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The athletic apparel and sporting goods landscape has faced various headwinds throughout 2025 – from shifting consumer spending patterns to challenging macroeconomic conditions. Against this backdrop, an AI-powered analysis of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and lululemon highlights where each brand may find momentum in 2026.
DICK’s delivered a solid fiscal Q3, and the most recent year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic data indicates that stability carried into the following months. The company continues to work through the integration of Foot Locker – streamlining inventory and refining operations – while simultaneously expanding its House of Sport and Field House concepts. Investment in these experiential formats underscores a strategic commitment to immersive retail and broader merchandise diversification to drive long-term growth.
Academy Sports + Outdoors delivered positive top-line growth and profitability in fiscal Q3, despite a modest decline in comparable sales. And while management noted record Black Friday performance, cooling same-store traffic persisted from November 2025 through January 2026.
Yet focusing solely on offline traffic may overlook several of Academy’s omnichannel growth drivers. The brand emphasized the connection between digital customer acquisition and continued store expansion, since a growing store footprint expands BOPIS fulfillment capacity. In this context, softer visit trends may reflect channel mix shifts, positioning the company for long-term growth.
Lululemon’s fiscal Q3 results reflected a bifurcated performance, with U.S. revenue declining modestly while international growth surged. At the time, management emphasized product innovation and global expansion as strategic priorities in 2026, reinforcing the brand’s long-term growth roadmap; so while recent YoY foot traffic trends point to some domestic pressure, the strength of lululemon’s international markets serves as a stabilizing force that could reignite engagement stateside over time.
Lululemon, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and DICK’s performance shows that strategy and execution across channels matters. DICK’s investment in specialized formats, Academy’s omnichannel push, and lululemon’s international expansion, each address distinct growth levers in a challenging discretionary environment.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Over the past two years, Costco has made several moves that risked upsetting its famously loyal customer base – including raising membership fees in September 2024 and restricting food court access to members only. But visit data suggests that, rather than deterring shoppers, these changes have supported rising engagement and a broadening customer base.
The chart below shows that Costco entered 2026 with solid visit momentum. Both total and same-store visits posted healthy year-over-year gains through the back half of 2025 and into January.
That resilience aligns with recent earnings reports, which show Costco delivering consistent mid-single-digit comparable sales growth throughout 2025. By raising the “cost of commitment,” Costco may be discouraging casual or opportunistic users while deepening engagement among shoppers who do the math and shop more frequently to justify the fee.
Perhaps the clearest signal of Costco’s durable positioning lies in its evolving demographic profile. While the chain continues to over-index on affluent consumers, it is also attracting a growing cohort of younger shoppers, reflected in the chart below by a rising share of “Contemporary Households” – a young-skewing segment comprising singles, married couples without children, and non-family households. As this cohort has expanded, Costco’s overall income profile has also subtly broadened.
The persistence of this shift despite higher fees challenges the notion that price increases drive exclusivity. For many households, the fee remains a rational trade-off for reliable savings – and the broader reach gives Costco added leverage to negotiate pricing and defend margins.
Costco’s recent moves show that pricing power and scale don’t have to be trade-offs. By pairing higher fees with stricter enforcement, the company is strengthening loyalty, preserving value perception, and widening its appeal to younger households – all while keeping traffic strong. That combination leaves Costco unusually well positioned as cost pressures persist: a retailer with both the volume to command supplier leverage and a member base committed enough to sustain it.
For more data-driven retail analyses, follow 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.
When grocery analysts think about low prices and private label, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl often come to mind. And while all three operate in the value-driven grocery space, they differ meaningfully in how they run their stores, position their brands, and engage consumers. An AI-based analysis of shopping behavior and audience characteristics for each chain reveals how distinct brand strategies are influencing visit patterns and could continue to shape performance heading into 2026.
One of the defining themes of the 2025 retail narrative was the consumer’s continued focus on value, and the grocery sector was no exception. Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl – all known for extensive private label assortments and competitive pricing – each experienced positive year-over-year visit growth in all four quarters of 2025. And with the exception of Lidl in Q3, they consistently outperformed the broader grocery category, underscoring the enduring pull of value in a cost-conscious environment.
While some of that growth can be attributed to Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s expanding store footprints, increases in average visits per location suggest that demand rose alongside store count. If value remains a primary motivator in 2026, these low-price grocers appear well positioned to continue capturing incremental foot traffic.
Despite shared characteristics – private label dominance and ongoing expansion – Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl take very different approaches to the in-store experience. An analysis of visit length highlights how each brand’s balance of convenience and assortment influences how shoppers interact with its stores.
