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The coffee space has become increasingly competitive in recent years. And while traffic to the segment is up, the growth of small and medium sized chains may be coming at the expense of Starbucks. Visits to the reigning coffee giant were down slightly (0.1%) YoY in Q2 2025 while average visits per location declined 4.2% in the same period.
Still, these trends mark an improvement compared to last quarter, when YoY visits and average visits per venue were down 0.9% and 5.4%, respectively – suggesting that the company's "Back to Starbucks" strategy and recent menu innovations are beginning to drive a turnaround.
Meanwhile, Dunkin' – the second-largest coffee chain in the country – is seeing modest growth, with overall visits and average visits per venue up 1.7% and 0.3% YoY, respectively, in Q2 2025. Like Starbucks, Dunkin' showed improvement in Q2 2025 compared to Q1 2025 – perhaps an early sign of strengthening consumer confidence.
But while broader market forces may have helped, Dunkin's Q2 2025 turnaround may also be attributed to the chain's promotional efforts – including a new ad campaign to promote the chain's $6 Meal Deals. As value continues to drive consumer decision-making, Dunkin's emphasis on affordable bundles positions it well to maintain its visit share despite the growing competition in the space.
Dutch Bros, one of the fastest growing coffee brands in recent years, maintained its momentum in Q2 2025, as coffee chains betting on small-format, largely drive-thru locations – including 7Brew, PJ's Coffee, Biggby, and Foxtail – continue to resonate with consumers.
Overall visits to the Oregon-based chain grew 13.8% YoY alongside a 0.8% increase in average visits per venue – indicating that the chain's ongoing expansion is not cannibalizing traffic from existing venues. This bodes well for the brand as it continues its aggressive expansion – 2,029 stores by 2029.
As we look to the second half of 2025, the coffee sector will be characterized by the distinct strategies of its key players. Dutch Bros' aggressive expansion will continue to challenge the incumbents on a local level, while Dunkin's focus on value will likely remain a key advantage with budget-conscious consumers. The ultimate test will be for Starbucks, as the industry leader's ability to translate its strategic innovations into sustained visit growth will determine its capacity to defend its market share.
For more data-driven dining insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Shake Shack traffic increased an impressive 13.7% year-over-year (YoY) in Q2 2025 while average visits per venue held relatively steady at -1.7% – indicating that the chain's aggressive expansion strategy is capturing new market share without cannibalizing existing locations.
Meanwhile, although Q2 2025 visits to Wingstop were up 3.6%, the chain's average visits per venue declined 6.3% – which may suggest that discretionary dining brands serving lower-income consumers may be experiencing pressure from tightening household budgets.
Analyzing trade area demographic data reveals that Wingstop's captured market has a median household income of $69.5K – significantly lower than Shake Shack's $97.0K. Wingstop's trade area also includes a much higher proportion of households with children.
Wingstop attracts families with tighter budgets who must stretch their dining dollars further, which likely contributed to the decline in average visits per venue during this period of economic uncertainty. Meanwhile, Shake Shack's appeals to higher-income consumers with more discretionary spending power could explain the chain's impressive visit strength despite the ongoing headwinds.
Looking at the change in visit frequency compared to 2024 also suggests that Wingstop is feeling the impact of its visitors' tighter budgets.
Wingstop still maintains a significant advantage in customer loyalty, with 16.8% to 18.1% repeat monthly visitors in H1 2025 compared to Shake Shack's 10.5% to 11.4%. But comparing these numbers to 2024 reveals that Wingstop's share of repeat visitors has declined slightly since 2024, while Shake Shack has posted modest monthly gains throughout H1 2025.
This shift suggests that budget-conscious families may be reducing their regular Wingstop visits to save money, while Shake Shack's strategic expansion is bringing locations closer to customers which could be driving increased repeat visitation.
Despite facing economic headwinds, Wingstop's continued positive visit growth and superior customer loyalty metrics demonstrate the brand's strong fundamentals and deep connection with its core family demographic.
As economic conditions stabilize, Wingstop's established customer base and proven appeal to budget-conscious families positions the chain for a strong rebound, particularly given that families with children represent a large and resilient market segment that will likely return to regular dining patterns when household budgets recover.
Visit Placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven dining insights.
