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The 2025 US Open Tennis Championships once again transformed New York City into a global stage for sport, culture, and entertainment. Hosted at the iconic USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the tournament drew thousands of fans across two distinct phases: Fan Week (August 18-23, 2025) and the Main Draw (August 24-September 7, 2025).
Fan Week, a series of mainly free events, features player practices, qualifying matches, music, and more, has grown into a family-friendly celebration of tennis, opening the gates to casual fans and tennis enthusiasts seeking a festival-like atmosphere. In contrast, the ticketed main draw is the core of the Grand Slam competition, where men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles champions are crowned.
With the US Open ostensibly split into two phases, we dove into the data to find out how visitors to Fan Week and the main draw compared in terms of visitor behavior and demographic characteristics.
The US Open seems to be deliberately branding Fan Week as the particularly family-friendly portion of the tournament, with kids’ meal deals and “Arthur Ashe Kids Day” designed to engage fans of all ages.
And analyzing the National Tennis Center’s trade area (in the chart below) shows that the pre-Grand Slam audience did indeed encompass slightly more households with children than the main tournament. But the share of families in the National Tennis Center’s trade area still fell well below the national average – suggesting that the US Open still has white space to drive traffic from more families during both Fan Week and the main draw.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the low shares of family attendees, the US Open attracts an outsized share of singles. “One Person” and “Non Family” households overrepresented during Fan Week – and even more so in the main draw – perhaps thanks to their greater flexibility to attend high-profile sporting events, and especially late-night matches.
The prevalence of singles during both phases of the Open also indicates that focusing on this audience segment, perhaps with after-hours events – can help cement the US Open as a social, lifestyle-driven experience and not just a tennis championship.
Whether attended by singles or families, further analysis of audience differences between Fan Week and the main draw reveals that the US Open 2025 was a premier destination for high-income consumers.
The main draw’s captured market median household income HHI reached $152.7K – perhaps no surprise given the steep cost of tickets and the heavy presence of influencers, celebrities and other VIPs.
And despite the mostly free Fan Week events, visitors to Flushing Meadows before the main draw still came from areas significantly more affluent than the New York State median, as seen in the chart below. The added costs of travel, lodging, and time away likely mean that even mostly-free Fan Week resonates most with households that have greater flexibility and resources.
Fan Week’s affluent audience creates opportunities for premium partnerships, from luxury brand sponsorships to exclusive experiences like tastings, wellness events, or VIP meet-and-greets. At the same time, reducing barriers for less affluent households, through transit discounts, local outreach, or weekend-heavy programming could broaden participation and grow the fan base, strengthening Fan Week’s role as a community event.
Although there are an array of supplementary events that take place at the US Open, tennis remains at the center of the action.
Visit data reveals that nearly 70% of visits during the main draw in 2025 lasted more than 150 minutes, with the average visit lasting 237 minutes, within the range of a typical professional match. And during Fan Week – with its extensive off-court programming – 50% of visits also exceeded 150 minutes with an average visit of 176 minutes, a time consistent with typical 3-set qualifying match play times. What’s more, the graph below shows that the share of shorter visits remained relatively low and evenly distributed between visits of 15 minutes and 150 minutes in length.
This suggests that few fans made quick trips out of their US Open visit, but rather stayed long enough to watch entire matches, proving that tennis itself continues to anchor the US Open experience.
The 2025 US Open highlighted the unique character of its two phases – Fan Week and the main draw – but also revealed important similarities in how visitors engaged with the event. While Fan Week strives to be family-friendly and accessible regardless of wealth, it continues to resonate strongly with singles and high-income households, although to a lesser extent than the main draw. But the length of visits showed that fans across both phases centered their experience on the matches themselves – proving that tennis remains the heart of the U.S. Open.
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Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) latest foot traffic provides an under-the-hood look at how the dining operator is navigating shifting consumer behavior, portfolio dynamics, and expansion in a challenging environment. In its most recent quarterly earnings, management reported sales of $2.9 billion, up 6% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $2.03, topping analyst expectations.
