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Aldi & Lidl Making The Cut
One of the major stories of 2023 was the rise in food prices, and the increasing costs of food and other goods have helped discount grocers thrive. We checked back in with two bargain grocers – Aldi and Lidl – to see how they’re doing. 
Bracha Arnold
Apr 2, 2024
4 minutes

One of the major stories of 2023 was the rise in food prices, with costs up roughly 25% since 2020 – and the increasing costs of food and other goods have helped discount grocers thrive.

We checked back in with two grocery chains known for their bargain prices and private labels – Aldi and Lidl – to see how they’re doing. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • Visit numbers to Aldi and Lidl continue to grow year-over-year. 
  • Despite Aldi and Lidl’s similar merchandising strategies, the two chains serve different audiences. 
  • Lidl’s visitors tend to come from higher-income areas with larger household sizes compared to Aldi.

Low-Cost Leaders  

Aldi offers prices that rival those of discount grocers, making it a major player in the discount grocery segment. And these attractive prices have helped the company see significant visit growth over the past few years. Year-over-year (YoY) monthly visits to Aldi were up throughout 2023 and into 2024, with some of the growth due to the chain’s aggressive expansion. And the company plans to grow even further – Aldi has announced plans to open another 800 stores over the next few years. 

Lidl – another German-based grocer – opened its first location in Virginia in 2017. The chain currently has around 170 locations in the country, primarily on the East Coast, and is also expanding – albeit at a slower pace. Between February 2023 and February 2024, YoY visits to Lidl were up almost every month with only a slight dip in January 2024 – perhaps due to the unseasonal cold – a promising sign for the discount grocer as more consumers than ever choose low-cost food options.

graph: YoY visits to aldi and lidl elevated in 2023 and 2024

Similar Value, Different Visitors

Although both Lidl and Aldi are German-owned discount grocers, examining the demographics for the two brands' trade areas nationwide sheds light on the differences between the two chain’s consumer bases. 

Analyzing the trade area median HHI reveals that Lidl attracts a higher-income clientele than Aldi: The median household income (HHI) in Aldi’s trade area was slightly lower than the the nationwide median, with the median HHI in the chain’s captured market even lower than the median HHI in its potential market. This indicates that Aldi locates its stores in areas that are accessible to the average consumer and succeeds in attracting also the slightly lower income segments within its potential trade area. 

Meanwhile, Lidl’s potential market median HHI stood at $78.8K/year in 2023, and the median HHI in its captured market was even higher – $88.1K/year – indicating that Lidl stores are located in more affluent areas, and that the company caters to the wealthier households within those neighborhoods. 

The share of households with children in Aldi’s potential and captured market was also almost identical to the nationwide average – indicating once again Aldi’s success in reaching the average U.S. grocery shopper. Lidl, on the other hand, saw more households with children in both its captured and potential markets, with the share of households with children in its captured market around two percentage points higher than the share of households with children nationwide. So while Aldi and Lidl do share some similarities in terms of origins, preference for private label, and pricing, the trade area analysis points to major differences between the two chains’ audiences. 

 *A chain or venue’s potential market refers to the people that reside in its trade area, based on the business’ True Trade Area and weighted by census block group (CBG) within the trade area according to the size of its population. Captured markets represent the population that visits the business in practice, and the data is obtained by weighting each CBG according to its share of visits to the chain or venue in question.

bar graphs: aldi and lidl see customers with different income levels and family sizes. based on STI: PopStats dataset and placer.ai captured and potential trade area data

Similar Concepts, Different Customer Bases

Diving into the psychographic data for Aldi and Lidl adds another dimension to the trends revealed by the demographic data. While both brands are popular among suburban audiences – Aldi tends to attract a more blue-collar customer, while Lidl is frequented by a wealthier suburban segment. The share of visitors falling into the “Small Town Low Income” category was 7.5% for Aldi compared to 0.9% for Lidl. Conversely, Lidl saw 16.7% of its visitors falling into the “Upper Suburban Diverse Families” segment, while Aldi had 10.6% of its consumers in that category.