Across the grocery category, 22.1% of visits in 2025 lasted under 10 minutes – a higher share than at Trader Joe’s, Aldi, or Lidl. This likely reflects the widespread availability of curbside pickup and quick in-and-out trips at traditional grocers, which isn't offered at Trader Joe’s and Lidl and is only available in a limited capacity at Aldi. 18.2% of the grocery category’s visits also lasted between 10 and 15 minutes, reflecting many just slightly longer top-up visits consistent with the high-density presence of traditional grocers in many markets.
Trader Joe’s stands out for its concentration of mid-length visits. The chain posted the highest share of visits lasting 10 to 15 minutes and 15 to 30 minutes, suggesting a highly efficient shopping experience.
This pattern aligns with Trader Joe’s small-format stores and tightly curated assortment, where seasonal items and cult-favorite products anchor clear shopping missions. Shoppers appear to arrive with a plan and move quickly through the store – reinforcing Trader Joe’s strength as a fast, focused destination.
Aldi sees a higher share of visits in the 15 to 30 minute and 30 to 45 minute ranges than the grocery category overall, edging out Lidl slightly in both buckets. This suggests that Aldi’s limited-SKU and small-format model simplifies navigation and decision-making. Meanwhile, no-frills merchandising – with products often displayed in cartons or on pallets – supports its value perception, so shoppers still spend meaningful time winding the aisles to save money.
Lidl shows the strongest skew toward longer visits, including the highest share of visits lasting over 45 minutes (11.7%), exceeding Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and the grocery category overall.
This reflects Lidl’s positioning somewhere between a traditional grocery store and a superstore. Its in-store bakery, broader meat and dairy selections, housewares, and wider assortment require more time to navigate, and its stores are typically larger than Aldi’s while remaining smaller than conventional grocers. Together, these factors encourage more comprehensive stock-up trips.
Lidl’s relatively smaller store footprint network may also play a role, pushing shoppers to consolidate trips rather than supplementing with quick, nearby visits – a behavior more common in the broader grocery category.
Small, efficient store formats are a shared advantage for Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl, but the data suggests that footprint alone doesn’t define the shopping experience. Rather, each chain’s strategic differences meaningfully shape how consumers move through their stores.
At the same time, there is strong evidence that pickup remains a powerful draw for grocery shoppers – more than one in five grocery visits last under 10 minutes. If Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl want to capture more of those short trips, expanding convenient pickup options could be an opportunity worth exploring.
Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Lidl may share a reputation for value, but they are not competing on the same terms. Each chain’s philosophy shapes how shoppers engage with its stores – Trader Joe’s through curated discovery, Aldi through uncompromising efficiency and low prices, and Lidl through a full grocery experience at a discount. As value remains a powerful driver of grocery traffic, continued success will depend on each brand doubling down on the elements of its model that set it apart and resonate most clearly with its core shopper.
Will 2026 be another stand-out year for these grocers? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Commercial real estate’s reputation as a technology laggard is not entirely undeserved. At its core, CRE is a see-touch-and-feel industry, as much art as science. Local knowledge, intuition, and long-standing relationships continue to shape how deals get done, and that reality isn’t likely to change. Boots on the ground matter, as firsthand market insight and trust between brokers, landlords, and tenants, remain central to the business.
That context is essential when thinking about technology’s role in CRE. Tech can support and enhance decision-making, but it cannot replace the fundamentals. AI, for example, can make processes faster and more efficient, but it will not change the core of how CRE works. It will never be the tool that says, “I know a landlord who’s about to bring this space to market, and I’m getting the first look because of our relationship.”
That said, technology does have an important role to play. During COVID, when activity slowed dramatically, many organizations finally had the time to look inward and ask how technology could support faster, more resilient decision-making once the market returned. As the industry continues to invest in digital tools, three principles stand out.
Technology delivers the most value when it is guided by well-defined questions. One of the most persistent challenges in CRE’s use of technology is data fragmentation and fatigue. The industry generates enormous amounts of data, much of it spread across spreadsheets, emails, platforms, and institutional knowledge. And without knowing what you want to accomplish, that volume can quickly become overwhelming.
As shown in the chart above, for example, even when a national trend appears relatively modest, the underlying regional variation can be significant. Without a clear question guiding the analysis, it’s easy to walk away with a generic conclusion that misses where performance is actually diverging. Framed correctly, the same data becomes a tool for understanding where demand is strengthening, where it’s softening, and how strategy should differ by market.
Once the right questions are defined, the next challenge is selecting the right tools. Here again, clarity matters. There is no universal technology stack for commercial real estate. Organizations operate across different markets, asset types, and strategies, and technology needs to reflect those differences.
