the same time, we’ve also observed more caution amongst consumers surrounding all discretionary demand. Beauty tends to do well during times of economic uncertainty; items are small and generally less expensive than other discretionary purchases like shoes or accessories.
However, the category’s sustained success over the past few years may have run out, even as consumers look for value and small indulgences. Beauty executives warned of these headwinds in early 2024, and Placer’s visit trends have corroborated the softening of trends across the industry.
2024 visits to beauty and self care retail chains grew 1.5% versus the previous year, compared to 18% growth in 2023 and 17% growth in 2022. There was a true shift in momentum of this industry over the last year, and the deceleration of growth is in stark contrast to the industry’s flourishing in the immediate post-pandemic years.
When we put this into the context of broader discretionary retail, the trends in beauty counter those of apparel and home furnishings, who accelerated their rebounds throughout last year. There are a myriad of reasons for these changes in 2024, but major beauty brands have shared a drop-off in demand and waning sales, signs that point to changing consumer behavior instead of a shift in channel preference from physical to digital.
Ulta Beauty had been driving much of the growth of the beauty industry, due to its positioning as a destination for both mass and prestige beauty products. This business model, which served it well over the past few years, also exposed some potential hurdles as demand decelerated in 2024. Ulta’s visit growth in 2024 was just 1.9% year-over-year (2.5% YoY growth for Q4 2024), which surpassed other beauty chains, but slowed dramatically compared to previous trends.
A potential source of Ulta’s visit growth declaration could be one of its greatest opportunities over the past few years; its shop-in-shop partnership with Target. The two chains attract similar consumer demographics and align in their value offerings to shoppers. Looking at Placer’s cross visitation analysis, among visitors to Ulta Beauty, those who also visited Target increased from 86.9% in 2022 to 90.1% in 2024. Ulta visitors may be choosing to visit an Ulta outpost in Target more frequently than in the past, due to the convenience. But, that increase in visits to Target may be cannibalizing visit frequency to standalone Ulta Beauty locations.
Another change to Ulta Beauty’s overall visitation comes from the distribution of visitors to the retail chain. There were declines in the share of visits to Ulta from wealthier, suburban, and younger consumer segments, which account for the largest consumer bases for the retailer. There have been slight increases in the share of visits by Blue Collar Families and diverse shopper segments, but those consumers are likely to be more constrained in purchasing power than Ulta’s core shoppers.
Overall, the beauty space’s journey in 2024 is likely an indicator of what’s to come, especially for the larger chains. One retailer that has been the exception to the rule is Bluemercury, which Placer selected as a 10 Top Brands to Watch in 2025. For the remainder of the industry, retailers must find their reason for consumers to visit, despite a potential decline in demand for the category.
Two of the biggest sporting events of the year – the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 – took place in February 2025. We dove into the location analytics and demographic characteristics of visitors for both events to find out who attends the Big Game and the Great American Race.
Super Bowl tickets aren’t cheap, and combined with elevated travel costs, attending the game comes with a hefty price tag. So it may be no surprise that “Ultra Wealth Families” – Spatial.ai: Personalive segment for the nation’s wealthiest households – are consistently the largest segment within the stadiums’ captured markets* on game day. The same trend persists for NFL’s conference championships, indicating that regardless of the region in which the biggest games are played, fans in attendance come from relatively similar, affluent households.
*A venue’s captured market is derived by the census block groups (CBGs) from which the venue draws its visitors, weighted by the share of visits from each, and thus reflects the population that actually visits the venue.
Visitors to the Daytona 500, it seems, are a more diverse cohort. Although the race is the most prestigious in NASCAR, tickets are available at price-points that suit a variety of budgets. And analyzing the visitor base of Daytona International Speedway on race day in 2025 reveals that the event’s relative affordability seemed to have attracted visitors from all walks of life: The venue’s trade area included a wide range of psychographic segments – ranging from the wealthiest families to retirement-age folks on a budget – demonstrating the diversity of the audience in attendance.
Analysis of the 2025 Super Bowl and Daytona 500’s trade areas, which reflect the regions from which the venues received visitors on the day, reveals other key differences between the events’ attendees.
As was the case for previous Super Bowls, the 2025 Super Bowl at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA drew visitors from the country’s major metro areas – and from some of the wealthiest – including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. The trade area also revealed elevated attendance from the teams’ home regions – Kansas City, MO and Philadelphia, PA – likely by the squads’ die-hard fans, and robust visitation from the host region (the New Orleans area), as local football fans appeared to take advantage of the opportunity to attend a Super Bowl close to home.
The 2025 Daytona 500's trade area, however, revealed a more tilted regional distribution of visitors. Although the event did draw fans from all over the country, most of the Daytona International Speedway attendees came from the Eastern United States, and Florida in particular – which hosts the race every year. This suggests that while the Daytona 500 attracts visitors from all over the country, the event is particularly popular among locals.
Want more data-driven event insights? Visit Placer.ai.
This report leverages location intelligence data to analyze the auto dealership market in the United States. By looking at visit trends to branded showrooms, used car lots, and mixed inventory dealerships – and analyzing the types of visitors that visit each category – this white paper sheds light on the state of car dealership space in 2023.
Prior to the pandemic and throughout most of 2020, visits to both car brand and used-only dealerships followed relatively similar trends. But the two categories began to diverge in early 2021.