And while Aldi and Lidl have a hold on different suburban segments, the chains’ expansion strategies seem geared to grow each chain’s reach outside the other’s orbit. Lidl has been opening stores in big cities along the East Coast, including New York City’s tony Chelsea neighborhood, perhaps in a bid to reach more of the wealthier customers that favor the brand. Aldi, meanwhile, recently acquired grocery chains Winn-Dixie and Southeast Grocers, brands that typically attract a more price-sensitive consumer. This acquisition will significantly expand Aldi’s presence and will likely appeal to value-oriented shoppers, a segment already receptive to its offerings.

bar graph: alsi attracts more blue collar lower income consumer segments than lidl. based on Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset and placer.ai captured trade area data

Room For Everyone

The past few years have seen the grocery space adapting to an increasingly value-oriented consumer, and Aldi and Lidl have benefitted from this shift. As inflation cools and both companies expand their footprints, will they continue on their upward trajectory?

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. 

Article
Texas Suburbs on the Rise
Texas has been a favored destination for Americans relocating from major population centers - but which metro areas are attracting new residents? Are people moving to major cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, or are they heading out to the suburbs? We take a closer look.
Lila Margalit
Apr 1, 2024
3 minutes

Since COVID, millions of Americans have relocated from major population centers in California, New York, and Illinois (among others) to other regions of the country. Whether in search of job opportunities, affordable housing, or simply a change of scenery, thousands of people have decamped to places like Tampa, Florida, Bozeman, Montana, and Portland, Maine. And the great state of Texas – with its wide open spaces and relatively affordable cost of living – has emerged as a favored destination.

So with 2024 underway, we dove into the data to explore domestic migration trends in the Lone Star State. How much has the population of Texas grown as a result of domestic migration over the past several years – and which metro areas (CBSAs) are attracting new residents? Are people moving to major cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, or are they heading out to the suburbs?

Bigger is Better in the Lone Star State

Between December 2019 and December 2023, Texas’ population grew by 4.3% – with nearly a third of this increase driven by new residents hailing from elsewhere in the U.S. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these new arrivals made a bee-line to Texas’ four most populous metropolitan areas – Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, San Antonio-New Braunfels, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land. During this time period, each of these CBSAs experienced positive net migration (meaning that more people moved to these areas than away from them) ranging from 0.4% to 3.4%.

graph: Texas and the state's most populous CBSAs experienced positive net migration since COVID

All Hat and No Cattle?

But a deeper analysis of foot traffic trends reveals that, even as the CBSAs as a whole added new residents, the primary cities anchoring the CBSAs often lost more domestic migrants than they gained. Austin proper lost 6.1% of its population to relocation, while Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio lost 4.2%, 3.9%, and 3.2%, respectively. Only Fort Worth – Texas’ fifth-most-populous city – experienced positive net migration over the past four years.

bar graph of Texas' five biggest cities only fort worth has seen positive domestic migration over the past four years

An Urban / Suburban Divide

Why are major metropolitan areas seeing population influxes, even as their central urban hubs experience outflows? Drilling down even deeper into zip-code level location intelligence provides a striking snapshot of what’s actually happening on the ground. 

In all four CBSAs, zip codes belonging to the metro area’s flagship city were more likely to experience negative net migration – while those in further-away suburbs and towns were more likely to see positive inflow. 

maps: smaller towns and suburbs are attracting inbound domestic migration in leading Texas CBSAs while central hubs lose residents to relocation

The relative growth experienced by Fort Worth can be understood against this backdrop: Fort Worth may be one of Texas’ biggest cities, but it is smaller – and less expensive – than Dallas, which dominates the metro area.

Suburban life offers residents many of the benefits of proximity to major urban centers, without some of the drawbacks – like smaller homes. And with more Americans free today to live further away from the office, many appear to be choosing suburban chill over big-city hassle. 

Key Takeaways

Home to the Alamo, a premier state fair, and arguably one of the cultiest grocery chains in the country (H-E-B, of course), Texas has become a key destination for Americans seeking greener (and cheaper) pastures. And though major metropolitan centers in the Lone Star State have seen significant positive net migration over the past four years – much of that growth has taken place outside of the state’s biggest cities. 