Following several months of slower traffic, Q2 2025 visits to all Darden concepts rose 2.4% YoY, with same-store visits climbing 1.1%. Monthly visit data also showed consistent upward growth, with strong gains in May (4.6%) and August (4.3%). And even slight visit dips in June were quickly followed by renewed growth, underscoring the company's resilience.
Some of this growth may be tied to Darden’s steady unit expansion, including its recent acquisition of Tex-Mex chain Chuy’s. But the increase in same-store visits shows that growth isn't just from new locations – existing restaurants are also attracting more diners, underscoring the strength and resilience of the company's portfolio.
Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse are by far the two largest chains in Darden’s portfolio, and both enjoyed solid visit growth over the period, as shown in the chart below. The standout, however, was Yard House, which posted a 6.2% increase in overall visits alongside a 4.3% gain in same-store visits in Q2 2025.
Yard House attracts a more affluent customer base with a trade area median household income of $82.6K compared to $69.0K to $70.1K for LongHorn and Olive Garden, respectively. This higher income profile may be making Yard House visitors less vulnerable to current consumer headwinds and helping boost the chain's traffic. Yet the continued strength of Olive Garden and LongHorn – despite their lower-income trade areas – underscores the resilience of these brands and shows how their broad appeal allows them to thrive even in more cost-sensitive markets.
Meanwhile, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Darden’s third-largest concept, maintained visits largely in line with 2024 levels, showing stability but not the same growth momentum as other Darden brands. As the chain with the lowest-income customer base – Cheddar's draws from trade areas with a median household income of just $64.0K – its softer trajectory likely reflects greater budget constraints among its diners. Still, its steadiness underscores Darden’s success in cultivating concepts that resonate across the income spectrum: Yard House is thriving with more affluent guests, Olive Garden and LongHorn are performing strongly among middle-income households, and Cheddar’s continues to hold its ground with more cost-sensitive customers. Together, these dynamics show how Darden’s brands remain relevant to a broad swath of diners even in a challenging economic climate.
More than half (51.1%) of all Darden visits in H1 2025 went to Olive Garden, making it the company's top traffic driver. But the company is still expanding its existing brands, with LongHorn and Olive Garden leading new location openings.
The map below highlights the brand – Olive Garden or LongHorn – that experienced the greatest YoY visit growth in each state in Q2 2025. This map reveals that LongHorn beat out Olive Garden in terms of YoY growth on most of the East Coast as well as in California and parts of the Midwest and Southeast – suggesting that the brand is capturing share in densely populated coastal markets. So while Olive Garden continues to anchor the business with sheer volume, LongHorn seems to be driving much of the incremental growth, giving Darden two powerful engines for expanding and solidifying its hold on the casual dining segment across the country.
Darden's recent traffic data reveal resilience in the face of a wider slow down in consumer dining trends, powered by a mix of steady performance and faster growth from its four largest brands. Continued unit expansion, alongside the recent addition of Chuy’s, should further broaden its reach while diversifying its customer base.
For up-to-date consumer dining trends, check out Placer.ai’s free tools.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more
U.S. consumer activity looked relatively stable in the first half of 2025, with year-over-year (YoY) retail and dining traffic (shown in the chart below) staying mostly positive or flat through May – aside from February, when extreme cold and leap year comparisons drove declines.
But momentum shifted in June, when both categories slipped into negative territory, and the softness persisted in July before worsening in August. The late-summer weakness suggests that what began as a temporary cooling may now be evolving into a broader consumer slowdown.
Looking at state-level data reveals that the pullback is not isolated to a few regions. Western states such as Idaho and Utah – where H1 2025 dining traffic rose 2.1% and 2.4% YoY, respectively – flattened out, with visits in July and August down 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. And states that had already experienced flat visits or dining softness in H1 2025 saw their visit gaps grow further: YoY dining traffic in New York State declined from -1.2% to -2.3%, while California saw its visits swing from +0.3% in H1 2025 to -2.0% in July and August 2025. Only in Vermont and Rhode Island did YoY dining visits actually increase over the summer.