Visits to car brand dealerships briefly returned to pre-pandemic levels in mid-2021, but traffic fell consistently in the second half of the year as supply-chain issues drove consistent price increases. So despite the brief mid-year bump, 2021 ended with overall new car sales – as well as overall foot traffic to car brand dealerships – below 2019 levels. Visits continued falling in 2022 as low inventory and high prices hampered growth.
Meanwhile, although the price for used cars rose even more (the average price for a new and used car was up 12.1% and 27.1% YoY, respectively, in September 2021), used cars still remained, on average, more affordable than new ones. So with rising demand for alternatives to public transportation – and with new cars now beyond the reach of many consumers – the used car market took off and visits to used car dealerships skyrocketed for much of 2021 and into 2022. But in the second half of last year, as gas prices remained elevated – tacking an additional cost onto operating a vehicle – visits to used car dealerships began falling dramatically.
Now, the price of both used and new cars has finally begun falling slightly. Foot traffic data indicates that the price drops appear to be impacting the two markets differently. So far this year, sales and visits to dealerships of pre-owned vehicles have slowed, while new car sales grew – perhaps due to the more significant pent-up demand in the new car market. The ongoing inflation, which has had a stronger impact on lower-income households, may also be somewhat inhibiting used-car dealership visit growth. At the same time, foot traffic to used car dealerships did remain close to or slightly above 2019 levels for most of 2023, while visits to branded dealerships were significantly lower year-over-four-years.
The situation remains dynamic – with some reports of prices creeping back up – so the auto dealership landscape may well continue to shift going into 2024.
With car prices soaring, the demand for pre-owned vehicles has grown substantially. Analyzing the trade area composition of leading dealerships that sell used cars reveals the wide spectrum of consumers in this market.
Dealerships carrying a mixed inventory of both new and used vehicles seem to attract relatively high-income consumers. Using the STI: Popstats 2022 data set to analyze the trade areas of Penske Automotive, AutoNation, and Lithia Auto Stores – which all sell used and new cars – reveals that the HHI in the three dealerships’ trade areas is higher than the nationwide median. Differences did emerge within the trade areas of the mixed inventory car dealerships, but the range was relatively narrow – between $77.5K to $84.5K trade area median HHI.
Meanwhile, the dealerships selling exclusively used cars – DriveTime, Carvana, and CarMax – exhibited a much wider range of trade area median HHIs. CarMax, the largest used-only car dealership in the United States, had a yearly median HHI of $75.9K in its trade area – just slightly below the median HHI for mixed inventory dealerships Lithia Auto Stores and AutoNation and above the nationwide median of $69.5K. Carvana, a used car dealership that operates according to a Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPIS) model, served an audience with a median HHI of $69.1K – more or less in-line with the nationwide median. And DriveTime’s trade areas have a median HHI of $57.6K – significantly below the nationwide median.
The variance in HHI among the audiences of the different used-only car dealerships may reflect the wide variety of offerings within the used-car market – from virtually new luxury vehicles to basic sedans with 150k+ miles on the odometer.
Visits to car brands nationwide between January and September 2023 dipped 0.9% YoY, although several outliers reveal the potential for success in the space even during times of economic headwinds.
Visits to Tesla’s dealerships have skyrocketed recently, perhaps thanks to the company’s frequent price cuts over the past year – between September 2022 and 2023, the average price for a new Tesla fell by 24.7%. And with the company’s network of Superchargers gearing up to serve non-Tesla Electric Vehicles (EVs), Tesla is finding room for growth beyond its already successful core EV manufacturing business and positioning itself for a strong 2024.
Japan-based Mazda used the pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen its standing among U.S. consumers, and the company is now reaping the fruits of its labor as visits rise YoY. Porsche, the winner of U.S New & World Report Best Luxury Car Brand for 2023, also outperformed the wider car dealership sector. Kia – owned in part by Hyundai – and Hyundai both saw their foot traffic increase YoY as well, thanks in part to the popularity of their SUV models.
Analyzing dealerships on a national level can help car manufacturers make macro-level decisions on marketing, product design, and brick-and-mortar fleet configurations. But diving deeper into the unique characteristics of each dealership’s trade area on a state level reveals differences that can serve brands looking to optimize their offerings for their local audience.
For example, analyzing the share of households with children in the trade areas of four car brand dealership chains in four different states reveals significant variation across the regional markets.
Nationwide, Tesla served a larger share of households with children than Kia, Ford, or Land Rover. But focusing on California shows that in the Golden State, Kia’s trade area population included the largest share of this segment than the other three brands, while Land Rover led this segment in Illinois. Meanwhile, Ford served the smallest share of households with children on a nationwide basis – but although the trend held in Illinois and Pennsylvania, California Ford dealerships served more households with children than either Tesla or Land Rover.
Leveraging location intelligence to analyze car dealerships adds a layer of consumer insights to industry provided sales numbers. Visit patterns and audience demographics reveal how foot traffic to used-car lots, mixed inventory dealerships, and manufacturers’ showrooms change over time and who visits these businesses on a national or regional level. These insights allow auto industry stakeholders to assess current demand, predict future trends, and keep a finger on the pulse of car-purchasing habits in the United States.