How will Texas’ population continue to evolve over the next months and years? Will big cities make a comeback – or are suburbs and smaller towns poised to remain the main drivers of growth?

Follow Placer.ai’s data-driven domestic migration 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.

Article
The Sweet Smell of Success: How CPG Brands are Bringing Their Brands to Life with Experiential Stores
Caroline Wu
Mar 29, 2024

Brands like M&Ms, Hershey’s, and Jelly Belly are redefining what it means to be as happy as a “kid in a candy store.”  With their life-size M&M characters on a flagship in Orlando, FL, a chocolate Statue of Liberty sculpted out of 800 pounds of Hershey’s chocolate on the Las Vegas Strip, or a working jellybean factory tour in Fairfield, CA, manufacturers are literally bringing their brands to life. M&M’s World in Orlando, FL posted particularly impressive year-over-year visits in the second half of 2023.

Recently, Hollywood darling Timothee Chalamet starred in the fantastical movie Wonka, grossing $600M+ worldwide. In other headline news, the “tried to jump on the wagon but failed miserably” fiasco of the unauthorized Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Scotland reveals that the appetite for sweets and chocolate is insatiable. Never fear, if you missed the Candytopia pop-up a few years ago, you can head over to Dylan’s Candy Bar for an experience right out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s clear that demand peaks in the summer, probably due to locations that see summer tourists. The holidays are another popular season for buying sweets.

At Hershey’s Chocolate World, one can be immersed in all-things chocolate, from creating your own candy to taking a selfie with a life-size Reese’s peanut butter cup. The dessert options are limited only by your imagination. That tower of S’mores sure looks tempting!

Hershey Desserts

Many visitors also opt to visit the Hershey Story Museum or stay at Hershey Lodge or the Hotel Hershey.

Hershey Visitor Journey 3.20.24

If you prefer your sweets in liquid form, there are three Coca-Cola Stores--in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Orlando--to satisfy your cravings. Here, you can buy a Coke plushie, flout the famous “Enjoy Coca-Cola” slogan shirt in a variety of languages, or dress yourself head-to-toe in comfy Coke PJs. One of the coolest options is an international tasting flight that lets you try out Coca-Cola beverages from around the world, with flavors like sparberry from Zimbabwe.

Coca Cola Around the World tasting flight

At the Coca-Cola Store in Orlando, FL, visitation jumps during vacations like Spring Break, summer, and Christmas holidays.

Another beloved brand that has made its way into brick-and-mortar is King’s Hawaiian. Founded in 1950, they were famous for their round loaves of sweet and fluffy Hawaiian bread. Fast forward three-quarters of a century later, and they have added new options like savory dinner rolls or pull-apart pans of bread. One can experience gastronomic delights made with Hawaiian bread at their Torrance-based King’s Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant.

The restaurant menu includes breakfasts featuring their famous King’s Hawaiian Sweet Bread as French toast, lunch and dinner options like Macadamia Nut Onion Rings, Chicken Katsu Curry Loco Moco, and Saimin noodles, but it’s the bakery that literally takes the cake. The Paradise Delight Cake has three layers of chiffon cake in enticing flavors like guava, passionfruit, and lime. It is then topped with layers of fresh strawberries, peaches, and kiwis. One can also choose from chocolate, coconut, pineapple, raspberry cakes, and more.

Kings Hawaiian Pardise Delight Cake

With Placer's ranking of "Breakfast, Coffee, Bakeries, and Dessert Shops" indicating that King's is in the top 1% nationwide and statewide, it looks like they've found a sweet recipe for success.