Thinking in terms of a recipe provides a more useful framework. The questions define the goal, and technology becomes a set of ingredients chosen to achieve it. Some tools add context, others improve precision, and others help scale insights across teams by surfacing distinct metrics and perspectives. The objective is not to find a single solution or data point that does everything, but to assemble the right combination that supports how the organization actually works.
The graph below highlights the value of layering multiple signals to understand performance. Topline visit trends offer a baseline, but adding context around visitor profile and travel patterns helps clarify what’s actually driving change. When analyzed together, these signals move analysis beyond surface-level conclusions and toward insight that can inform real decisions.
The technology best positioned to help CRE is shaped by how people actually use it. Companies that consistently learn from their users, refine inputs, expand data sets thoughtfully, and stay focused on real decision-making are far more likely to deliver lasting value.
The true test of any technology is whether it helps professionals make better decisions faster and with greater confidence while reducing risk. When insights surface quickly and are paired with on-the-ground experience and market context, data reinforces what CRE professionals already see and understand. Used this way, technology becomes a decision-support tool that facilitates de-risking and enables organizations to act at the right speed without losing sight of the fundamentals.
When analyzing mall properties, for instance, sustained weekday and weekend visit growth, paired with a broadening and increasingly family-oriented audience, can signal traffic that is more likely to endure. Identifying these deeper patterns in visit behavior helps validate assumptions, align strategy, and move forward with greater confidence, especially when paired with local market context.
As technology adoption continues, CRE leaders face an additional challenge: distinguishing between tools that meaningfully support these principles and those that generate attention without lasting value. Some technologies – like foot traffic and demographics – will become table stakes, while others will struggle to move beyond experimentation.
One area to watch is Virtual AI, including remote site visits and digital building tours. These tools may streamline early-stage evaluation and expand access, even as final decisions continue to rely on boots on the ground. Ultimately, their impact will depend on whether they reinforce the fundamentals of CRE – clear questions, practical workflows, and faster paths to confident decisions.
Since taking the reins in 2023, Gap Inc. CEO Richard Dickson has pursued a turnaround strategy aimed at reinvigorating the legacy apparel retailer, with promising results so far. Did that positive momentum carry through the end of the year? And what can location analytics reveal about the role of each of Gap Inc.’s largest banners in powering the company’s recovery?
Recent foot traffic data points to solid traffic momentum at Gap Inc. With the exception of a brief dip in December – likely driven by holiday demand pulling forward into November, along with one fewer Sunday compared to 2024 – year-over-year (YoY) company-level visits remained consistently positive over the past six months.
Throughout the period, same-store visits slightly outpaced total traffic, reflecting a more optimized fleet following the closure of several underperforming stores over the past year. Gap Inc’s robust traffic patterns also align with recent earnings commentary showing positive company-level in-store comparable sales in Q3 2025 and improving execution across Gap’s leading brands, as the company continues its strategic reset.
Looking at the company’s two largest brands shows that each is contributing to the company’s rebound in a different way. In Q4 2025, Gap slightly outperformed Old Navy on a quarterly basis, with banner-level traffic up 1.6% YoY, compared with 1.2% at Old Navy. However, Old Navy delivered more consistent monthly gains throughout the analyzed period – including in September, when Gap experienced a modest decline.
Gap’s traffic trends were notably more variable, with a stronger YoY lift in November, likely reflecting the brand’s greater sensitivity to seasonal storytelling and early holiday demand. This responsiveness was especially apparent on Black Friday, when Gap visits surged 504.4% above its 2025 daily average, compared with a still-robust but more measured 436.4% increase at Old Navy.
Old Navy’s smoother monthly performance likely reflects its role as the portfolio’s stability engine, with value-driven and replenishment trips supporting steady traffic throughout the year. Gap, on the other hand, appears to fulfill a more discretionary function, with visits responding more sharply to merchandising, marketing, and holiday timing.
Visitor behavior data for Gap and Old Navy further reinforces the two brands’ distinct positionings. Old Navy attracts longer, more frequent visits that skew toward weekdays, signaling habitual shopping tied to browsing, value-seeking, and building everyday wardrobe essentials. Gap, meanwhile, sees shorter, less frequent visits that are more likely to occur on weekends – consistent with more discretionary trips tied to seasonal needs, inspiration, or occasional splurges.
These differences between the two banners may help shape how Gap Inc. approaches its next phase of growth. In January 2026, the company leaned into “fashiontainment” with the appointment of former Paramount executive Pam Kaufman as Chief Entertainment Officer. At the same time, it has begun expanding into beauty and accessories, including the launch of Beauty Co. at 150 Old Navy locations nationwide.