Eyewear chain Warby Parker continues to be a disruptor. The glasses chain got its start online and made the pivot to brick-and-mortar in 2013. And while many retailers who made that move have since shifted to other retail formats, Warby Parker is pressing on – the brand has plans to open 45 new locations in 2025 alone and is partnering with Target to open store-in-stores in H2 2025.
The chain's ongoing expansion drove year-over-year (YoY) visit increases for all months of 2025 so far. Average visits per location showed more variance – average visits per venue declined 2.7% YoY in Q2 2025 – perhaps reflecting the brand's deliberate focus on market penetration and its use of stores as strategic omnichannel touchpoints rather than purely traffic-dependent locations.
Like Warby Parker, footwear brand Allbirds began online before pivoting to physical retail. But Allbirds is now going in a different direction and shrinking rather than expanding its footprint. In March 2024, the company made the strategic decision to shutter about one-third of its store fleet – and the result has been impressive. While overall visits declined YoY by -12.5% in Q2 2025, visits per location surged, increasing by 18.2% in the same period.
Monthly visits followed a similar pattern, with overall visits generally lower than they were in 2024 while visits per location were largely positive – and looking at visits since the beginning of 2025 shows that the YoY overall visit gap has also been narrowing. Visits in January 2025 were 37.1% lower than they were in January 2024, but by June 2025 that visit gap had narrowed to just 15.1%. Meanwhile, average visits per location were elevated by 13.2% YoY in June 2025. This impressive shift highlights that demand for in-store shopping at Allbirds is strong, and the decision to focus on its highest-performing stores has had the intended effect.
Warby Parker and Allbirds have taken divergent approaches to their brick-and-mortar strategy, and both chains are managing to keep things moving forward.
What will H2 look like for these brands? Visit Placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven retail insights.
Movie theater visits were up year-over-year in Q2 2025, but traffic generally remains significantly below 2019 levels – with the exception of Cinemark, where visits are almost on par with pre-pandemic levels. We analyzed the data to understand how movie-going behavior has changed since COVID and why Cinemark is staying ahead of the curve.
Movie theater traffic jumped year-over-year (YoY) in Q2 2025 thanks to the release of several successful blockbusters, including A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Lilo & Stitch, and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
Still, baseline movie theater attendance remains significantly lower than it was pre-pandemic. And although YoY trends for AMC, Regal, and Cinemark were relatively consistent, comparing these chains' recent visit trends to pre-pandemic traffic reveals major differences in long-term performance.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, visits to the two largest chains – AMC and Regal – were 33.2% and 40.0% lower, respectively, than they were between July 2018 to June 2019. The visits per location gap was slightly narrower – due to rightsizing efforts that consolidated traffic into fewer movie theaters – but the data still indicates that AMC and Regal theaters are generally emptier than they were in 2018-2019.
But bucking the trend is Cinemark, which saw traffic to its flagship Cinemark brand dip just 2.6% compared to pre-COVID, while average visits per location were relatively stable at -0.8%. Thanks to this impressive recovery, Cinemark has significantly strengthened its position in the wider movie theater landscape.
A deeper look at the data confirms Cinemark's success in attracting moviegoers. Cinemark theaters average more visits both per location and per square foot, indicating that their higher visit numbers stem from fuller theaters rather than larger venues or more locations.
But just because Cinemark's visit numbers are relatively aligned with 2018-2019 traffic levels does not mean that the chain has not been impacted by the shift in post-COVID movie-going behavior.
Comparing monthly visits between July 2018-June 2019 and July 2024-June 2025 reveals increased traffic volatility at all three chains, with higher peaks and deeper valleys compared to average monthly baselines. This volatility likely stems from blockbusters playing a more central role in driving movie visits. Fewer consumers now go to movies casually – instead, they save their limited movie budgets for major releases.
The data also shows that all three chains have seen a relative drop in visits to matinee screenings (before 5 PM) along with a relative increase in late-night visits (9 PM to 1 AM) – which could also be consistent with a more intentional and less casual movie-going pattern.
And Cinemark hasn't been immune to these changes. The chain has also experienced similar monthly visit volatility, fewer matinee visits, and more late-night visits – matching the patterns seen at AMC and Regal.
So what is driving Cinemark's success? Some of the answer may lie in its strategic focus on less affluent family audiences. Compared to AMC and Regal, Cinemark attracts visitors from areas with lower median household incomes and higher concentrations of families – a positioning the chain seems to be deliberately cultivating.