Kings hawaiian ranking overview

Article
Exploring Luxury Hotel Brands’ Guest Segmentation
How do Waldorf Astoria and Ritz-Carlton guests differ, and where are they similar? Dive into the data to find out.
Bracha Arnold
Mar 28, 2024
3 minutes

Exploring Luxury Hotel Brands’ Guest Segmentation

The Waldorf Astoria and Ritz-Carlton hotels are two of the most recognizable names in luxury lodging. Both opened in New York City – the Waldorf Astoria in 1893 and the Ritz-Carlton in 1911 – and are owned by two major hotel corporations: the Waldorf Astoria is part the Hilton Hotels & Resorts portfolio of brands, while the Ritz-Carlton is part of Marriott International, Inc’s portfolio.

Who is most likely to visit each brand? What are the similarities – and differences – between the two hotels’ guest segmentations? We take a closer look at the demographic and psychographic data to find out.

Waldorf Astoria and Ritz-Carlton Attract High-Income Guests from Smaller Households

Analyzing the demographic makeup of the Waldorf Astoria and Ritz-Carlton’s trade areas by layering the STI: Popstats dataset onto captured market trade areas revealed that the Waldorf Astoria’s trade area has a higher share of households with children compared to that of the Ritz-Carlton (25.6% compared to 23.6%). But both chains had a smaller share of households with children in their trade areas relative to the nationwide average (27.6%). It seems, then, that singles or empty nesters may be more likely to book a luxury getaway than consumers with heavier parenting responsibilities.  

Unsurprisingly, the chains also attract a particularly high-income clientele: The median household income (HHI) in both brands’ trade areas is over 50% higher than the nationwide median ($108.4K and $104.5K for the trade areas of the Waldorf Astoria and Ritz Carlton, respectively, compared to a nationwide median of $69.5K). The data also showed that Waldorf Astoria’s trade area is slightly more affluent than that of the Ritz-Carlton – perhaps due in part to the Ritz-Carlton’s recent attempts to court younger guests.

bar graphs: the waldorf and Ritz-Carlton see visitors with higher median HHI, smaller families than Nationwide Median

Families Prefer the Waldorf Astoria, Smaller Households Go to the Ritz-Carlton

Leveraging the Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset to explore the psychographic composition of the hotel chains’ trade area further supports the distinctions between the brands highlighted in the demographic analysis. 

The psychographic analysis showed that the Waldorf Astoria had more family segments in its trade area than the Ritz-Carlton, while the Ritz-Carlton catered to more single and empty-nester households – as expected given the demographic composition of the chains’ trade areas. 

bar graphs: Families Prefer the Waldorf, The Ritz-Carlton Sees More Singles and Couples

Dining and Leisure Preferences

Luxury hotels are known for their impeccable service – and to curate the ideal guest experience, these brands need to accurately predict their visitors' dining and leisure preferences. Hoteliers can leverage the Placer.ai Marketplace and combine trade area data with various datasets – including data on consumers’ social media activity with tools like the Spatial.ai: FollowGraph dataset – to pinpoint their guests’ tastes and preferences.

Analyzing the preferences for certain types of foods or entertainment within the hotel chains’ trade areas revealed – once again – similarities and differences between the brands. Both chains’ trade areas included larger shares of  “Farm-to-Table Cooking Enthusiasts”, “Asian Food Enthusiasts”, and “Craft Coffee At-Home Enthusiasts,” as well as more “Opera Lovers” and “Salsa Music Fans” than the nationwide average. But the foodie segments were slightly more over-indexed within the Waldorf’s trade area, while residents of the Ritz-Carlton’s trade area seemed a little more keen on Opera and Salsa. These hotel chains can leverage this data to determine the type of dining or entertainment options that will set these brands apart from the competition and best attract their specific audience.

bar graphs: visitors to the waldorf & Ritz Carlton are fans of farm-to-table cooking, craft coffee, and opera

Customer Segmentation and Loyalty

The Waldorf Astoria and Ritz-Carlton continue to define luxury lodging in the country while attracting some of the nation's most discerning guests. Understanding the demographic and psychographic guest segmentation of each chain can help inform your loyalty strategy.  

For more data-driven travel & leisure insights, visit placer.ai/blog.  

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.