Statewide retail traffic trends also point to broad-based declines in consumer activity, as visits to retail chains nationwide fell compared to July-August 2024 – even in regions such as the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest that had experienced high consumer resilience in H1 2025. Vermont, joined this time by Delaware, once again stood out as an outlier.
A key driver of the slowdown is the widening gap between higher- and lower-income households. While wealthier consumers have continued to prop up overall spending, middle- and lower-income groups are scaling back. Even among high earners, international summer travel may have drawn dollars away from U.S. retail and dining, softening domestic foot traffic during the analyzed period. This dynamic highlights the risks of relying too heavily on affluent households to sustain consumer activity.
Tariffs have added another layer of complexity. Earlier in the year, many consumers rushed to make purchases ahead of anticipated price hikes. Now, the lingering financial impact of those spring splurges may still be weighing on budgets.
Looking ahead to the holiday season, discretionary fatigue looms large. Spending is expected to slow, led by a sharper cutback from Gen Z. Budget-conscious households may already be tightening their belts in preparation for holiday expenses, further dampening retail and dining performance.
For more data-driven consumer insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
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With summer just behind us, we dove into the data to see how office visitation fared in August 2025. Did July’s impressive recovery momentum hold, or did seasonal factors slow the pace?
Visits to the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index registered a 34.3% decline in August 2025 compared to the same period in 2019 – a wider gap than that seen in August 2023, and an even more notable retreat from July's encouraging 21.8% deficit.
However, this apparent setback is largely due to calendar differences: August 2025 had only 21 working days, compared to 22 in both August 2024 and 2019, and 23 in August 2023. When normalized for average visits per workday, August 2025 actually outperformed August 2023.
Seasonal dynamics also likely played a crucial role. August represents peak vacation season, and just as employees often embrace remote work on Fridays to extend weekends, they likely embrace similar flexibility during the peak summer travel season. Organizations may also relax in-office requirements when substantial portions of their workforce are taking time off.
So rather than signaling a genuine return-to-office (RTO) reversal, August's softer performance likely reflects the intersection of compressed work calendars and seasonal vacation patterns, with the underlying recovery trajectory remaining fundamentally intact.
The August effect impacted major markets nationwide, including New York and Miami – both of which achieved full recovery in July yet posted year-over-six-year gaps in excess of 10.0% last month. But while gaps widened across most markets, San Francisco once again avoided last place, ranking ahead of Chicago in post-pandemic office recovery metrics. Despite still facing below-average office attendance relative to 2019 levels, the Bay Area market’s renewed momentum – bolstered by increased AI-sector leasing activity – continues drawing employees back to offices even amid summer distractions.
San Francisco also ranked among August's year-over-year (YoY) office visit recovery leaders, providing further evidence of the city’s robust recovery momentum. But it was Chicago that claimed the top spot with a 12.5% year-over-year (YoY) gain – encouraging progress for the Windy City, though it remains to be seen whether this signals the beginning of a lasting turnaround.
Meanwhile, Boston also exceeded the nationwide year-over-year average of 2.9% with a 3.1% increase, while Washington, D.C. lagged behind with a YoY decline of 3.9%.
As we noted in July, the office recovery path is anything but linear. Months of significant progress are often followed by more sluggish periods – and August 2025 exemplifies how seasonality and calendar differences can obscure underlying trends.
Will September 2025 set a new RTO record as kids return to school and employees refocus?
Follow Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more
Following modest gains to the Placer.ai Industrial Index in June and July, foot traffic to U.S. manufacturing facilities fell 5.6% year over year in August 2025. So even as order books improved in July, operators seem to have scaled back in-plant activity and nonessential visits to navigate cost and policy uncertainty.