As these strategies roll out, allowing them to express themselves differently across Gap and Old Navy could help maximize the strengths of each banner. At Gap, fashiontainment may lend itself to high-impact cultural moments and narrative-driven campaigns that tap into the brand’s strengths in nostalgia and storytelling – such as last year’s Better in Denim campaign featuring Katseye. At Old Navy, the same idea may be most effective through large-scale, family-friendly partnerships that reinforce its role as a dependable, mass-market destination – like the Disney collaboration launched last May. A similar dynamic could emerge in beauty, with Old Navy’s Beauty Co. supporting frequent, routine visits, and beauty at Gap reinforcing fashion authority and cultural relevance rather than driving habit.
For more insights into the consumer patterns shaping retail strategy, follow Placer.ai/anchor.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
The home improvement space has faced sustained pressure from macroeconomic headwinds – including persistent inflation and a cooling housing market – prompting many consumers to delay major projects and defer big-ticket purchases. But is a category turnaround in the works? An AI-powered foot traffic analysis of the sector’s largest players – The Home Depot and Lowe’s – offers insight into whether momentum has shifted and a period of growth is on the horizon.
Both The Home Depot and Lowe's reported sales growth alongside an uptick in big-ticket purchases in fiscal Q3 2025, indicating that consumers were investing in significant upgrades despite many bigger renovations remaining on the back-burner. And the latest foot traffic data suggests that this momentum likely carried forward into the subsequent months.
In November 2025, both chains saw visit and same-store visit growth of roughly 3% year-over-year (YoY) – a sign of meaningful Black Friday traffic and a healthy start to the holiday shopping season.
And while December 2025 saw modest visit gaps, these likely stemmed in part from tough YoY comparisons to December 2024’s storm-related demand.
Traffic to both chains rebounded in the new year, with preparations ahead of Storm Fern likely accounting for some of January 2026’s YoY visit gains.
Overall, the past several months of foot traffic data paint a picture of continued positive momentum for The Home Depot and Lowe’s through fiscal Q4.
Large-scale projects may not yet be at hoped-for levels, but the data suggests consumers are still investing in their homes. And with mortgage rates trending lower, housing activity showing early signs of a turnaround, and the potential for abundant home equity to fund renovations, the home improvement sector appears poised for continued growth.
Will the home improvement space build on its successes in 2026? Visit Placer.ai/anchor to find out.
Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the US. The data is trusted by thousands of industry leaders who leverage Placer.ai for insights into foot traffic, demographic breakdowns, retail sale predictions, migration trends, site selection, and more.
Across segments, retail and dining expansions converge on a common set of priorities, including identifying markets with strong demand, ensuring alignment with target audiences, and leveraging local consumer behavior to drive synergy. Using AI-powered location intelligence, we analyzed five expanding brands and segments to uncover the core principles driving successful site selection.
Nationwide visits to coffee chains are up in 2026, with established brands and newcomers alike seeing their traffic increase as consumer headwinds lead some to shift their discretionary spend towards more affordable indulgences. But past visit growth does not necessarily indicate future opportunity – it may instead signal market saturation. Relying solely on overall visit trends to guide expansion could lead chains into highly competitive markets where existing supply already meets demand.
For example, analyzing traffic trends in 10 major metro areas where coffee visits increased year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2026 reveals significant gaps between overall traffic trends and per-location demand. In some CBSAs, overall traffic growth significantly outpaced per-location traffic trends – suggesting that supply is already meeting (or exceeding) demand and limiting room for new coffee locations despite overall category growth. But in other metro areas, where overall visit growth appears smaller, per-location traffic is actually booming – indicating that the underlying demand is resilient enough to support additional coffee concepts.
These patterns highlight the importance of looking beyond topline growth to identify where true whitespace still exists.
Effective site selection matches both regional and local demographics to a brand’s target customer, supporting performance and reinforcing positioning. But even in well-aligned metros, results depend on site-level precision – locations where the trade area visitor profile most closely reflects the brand’s core audience are best positioned to drive incremental upside.
An analysis of Alo locations in the DC area suggests that the company is adopting this strategy. Within the already high-income metro area of Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, individual Alo Yoga stores are placed in centers that draw even more affluent visitors – maximizing the revenue potential of each location.
In fact, Alo's newest stores in the metro area – One Loudoun and Bethesda Row – drive traffic from households with higher median incomes than even the established area locations. This signals a clear focus on premium retail corridors and affluent consumer segments, which reinforces the brand’s positioning while capturing higher-spending customers at the site level.