Article
The St. Patrick’s Day Effect
St. Patrick's Day is a day for bar crawls, green makeup, and drinks with friends. Cities host major celebrations, a draw to their downtown areas. What kind of a lift do bars and pubs get on the big day? And what other retail categories stand to benefit from the occasion? 
Lila Margalit
Mar 27, 2024
3 minutes

St. Patrick’s Day, which falls each year on March 17th, is a day for bar crawls, green makeup, and drinks with friends. Cities like New York and Chicago host major celebrations, drawing big crowds to their downtown areas. And bars and pubs fill up with revelers eager to mark the occasion with a green cocktail or a taste of corned beef and cabbage.

There’s plenty of joy to go around – and towns across the country are getting in on the St. Paddy’s Day action with parades and family-friendly events. What kind of a lift do traditional St. Patrick’s Day destinations like bars and pubs get on the big day? And what other retail categories stand to benefit from the occasion? 

A Lucky Day for Bars and Pubs, of Course

Unsurprisingly, bars and pubs get major boosts on the week of St. Patrick’s Day, as club hoppers and other celebrants converge on their local watering holes for drinks and fun. Chains like The Brass Tap and Bar Louie offer special deals and parties, with everything from green beer to Irish whiskey. And on the week of March 11th, 2024, visits to the two chains were up 15.7% and 21.1%, respectively, compared to an early October baseline – slightly outpacing even the busy Christmas season. 

line graph: bars and pubs fill up on St. Patrick's Day Weekend

Pharmacies and Grocery Stores: Hold my Beer

But St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just for bar crawling. And although the festivities are usually associated with major metropolises like New York City and Chicago, cities like Myrtle Beach, SC, San Antonio, TX. Indianapolis, IN, and Savannah, GA also come to life mid-March with parades and parties rivaling those of their bigger counterparts. 

On Saturday, March 16th 2024 at 11:00 A.M., San Antonio, TX kicked off its annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities with the traditional dyeing of the San Antonio River. Throughout the weekend, parades and celebrations drew crowds to the city’s famed River Walk – and while bars and clubs undoubtedly benefited from the excitement, they weren’t the only ones to do so. San Antonio’s Shops at Rivercenter enjoyed its busiest day since 2019, drawing 61.4% more foot traffic on March 16th than on an average Saturday this year. 

Savannah, GA, North Myrtle Beach, SC, and Indianapolis, IN also hosted big St. Patrick’s Day events, bringing foot traffic – and business – to local retailers. For Savannah, March 16th, 2024 marked the 200th anniversary of the city’s famous St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and the town was positively booming. City Market, the iconic shopping corridor located in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District, was the most crowded it’s been since at least January 2023, with March 17th 2023 (the day of last year’s parade) coming in a close second. 

Malls and shopping districts weren’t the only places to get significant leprechaun-inspired visit bumps. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and eateries located in proximity to the festivities also reaped the benefits of the hubbub, as parade-goers likely dropped in to snag some essentials or fuel up for the long day.

maps: St. Patrick's Day celebrations draw crowds to local malls, grocery stores, eateries, and pharmacies

Leprechauns Have to Sleep Somewhere… Hotels Get a Boost

And it isn’t just locals turning out for all these events. A look at hotel foot traffic patterns nationwide shows that the week of St. Patrick’s Day kicks off the hospitality industry’s spring season – with cities hosting special events seeing even more significant visit spikes. During the week of March 11th, 2024, hotel venues in the analyzed cities drew many more visits than usual, showcasing the power of St. Paddy’s Day to supercharge the tourism sector.  

bar graphs: st patrick's day kicks off spring hotel season driving major visit spikes in regions with special celebrations.

Plenty of Green to Go Around

St. Patrick’s Day is about a lot more than bars and pubs. And in recent years, the popular green-themed holiday has emerged as an important driver of tourism and retail activity across the U.S.

What other local celebrations are fueling foot traffic spikes in cities nationwide? Does your city know the impact of location celebrations on local businesses? Are local businesses prepared for the increase in foot traffic and revenue opportunities during local celebrations?

Follow Placer.ai’s data-driven civic and 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.