Several national and regional gauges underscore the divergence in August. S&P Global’s Manufacturing PMI jumped to 53.0, its highest since May 2022, as firms built inventory amid worries over prices and supply constraints. Meanwhile, ISM's Production Index fell to 47.8% – 3.6 percentage points lower than July's 51.4% – pointing to weaker factory output, and demand for industrial space has fallen recently for the first time in 15 years. The Philadelphia Fed’s August 2025 Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey also showed a decline in general activity as new orders dipped back into negative territory.
Together, these mixed signals mirror Placer.ai's foot-traffic trends: Underlying demand is stabilizing, but managers remain cautious with on-site labor and vendor engagement, with macro uncertainty continuing to translate into swings in on-the-ground activity. Looking ahead, September will reveal whether greater policy clarity and easing cost pressures can help stabilize factory visits after a turbulent summer.
For more data-driven insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
The same macroeconomic forces pressuring other retail sectors are fueling demand for auto parts: With the U.S. light vehicle fleet now averaging 12.8 years – up from 11.6 in 2019 – and many households delaying new car purchases, aftermarket maintenance has become more essential than ever. And while discretionary upgrades may be postponed, core failure and replacement parts continue to see robust demand. Though tariff-related uncertainty continues to loom, leading retailers report they have managed the impact effectively so far.
Against this backdrop, we dove into the data to check in with AutoZone, O’Reilly Auto Parts, and Advance Auto Parts. How did they fare in Q2 2025? And what awaits them the rest of the year?
AutoZone, the sector's largest chain, continues to expand while growing its customer base. Over the past six years, AutoZone has steadily increased its store count, leaning into growing demand without diluting location-level traffic. Year over year (YoY) too, the chain saw significant visit growth between March and May 2025 – and while June showed some softening, July and August visits remained essentially flat versus 2024, demonstrating stability during the chain’s busy summer maintenance season.
This robust foot traffic performance aligns with the company's recent financials. In its last reporting period (ending May 10, 2025), AutoZone posted a solid 5.0% year-over-year increase in U.S. comparable sales. Commercial performance was especially strong – Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) sales jumped 10.7%, while DIY sales grew 3.0% YoY. And management emphasized that tariff-related impacts have been minimal so far.
O'Reilly Auto Parts is also executing on an impressive expansion strategy. In Q2 2025, overall visits to O’Reilly climbed 4.6% YoY, with same store visits up 3.0%. Compared to 2019, both total and per-location foot traffic has steadily increased, demonstrating the company’s success in combining aggressive growth with operational efficiency.
And in its last reporting quarter, the company posted a 4.1% increase in comparable store sales, with robust performance across both DIY and professional channels. Total sales revenue reached a record $4.53 billion – a 6.0% increase versus last year. The company also noted a modest pricing lift tied to tariffs but emphasized that overall demand trends remain strong.
Advance Auto Parts, for its part, is restructuring to compete more effectively. During the quarter ending July 12th, 2025, net sales fell 7.7% year-over-year, partly due to planned store closures. Still, signs of stabilization are emerging: Comparable-store sales edged up 0.1%, indicating that core demand remains healthy.
And recent foot traffic provides further evidence that the company’s rightsizing strategy is beginning to bear fruit. Same-store traffic declines were narrower than the chain’s overall visit gap – just -1.5% YoY in July and -2.4% in August – suggesting that consolidation is helping shore up performance at remaining locations. At the same time, Advance is modernizing its supply chain to accelerate deliveries and strengthen its DIFM offerings – which, as with its peers, serves as a critical growth anchor for the chain. While it remains to be seen if these moves will drive sustained recovery amid shifting tariff pressures, Advance has restored profitability while implementing its strategic turnaround.
The auto parts sector remains robust, driven by an aging vehicle fleet and delayed new car purchases. And though tariff uncertainty remains, AutoZone, O’Reilly, and Advance are thus far navigating the new cost environment without major disruption. As 2025 unfolds, the second half of the year will show whether higher new-car prices push more consumers into aftermarket maintenance – and how customers, particularly in the DIY segment, respond if retailers need to pass through additional price increases.