Beyond driving traffic potential and demographic alignment, site selection should also ensure that a brand’s identity and operating model are well matched to the visitation patterns of prospective locations. Barnes & Noble offers a clear example. The company’s ongoing resurgence has relied in part on repositioning itself as a local cultural and social hub, with a stronger emphasis on local curation and community-driven events.
And analyzing Barnes & Noble’s 2026 openings shows a clear tilt toward centers with a higher share of local traffic than the chain average – supporting its shift away from a purely transactional retail model toward a more community-centric experience built around local curation, events, and repeat visitation. By prioritizing locally driven centers, the company’s site selection strategy not only captures relevant traffic but also reinforces its broader repositioning as a neighborhood-oriented brand.
Effective site selection recognizes that proximity to competitors can function as a demand driver, amplifying traffic rather than diluting it.
In practice, this often takes the form of clustering – deliberately locating near similar or complementary concepts to capture shared demand. Shake Shack provides a clear example. Analyzing the chain's store fleet shows that many locations sit near other QSR and fast-casual concepts, creating opportunities to capture dining-based traffic. At the same time, strong cross-visitation patterns indicate that these co-located brands share a common customer base, positioning the brand closer to consumers who are already likely to visit. And, at least for Shake Shack, this strategy appears to be working – traffic to the chain increased 19.9% YoY in Q1 2026.
Incorporating trade area analysis into site selection can also help determine whether a new location will generate new traffic or risk cannibalizing existing demand. Aldi, a rapidly expanding grocery chain, offers a relevant example.
The company opened a fourth Las Vegas store on S Decatur Blvd in October 2025, positioned between existing locations on W Craig Rd and S Rainbow Blvd, approximately eight miles from each. And analyzing the core trade area of each of the four Las Vegas locations indicated limited visitor cannibalization over the last six months, despite the stores’ close proximity. Only 6.2% and 7.6% of the S Decatur Blvd store’s trade area overlapped with the W Craig Rd and S Rainbow Blvd stores’ trade areas, respectively.
These findings show that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to store spacing – it varies by brand, category, and market. Analyzing a company’s existing store network alongside competitor density and overall demand can help determine how closely locations can be placed without hurting performance. In many cases – especially in high-frequency categories like grocery – markets can support stores that are closer together than expected.
Physical retail is increasingly defined by a small group of dominant players – Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale, and Dollar General – that span grocery, essentials, and discretionary categories at a scale no other retailers can match. These chains serve as bellwethers of consumer behavior, revealing where Americans are spending, how often they shop, and what drives their decisions. And understanding their visitation patterns sheds light on the key dynamics shaping both their performance and the broader blueprint for retail success in 2026.
Retail giants Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale, and Dollar General continue to capture a growing share of brick-and-mortar visits nationwide.
• The share of physical retail traffic captured by these giants rose from 16.8% in 2019 to 17.5% in Q1 2026, signaling continued sector consolidation.
• The scale advantage enjoyed by retail giants is increasingly self-reinforcing: Larger players benefit from superior data, stronger vendor leverage, and operational efficiencies that in turn further widen the gap.
• As these advantages compound, direct competition becomes less viable. Instead, smaller retailers should focus on owning specific trip missions – such as convenience, fill-in, or discovery – where format, assortment curation, and in-store experience can more directly shape consumer choice.
• For CRE operators, the growing dominance of these retail giants increases reliance on top-tier anchors, potentially driving performance gaps between centers with strong national tenants and those without.
• For CPG companies, the consolidation in the offline retail space heightens channel concentration, making success with a handful of large retailers critical while increasing those retailers’ negotiating leverage.
Traffic trends across the four giants reveal meaningful divergence in performance.
• Costco and Dollar General are driving the strongest visit growth, supported by both substantial fleet expansions and rising visits per location. In 2025, visits per store exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 18.1% for Costco and 10.2% for Dollar General, with both brands also seeing steady increases in their share of total brick-and-mortar retail chain visits.
• Walmart remains the largest player by far, accounting for 9.7% of traffic to major brick-and-mortar chains in 2025. And though the behemoth’s share of visits declined slightly in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, it has held steady over the past three years.
• Target’s visit share has remained relatively flat over the past three years, reflecting stalled momentum. Still, early 2026 trends point to emerging signs of recovery – with Q1 visits up 8.3% compared to Q1 2019.
• Value retail is winning, but in more specialized forms: Dollar General (extreme value + convenience) and Costco (bulk value + loyalty) are driving the strongest traffic growth and rising visits per store, while Walmart’s broad “everyday value” remains steady with slower growth. Target, for its part, is lagging – likely a reflection of the broader bifurcation in retail which has left middle-market players caught between consumers trading down to value and those trading up to quality.