Article
How Can JOANN Make a Comeback?
JOANN recently announced that it had filed for bankruptcy, and the company expects to go private as early as next month. Can the retailer still make a comeback? We dove into the data to find out. 
Shira Petrack
Mar 26, 2024
3 minutes

JOANN recently announced that it had filed for bankruptcy, and the company expects to go private as early as next month. Can the retailer still make a comeback? We dove into the data to find out. 

JOANN’s Rollercoaster Trajectory Since 2019

JOANN went public in March 2021 – at the height of the pandemic – following a particularly strong 2020. The COVID-era crafting boom had put the company on a growth trajectory, with visits during the first year of the pandemic barely lower than in 2019 despite the lockdowns and movement restrictions. But as the country reopened and people’s schedules filled back up – leaving less time for sewing and knitting – visits began to fall. Foot traffic in 2021 was lower than in 2020, and by 2022, overall visits to the chain were 11.8% lower than they had been in 2019

But now, recent foot traffic data indicates that demand for fabric-related crafting supplies may be rebounding. In 2023, visits to the chain grew relative to 2022 and the visit gap relative to 2019 narrowed. Sewing appears to be making a comeback, with both millennials and Gen-Z exhibiting a newfound interest in the craft. And although the resurgence of interest in fiber arts was not strong enough to prevent JOANN’s recent bankruptcy filing, the YoY visit growth in 2023 indicates that the company should not be written off just yet. 

bar graph: despite bankruptcy filing JOANN's visits grew in 2023

JOANN is Pulling Ahead of the Competition 

According to C.F.O. Scott Sekella, 95% of JOANN’s stores are cash-flow positive. The company is also committed to maintaining usual operations during the court-supervised procedure. And this year as well – especially since the end of early 2024’s cold spell – JOANN’s year-over-year (YoY) visits have trended positive, even outperforming YoY foot traffic to other leading crafting retailers. 

bar graph: JOANN outperforming other crafting leaders

Focusing on Growth Dayparts May Help JOANN Optimize In-Store Operations

The unique nature of JOANN’s products give the company’s brick-and-mortar stores an advantage over digital counterparts: Crafters like to get a feel for the material before purchasing, and amateur DIY-ers who visit physical stores can consult with expert salespeople to receive guidance for ongoing projects. And although foot traffic to JOANN’s stores is not what it was at the height of the pandemic, the YoY visit growth in 2023 indicates that the brand is still serving many committed sewers and knitters who are choosing to shop in-person. So how can JOANN maintain its store fleet while optimizing in-store operations? 

Analyzing the change in hourly visits between 2022 and 2023 reveals that the YoY growth is not evenly distributed across dayparts. Morning and early afternoon visits saw modest increases, but traffic growth really ramped up in the afternoon and evening – peaking between 6:00 and 6:59 PM – and visits actually decreased between 7:00 and 8:59 PM. Should the company try to streamline its logistics without sacrificing its large store fleet, JOANN may focus its staffing and operational costs on the dayparts with the most growth potential and reduce expenditure during the less popular timeslots. 

bar graph: change in hourly visits to JOANN in 2023 Compared to 2022

JOANN Well-Positioned To Thrive Post-Bankruptcy 

Despite the crafting retailer’s current rough patch, location intelligence suggests that the company is a strong contender for a post-bankruptcy comeback. And the positive YoY trends also indicate that – despite the ongoing headwinds and contraction in discretionary spending – there is still demand for hobby-driven retail in 2024. 

How will the bankruptcy proceedings impact foot traffic to JOANN? What does the rest of 2024 hold for the brand? 

Check in with our blog at placer.ai 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.

Reports
INSIDER
Exploring the Car Dealership Space
Dive into the foot traffic and audience segmentation data to find out where the new and used auto dealership space stands in 2023.

Overview 

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. 

Shifts in Auto Dealerships Visit Trends

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.

Used Cars Appeal to a Range of Consumers

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. 

Tesla Leads the Car Brand Dealership Pack

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.

Diving into Local Markets 

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 for Car Dealerships

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. 

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