For the most up-to-date retail visit data, check out Placer.ai's free tools.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more
Stadiums and arenas – and the communities they call home – have a stake in cultivating engaged team fanbases eager to participate in live events. And venues and teams can employ a variety of strategies to strengthen their connection with fans and draw crowds to the stands.
In this report, we leverage location analytics and audience segmentation to uncover some of the ways that sports franchises and venues are driving engagement – attracting visitors from farther away and appealing to fans more likely to splurge on stadium fare. How does the signing of a star athlete impact arena visitor profiles? What happens to stadium visitation trends when a team’s performance improves dramatically? And how can teams and venues tailor their offerings to more effectively cater to visitor preferences?
We dove into the data to find out.
In sports, the signing of a star athlete can have a ripple effect across the organization, hometown, and league. In addition to driving up overall attendance at games, star power can impact everything from visit frequency to audience profile – and the buying power of stadium attendees.
Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami CF after decades of European play brought a foot traffic boost to Chase Stadium (formerly DRV PNK Stadium). But it also shifted the demographics of stadium visitors and increased the distance they traveled to attend a game.
At Inter Miami’s 2022 and 2023 home openers without Messi (he joined the team mid-season in 2023), only 6.4% and 5.3% of visitors to Chase Stadium came from over 250 miles away. But for the 2024 home opener with Messi on the squad, 31.3% of stadium visitors traveled more than 250 miles to attend.
The demographics of visitors at the home opener also changed with Messi on the team. Trade area data combined with the Spatial.ai: PersonaLive dataset reveals that the 2024 home opener received a smaller share of households in the “Near-Urban Diverse Families” (11.2%) and “Young Urban Singles” (7.2%) segments than the two previous years. Meanwhile, shares of “Sunset Boomers” (13.0%) and “Ultra Wealthy Families” (20.1%) increased, indicating that Messi brought an older and more affluent demographic of visitors to the stadium compared to previous years. Messi’s arrival has generated increased revenue for Inter Miami CF, Major League Soccer, and Apple TV+, which has exclusive streaming rights for MLS games. And an influx of affluent out-of-town visitors also has the potential to drive positive outcomes for tourism and employment in the Miami area.
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut was another star-powered game changer – this time for women’s basketball. After dazzling the sports world during her college basketball career, Caitlin Clark was drafted first overall to the Indiana Fever before the 2024 WNBA season. The superstar’s arrival has had a staggering economic impact on the city of Indianapolis and the Fever franchise, highlighting the benefit of a top athlete within the local community. However, Clark’s stardom also had a far-reaching impact on the league as a whole, adding tremendous value to the WNBA. Trade area analysis reveals that several WNBA arenas saw an uptick in visitor affluence when hosting the Fever with Clark in the lineup – likely driven in part by the elevated ticket prices associated with her appearances.
When the Minnesota Lynx hosted the Fever on July 14th, 2024, for example, the median HHI of Target Center’s captured market shot up to just over $93K/year, well above the median HHIs for the games immediately before and after that event. (A venue’s captured market refers to the census block groups (CBGs) from which it draws its visitors, weighted to reflect the share of visits from each one – and thus reflects the profile of the venue’s visitor base.) Similarly, the Fever’s away game against the Connecticut Sun on May 14th, 2024 at Mohegan Sun Arena drove a higher audience median HHI ($103.6K/year) than either of the Sun’s next two home games.
Having a superstar on the roster can drive positive outcomes locally and league-wide – but overall team success is the ultimate goal for any franchise. So it may come as no surprise that stadiums and arenas can drive engagement when their home teams perform well on the field or court. And teams that reverse their fortunes often spark even greater excitement, boosting visitor loyalty, visit duration, and other key metrics.