• For retailers and CPG companies, the broader lesson is that value perception is becoming more nuanced. It’s no longer just about offering low prices at scale, but about how value is delivered – whether through small packs vs. bulk, or quick trips vs. stock-up missions. Success increasingly depends on prioritizing these distinct value formats and investing in channels where store-level productivity is improving.
• For CRE operators, the outperformance of retailers with clearly defined value propositions underscores the importance of mission-driven tenant mix. As shoppers visit with increasingly specific missions in mind, retailers that cater to those missions are outperforming. Tenant strategies should reflect this shift, ensuring complementary offerings that reinforce a cohesive shopping mission.
Walmart remains the dominant brick-and-mortar retailer nationwide and across all fifty states. Still, the data suggests there is room for multiple runners-up to succeed across geographies and customer segments.
• Dollar General, Target, and Costco each attract distinct audience segments. Dollar General attracts a disproportionately high share of the “Mature and Retired Living” segment, while Costco leads among family households, with Target also over-indexing with this group. Among younger “Contemporary Households,” meanwhile – a segment encompassing singles, married couples without children, and non-family households – Target commands the highest share, slightly over-indexing compared to the nationwide baseline.
• Regional strengths vary significantly, with Dollar General concentrated in the South, Costco dominant in the Northwest, and Target showing more dispersed areas of strength.
• Despite similar overall visit share, Dollar General leads in more states (26 vs. 17 for Target), reflecting broader geographic dominance.
• For retailers, the data suggests that growth opportunities are increasingly shaped by localized demographic and geographic dynamics – meaning that targeted, market-specific strategies may be more effective than uniform national approaches.
• Younger “Contemporary Households” remain less locked-in than older demographics, representing a key battleground for future growth.
• For CPG companies, this data highlights that channel strategy is really about building the right mix of retailers, since even large national players reach different types of consumers.
• CRE operators should ask "which anchor is right for this trade area" rather than "which anchor is strongest," as mismatched tenants can underperform even if they’re nationally dominant.
After remaining essentially flat in 2025, average visits per location to Walmart grew 3.5% YoY in Q1 2026. And the retailer’s solid Q1 performance across the U.S. underscores its unique ability to resonate across income levels, geographies, and shopping missions.
• Walmart posted year-over-year visit growth across nearly all U.S. markets in Q1 2026, reinforcing its role as a universally relevant retailer.
• The giant’s comparative softness in small parts of the Northeast suggests an opportunity to double down on region-specific assortments, urban-friendly formats, or partnerships to better match local shopping behaviors.
• Walmart’s broad-based growth shows that even as consumers are increasingly willing to visit multiple retailers to get what they want, its Superstore model has solidified its role as a primary stop on the American shopping journey – making it a uniquely reliable anchor for CRE operators.
• For smaller retailers, this underscores the opportunity to win the “second stop” – capturing trips through curated assortments and more tailored in-store experiences that Walmart’s scale is less optimized to deliver.
• For CPG companies, Walmart stands out as a highly attractive partner for broad, efficient reach, given its consistent traffic across markets.
Target’s recent performance suggests early momentum in reversing prior softness.
• Q1 2026 visits to Target rose 5.1% year over year, marking the chain’s first positive visit growth in more than a year, and suggesting that the chain’s new turnaround strategy may be bearing fruit.
• Gains were driven primarily by visits lasting 30 to 45 minutes, which accounted for 19.6% of overall visits to Target in Q1 2026 – pointing to stronger in-store engagement rather than quick, mission-driven stops.
• Target’s return to traffic growth – driven by increases in mid-length trips – signals a sustainable recovery on the horizon, strengthening its reliability as a traffic-driving tenant for CRE operators.
• Target's turnaround shows retailers how increasing shopper engagement can generate growth by converting quick trips into higher-value, multi-category experiences.
• For CPG companies, the rise in mid-length visits indicates a more receptive in-store environment for discovery and trade-up, making Target an increasingly attractive channel for innovation, merchandising, and premium offerings.
Dollar General is becoming embedded in consumers’ daily routines.
• Visitor frequency to Dollar General is on the rise. In Q1 2026, nearly a quarter of visitors frequented the chain at least four times in an average month, up from 21.2% in Q1 2022.
• Dollar General is becoming increasingly local in nature: As its footprint expands, more visits originate nearby, with 28.0% coming from within one mile – reinforcing its role as a neighborhood store of choice.
• Dollar General’s visitation patterns point to a growing ownership of the convenience mission. Its expanding store density is creating a self-reinforcing network effect, where proximity fuels frequency, and frequency strengthens long-term defensibility.
• For retailers, Dollar General’s rising share of nearby and high-frequency visits shows that proximity can drive habit, making convenience a powerful lever for building repeat behavior.
• For CRE operators, the data highlights the strength of hyper-local, necessity-driven traffic, positioning Dollar General as a stable tenant that anchors consistent, repeat visitation.
• For CPG professionals, the increase in frequent trips signals a high-velocity purchase environment, favoring smaller pack sizes and products that align with regular replenishment cycles.
Costco continues to grow and diversify its audience despite higher membership fees and stricter food court access policies, highlighting the strength of its value proposition and loyalty model.
• In September 2024, Costco raised its membership fees for the first time in seven years – and more recently tightened enforcement of member-only access to its food courts. Despite these changes, visitation has remained strong, highlighting the company’s pricing power and deep customer loyalty.
• At the same time, Costco’s shopper base is broadening, with median household income trending slightly downward while remaining relatively affluent.
• Offering strong value to a relatively affluent consumer base can be a winning formula in 2026. Retailers that combine quality, trust, and perceived savings – rather than competing solely on low prices – are well positioned to drive both loyalty and sustained traffic growth.
• For CRE operators, Costco’s sustained traffic growth and broadening shopper base reinforce its value as a standalone, high-demand traffic magnet that can anchor entire trade areas and drive surrounding retail development.
• For CPG companies, the combination of high traffic and declining median HHI signals that Costco is evolving into a scaled channel reaching beyond affluent shoppers, requiring more diversified assortment and pricing strategies.
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It’s been decades since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, and anticipation continues to build. While the matches themselves will deliver thrilling moments for fans inside the stadium, a far broader audience is expected to engage from beyond the gates – gathering at bars, watch parties, and living rooms across the country.
Drawing on insights from recent sporting and cultural events, this analysis examines how the World Cup may impact consumer behavior and audiences across stadiums, host cities, and nationwide.
In 2025, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ hosted a wide range of concerts and sporting events. And an examination of three – Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s tour stop, the FIFA Club World Cup Final, and a Week 17 New York Jets matchup against division rivals and the Super Bowl-bound New England Patriots – reveals clear differences in audience composition across event types.
Trade area analysis showed that the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Final drew the largest share of single visitors and the highest median household income (HHI) of the three events – a pattern that could reflect the premium tickets and travel typically associated with a quadrennial championship match.
With the 2026 World Cup elevating the level of global competition, stadiums set to host matches this summer – including MetLife – may see even more dramatic shifts in their audience relative to other events.
While spectators attending World Cup matches are likely to differ from those drawn to other events throughout the year, audience shifts are likely to occur also within the tournament itself. As the competition progresses and the stakes rise, the visitor profile at host stadiums may trend progressively higher-income, as suggested by an analysis of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA during the recent NFL season and Super Bowl.
During the Super Bowl, the stadium’s captured market median HHI surpassed that of every 49ers home game during the 2025-26 season – a pattern consistent with the event’s premium ticket pricing, national draw, and high levels of out-of-market travel.
And since the World Cup only takes place every four years, and necessitates international travel for die-hard fans, attendees are likely to be even more affluent than Super Bowl go-ers. Moreover, as the tournament reaches its later stages, each match becomes more significant and carries the potential to drive an even more affluent in-person audience.
Diving deeper into last year’s FIFA Club World Cup Final and Semifinal matches at MetLife Stadium provides further insight into the significance of the in-person audience that doesn’t make it into the stands. While FIFA generally places restrictions on tailgating, the behavior was still observed at MetLife and several other tournament venues in 2025. To put the phenomenon into perspective, location intelligence indicates that on the day of the Club World Cup final, combined visits to MetLife and its parking lots were 24.8% higher than visits to the stadium alone.
AI-powered trade area analysis further contextualizes the economic significance of this audience. During the semifinal matches, MetLife Stadium’s captured market median HHI remained nearly identical – just over $100K – with and without parking lot visitors. A similar pattern held for the Final, where median HHI for both the stadium-only and combined stadium-plus-parking visitors both rose above $115K, with the stadium-only figure only marginally higher.
This suggests that tailgaters represent a significant cohort with discretionary income to spend on the broader match-day experience, even if they opt out of spending big money on tickets.
With tailgating during the 2026 World Cup likely to remain limited due to FIFA regulations, the spending power of fans just outside the stadiums could create opportunities for alternative forms of engagement. Fan zones and other nearby hospitality events may offer effective ways to capture demand.