The Baltimore Orioles had one of the worst records in baseball just a few years ago. But since 2022, the team has flipped the script – stringing together winning seasons and postseason berths. And location intelligence shows that as the team finds success, fans are becoming more engaged with their hometown stadium.
During the 2019 regular season, one of the worst for the club in recent history, stadium attendance suffered, with only 8.3% of visitors to Oriole Park at Camden Yards visiting the stadium at least three times. But during the 2024 regular season, Oriole Park’s share of repeat visitors (those who visited at least three times) was almost double 2019 levels (16.3%) – consistent with a sharp increase in sales of multi-game ticket packages.
In addition to attending games more often, visitors to Oriole Park also appear to be spending more time at the ballpark. During the 2019 regular season, visitors spent an average of 150 minutes at the stadium, but in 2024, the average time at the park increased to 178 minutes – potentially boosting ancillary spending and in-stadium advertising exposure. The increased dwell time of visitors is particularly noteworthy when considering that MLB’s rule changes have significantly shortened average game time.
The more engaged fandom engendered by team success not only impacts stadium visitor behavior, but also has the potential to drive revenue. The Orioles added 20 new corporate sponsors before the 2024 season, likely due to the attention garnered by the well-performing club.
The NFL’s Detroit Lions provide another example of team success that has driven visitor engagement. As the franchise has improved its record in recent years, the trade area size of its stadium – Ford Field – has also increased, indicating elevated attendance from fans living further away.
The Lions finished the regular season with losing records from 2019 to 2021, but finished over .500 in 2022 (9-8), 2023 (12-5), and 2024 (15-2). And with the team’s increasing wins each consecutive season, the size of its stadium's trade area has also increased steadily – reaching 81.3% above 2019 levels in 2024.
This underscores just how much team success matters to fans, who may be more inclined to travel longer distances if they believe their team is likely to win. Ultimately, broader fan engagement across a wider trade area also increases a team’s growth potential beyond in-stadium attendance – driving merchandise sales, increasing viewership, and benefitting both the team and the league as a whole.
While stadium attendance and visitor behavior is often correlated to the performance of the sports teams that play in the arena, sporting venues can also drive fan engagement in ways that aren’t solely tied to team success or big-name athletes. By adapting their concessions and venue operations to visitor preferences, stadiums and arenas can better serve their audiences and strengthen their community presence.
Consumers have been feeling the pinch of rising food costs for quite some time, but at least one NBA team has responded to make concessions at the game more affordable for fans. In December 2024, the Phoenix Suns announced a $2 value menu for all home games at Footprint Center – delivering steep discounts on hot dogs, water, soda, and snacks.
Location analytics suggest that since the value menu launch, more fans who would have otherwise waited until after leaving the venue to grab a bite are now enjoying food and drinks inside the arena. Analysis of five Suns home games just before the value menu launch – between November 26th and December 15th, 2024 – reveals that between 7.0% and 9.3% of stadium visitors visited a dining establishment after leaving the arena. But following the value menu launch before the December 19th, 2024 home game, post-game dining decreased to under 6.0% through the end of the year.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia’s announcement of the new menu called out the need for affordable food options for families at Suns games. As the season progresses, the new menu may drive a larger share of family households to Suns games, which could provide opportunities for advertisers and other stadium partners.
Consumers in Washington – and especially Seattle – are known for their affinity for plant-based diets and environmentally-friendly lifestyles. And that goes for local football fans as well: Audience segmentation provided by the AGS: Behavior & Attitudes dataset combined with trade area data reveals that during September to December 2024, households within Lumen Field’s potential visitor base were 36% more likely to be “Environmentally Conscious Buyers” and “Environmental Contributors” and 39% more likely to be “Vegans” compared to the nationwide average. By contrast, across all NFL stadiums, potential visiting households were 2%, 1%, and 3% less likely, respectively, to belong to these segments.
And Lumen Field has been actively catering to these consumer preferences. The stadium, which has been experimenting with plant-based culinary options for quite some time, was recently recognized as one of the most vegan-friendly stadiums in the NFL. And in December 2024, Lumen became the second stadium in the league to achieve TRUE precertification for its efforts to become a zero-waste venue.
By remaining aligned with its visitor base – including both football fans and people that visit the stadium for other events – Lumen Field encourages visitors to feel at home at their local stadium. And fans may be more connected to their team knowing the club shares their values and respects their lifestyle.
Stadiums and arenas can leverage a variety of strategies to engage visitors in attendance as well as wider audiences. Signing a star athlete, putting together a winning club, or adapting to local preferences are just some of the ways that sports franchises and athletic venues can find success.
Starbucks. Amazon. Barclays. AT&T. UPS. These are just some of the major corporations that have made waves in recent months with return-to-office (RTO) mandates requiring employees to show up in person more often – some of them five days a week.
But how are crackdowns like these taking shape on the ground? Is the office recovery still underway, or has it run its course? And how are evolving in-office work patterns impacting commuting hubs and dining trends? This white paper dives into the data to assess the state of office recovery in 2024 – and to explore what lies ahead for the sector in 2025.
In 2024, office foot traffic continued its slow upward climb, with visits to the Placer.ai Office Index down just 34.3% compared to 2019. (In other words, visits to the Placer.ai Office Index were 65.7% of their pre-COVID levels). And zooming in on year-over-year (YoY) trends reveals that office visits grew by 10.0% in 2024 compared to 2023 – showing that employee (and manager) pushback notwithstanding, the RTO is still very much taking place.
Indeed, diving into quarterly office visit fluctuations since Q4 2019 shows that office visits have been on a slow, steady upward trajectory since Q2 2020, following – at least since 2022 – a fairly consistent seasonal pattern. In Q1, Q2, and Q3 of each year, office visit levels increased steadily before dipping in holiday-heavy Q4 – only to recover to an even higher start-of-year baseline in the following Q1.
Between Q1 and Q3 2022, for example, the post pandemic office visit gap (compared to a Q4 2019 baseline) narrowed from 63.1% to 47.5%. It then widened temporarily in Q4 before reaching a new low – 41.4% – in Q1 2023. The same pattern repeated itself in both 2023 and 2024. So even though Q4 2024 saw a predictable visit decline, the first quarter of Q1 2025 may well set a new RTO record – especially given the slew of strict RTO mandates set to take effect in Q1 at companies like AT&T and Amazon.
Despite the ongoing recovery, the TGIF work week – which sees remote-capable employees concentrating office visits midweek and working remotely on Fridays – remains more firmly entrenched than ever.
In 2024, just 12.3% of office visits took place on Fridays – less than in 2022 (13.3%) and on par with 2023 (12.4%). Though Fridays were always popular vacation days – after all, why not take a long weekend if you can – this shift represents a significant departure from the pre-COVID norm, which saw Fridays accounting for 17.3% of weekday office visits.
Unsurprisingly, Tuesdays and Wednesdays remained the busiest in-office days of the week, followed by Thursdays. And Mondays saw a slight resurgence in visit share – up to 17.9% from 16.9% in 2023 – suggesting that as the RTO progresses, Manic Mondays are once again on the agenda.
Indeed, a closer look at year-over-five-year (Yo5Y) visit trends throughout the work week shows that on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2024 office foot traffic was down just 24.3% and 26.9%, respectively, compared to 2019 levels. The Thursday visit gap registered at 30.3%, while the Monday gap came in at 40.5%.
But on Fridays, offices were less than half as busy as they were in 2019 – with foot traffic down a substantial 53.2% compared to 2019.
Before COVID, long commutes on crowded subways, trains, and buses were a mainstay of the nine-to-five grind. But the rise of remote and hybrid work put a dent in rush hour traffic – leading to a substantial slowdown in the utilization of public transportation. As the office recovery continues to pick up steam, examining foot traffic patterns at major ground transportation commuting hubs, such as Penn Station in New York or Union Station in Washington, D.C., offers additional insight into the state of RTO.