Nearby dining and entertainment venues are among the most accessible experiences for fans in the stadium area, and these stand to benefit significantly from elevated game-day foot traffic.
Analysis of recent FIFA Club World Cup matches reveals the impact of match-day activity on local businesses. Visitor journey data from the June 25th, 2025 matchup between Inter Milan and River Plate at Seattle’s Lumen Field, and the June 28th, 2025 meeting between Palmeiras and Botafogo at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia reveals that a significant share of stadium visitors also stopped at nearby dining and recreation venues on the day. Location intelligence also shows that, on the day of the match, each stadium-adjacent venue received a significant visit boost compared to its 2025 daily average.
This pattern underscores the potential impact of the World Cup on the surrounding commercial ecosystem. The stadium may anchor the experience, but fan engagement will likely spill into adjacent areas – creating opportunities for both organizers and local businesses. To take full advantage, restaurants and bars can position themselves as fan-friendly destinations through watch parties, extended hours, and even mobile or outdoor offerings in stadium corridors.
Previous major sporting events – including the Super Bowl – demonstrate that the impact of large-scale sporting moments often extends beyond the immediate stadium vicinity into the broader regional economy.
In the weeks leading up to the latest Super Bowl in Santa Clara, CA on February 8th, 2026, both the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkley and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CBSAs saw a notable uptick in year-over-year dining traffic – outperforming the nationwide average. The timing suggests that early-arriving travellers combined with locals enjoying pre-event concerts and events helped fuel demand. In contrast, nationwide dining traffic saw a more pronounced lift the following week – likely tied to Valentine’s Day on February 14.
This pattern indicates that regions hosting – or located near – World Cup 2026 matches could experience similar pre-event dining tailwinds. As out-of-town visitors arrive and local engagement builds in the days and weeks leading up to key matches, restaurants and hospitality may benefit from elevated demand – particularly when supported by ancillary events and fan experiences.
Other recent examples suggest that cities hosting major events like the World Cup stand to benefit from an influx of out-of-town visitors – particularly those with higher spending power.
Since the beginning of 2025, New Orleans has hosted a series of popular events that drove significant non-local traffic. AI-powered trade area data indicates that during these periods, out-of-market visitors consistently exhibited a higher median HHI than both local residents and typical commuters into the city.
As expected, the 2025 Super Bowl generated the most pronounced spike in out-of-market visitor median HHI among the events analyzed, but the pattern extends beyond one-time spectacles. Recurring events like Mardi Gras and major music festivals also attracted high-income visitors to the city – likely benefitting the local hospitality, dining, and retail industries.
Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup, host cities are likely to experience a similar dynamic. The tournament’s global draw will likely bring affluent travelers with discretionary dollars to the host regions – visitors that will spend not only on match tickets, but also on accommodation, dining, and shopping. By sponsoring tournament-related festivals, concerts, and experiences in or near retail corridors, cities can amplify the economic impact of the World Cup beyond the stadium.
The impact of the 2026 World Cup is unlikely to be confined to the select cities hosting matches. Major sporting events drive large-scale at-home viewership, generating ripple effects nationwide.
The Super Bowl offers a useful benchmark. In the days leading up to February 8th, 2026, visits to grocery stores and pizza chains rose above day-of-week averages for 2025, ultimately peaking on the day of the big game day as households appeared to pick up last-minute fixings and takeout for their watch parties.
This pattern indicates that the World Cup – with its extended schedule and multiple high-stakes matchups – could drive repeated waves of elevated grocery and take-out demand as fans gather together throughout the tournament.
Of course, at-home viewing is just one piece of the match-day equation. Many fans opt for a more communal experience – gathering at sports bars across the country to watch the game alongside fellow supporters.
Recent highly-anticipated soccer matches offer a clear signal of this behavior. During the recent Allstate Continental Clásico, MLS Cup Final, and SheBelieves Cup Final, top sports bars in key markets like Los Angeles and Miami recorded visit spikes above day-of-week averages.
Not every World Cup fan will be able to attend in-person or travel to a host city, but previous match-day lifts in sports bar traffic demonstrate that fans nationwide will participate in the tournament experience.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to engage a wide spectrum of fans – from casual viewers at home to dedicated supporters traveling to stadiums – shaping how and where demand emerges.
As a result, the tournament’s impact will be felt across multiple layers of retail, dining, and tourism. Stadium-centered spending, activity in surrounding corridors, host-city consumer demand, and gatherings of spectators nationwide all point to a broad and interconnected World Cup effect that is likely to shape both audience composition and behavior at scale.