Rush hour, for one thing – especially in the mornings – isn’t quite what it used to be. In 2024, overall visits to ground transportation hubs were down 25.0% compared to 2019. But during morning rush hour – weekdays between 6:00 AM and 9:00 AM – visits were down between 44.6% and 53.0%, with Fridays (53.0%) and Mondays (49.7%) seeing the steepest drops. Even as people return to the office, it seems, many may be coming in later – leaning into their biological clocks and getting more sleep. And with today’s office-goers less likely to be suburban commuters than in the past (see below), hubs like Penn Station aren’t as bustling first thing in the morning as they were pre-pandemic.
Evening rush hour, meanwhile, has been quicker to bounce back, with 2024 visit gaps ranging from 36.4% on Fridays to 30.0% on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Office-goers likely form a smaller part of the late afternoon and evening rush hour crowd, which may include more travelers heading to a variety of places. And commuters going to work later in the day – including “coffee badgers” – may still be apt to head home between four and seven.
The drop in early-morning public transportation traffic may also be due to a shift in the geographical distribution of would-be commuters. Data from Placer.ai’s RTO dashboard shows that visits originating from areas closer to office locations have recovered faster than visits from farther away – indicating that people living closer to work are more likely to be back at their desks.
And analyzing the captured markets of major ground transportation hubs shows that the share of households from “Principal Urban Centers” (the most densely populated neighborhoods of the largest cities) rose substantially over the past five years. At the same time, the share of households from the “Suburban Periphery” dropped from 39.1% in 2019 to 32.7% in 2024. (A location’s captured market refers to the census block groups (CBGs) from which it draws its visitors, weighted to reflect the share of visits from each one – and thus reflects the profile of the location’s visitor base.)
This shift in the profile of public transportation consumers may explain the relatively slow recovery of morning transportation visits: City dwellers , who seem to be coming into the office more frequently than suburbanites, may not need to get as early a start to make it in on time.
While the RTO debate is often framed around employer and worker interests, what happens in the office doesn’t stay in the office. Office attendance levels leave their mark on everything from local real estate markets to nationwide relocation patterns. And industries from apparel to dining have undergone significant shifts in the face of evolving work routines.
Within the dining space, for example, fast-casual chains have always been workplace favorites. Offering quick, healthy, and inexpensive lunch options, these restaurants appeal to busy office workers seeking to fuel up during a long day at their desks.
Traditionally, the category has drawn a significant share of its traffic from workplaces. And after dropping during COVID, the share of visits to leading fast-casual brands coming from workplaces is once again on the rise.
In 2019, for example, 17.3% of visits to Chipotle came directly from workplaces, a share that fell to just 11.6% in 2022. But each year since, the share has increased – reaching 16.0% in 2024. Similar patterns have emerged at other segment leaders, including Jersey Mike’s Subs, Panda Express, and Five Guys. So as people increasingly go back to the office, they are also returning to their favorite lunch spots.
For many Americans, coffee is an integral part of the working day. So it may come as no surprise that shifting work routines are also reflected in visit patterns at leading coffee chains.
In 2019, 27.5% of visits to Dunkin’ and 20.1% of visits to Starbucks were immediately followed by a workplace visit, as many employees grabbed a cup of Joe on the way to work or popped out of the office for a midday coffee break. In the wake of COVID, this share dropped for both coffee leaders. But since 2022, it has been steadily rebounding – another sign of how the RTO is shaping consumer behavior beyond the office.
Five years after the pandemic upended work routines and supercharged the soft pants revolution, the office recovery story is still being written. Workplace attendance is still on the rise, and restaurants and coffee chains are in the process of reclaiming their roles as office mainstays. Still, office visit data and foot traffic patterns at commuting hubs show that the TGIF work week is holding firm – and that people aren’t coming in as early or from as far away as they used to. As new office mandates take effect in 2025, the office recovery and its ripple effects will remain a story to watch.