Cinemark has built an ecosystem designed for budget-conscious families: their Movie Club membership includes monthly rollover ticket credits and concession discounts, while their Summer Movie Clubhouse offers discounted family packages. Select locations also feature Camp Cinemark auditoriums – screening rooms specifically designed to be child-friendly.
This strategy creates a virtuous cycle. While Cinemark's lower-income audience has tighter entertainment budgets, they're also less likely to have premium home theater setups that compete with the theatrical experience.
When these families do decide to splurge on entertainment, Cinemark's value-oriented approach and family-friendly amenities make it the logical choice – turning occasional visits into a more loyal customer base that sustains traffic even during industry-wide downturns.
While most movie theater chains continue to struggle with significantly lower attendance compared to pre-pandemic levels, the strong YoY performance suggests that the movie theater recovery story is still being written. Cinemark's success demonstrates that chains willing to adapt their strategies to serve underserved audiences can not only survive but thrive in the transformed post-pandemic entertainment landscape.
For more data-driven consumer insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
Major retailers held promotional events around Amazon's Prime Day sales event. How did the promotional events impact retail foot traffic? And what does the data reveal about the state of consumers going into the second half of 2025?
Comparing daily visits to major retailers during their July campaigns against same-day YTD averages (e.g., Sunday July 6th traffic versus average Sunday visits in 2025) reveals that sales primarily boosted weekday traffic. Visits increased Monday through Friday during the promotional periods, but every retailer that extended its campaign to Saturday – typically the busiest in-store shopping day – experienced traffic declines compared to YTD Saturday averages.
Individual retailer analysis shows Best Buy achieved the strongest response, with visits increasing 13.2% to 21.9% between July 7th and 11th compared to same-day YTD averages, and the final day (Sunday July 13th) posting a 7.2% increase. Conversely, Dollar General saw the weakest performance – only three of seven promotional days generated visit increases, all remaining in low single digits.
This pattern suggests consumers leveraged sales for big-ticket purchases at discounts but didn't use the opportunity to stock up on lower-priced items.
Comparing average daily visits during 2024 and 2025 July campaigns shows generally lower in-store traffic this year. Timing likely played a role – except for Best Buy, all analyzed retailers ran their 2024 campaigns before Amazon Prime Day, while this year all five overlapped with Amazon's event. This means that, unlike in 2024, Target, Walmart, Kohl's, and Dollar General directly competed with Amazon Prime Day in 2025, potentially driving the in-store traffic decline.
This calendar shift makes Walmart's performance particularly noteworthy. Average daily visits during "Walmart Deals" increased 8.9% compared to last year – despite facing direct Amazon competition for the first time.
Walmart's strength may stem from its recent "Who Knew?" advertising campaign, which may have kept the retailer top-of-mind for many customers during this period of intense retail competition.
The YoY visit growth during July campaigns represents another milestone in the company's turnaround and brand refresh, demonstrating the legacy retailer's continued relevance in today's competitive retail landscape.
The data reveals that consumers approached July 2025 promotional events with strategic intent, focusing on high-value purchases during convenient weekday shopping windows rather than impulse buying across all categories.
Walmart's standout performance amid increased competition suggests that strong brand messaging and strategic positioning can overcome market headwinds, providing optimism for retailers heading into the second half of 2025.
For more data-driven retail insights, visit placer.ai/anchor.
McDonald's recent re-introduction of the snack wrap joins the recent wave of nostalgia-driven menu innovations – and initial data suggests that the fan-favorite is already driving up visits to the chain. On July 10th – the day of the launch – McDonald's traffic nationwide was up 15.0% compared to the 2025 YTD daily average and 11.4% higher than the YTD Thursday average, and visits remained high on Friday and Saturday as well.
The Snack Wrap's return comes at a critical time for McDonald's, as the chain continues to lean on menu innovations to turn around its recent traffic plateau plateau and sales dips.
Will the initial excitement translate into a sustained visit hike?
Visit placer.ai/anchor for the latest data-driven dining analysis.
Commercial real estate in 2026 is characterized by differentiated performance across markets and asset types. Office recovery trajectories vary meaningfully by metro, retail performance reflects format-specific resilience, and domestic migration patterns continue to influence long-term demand fundamentals.
Many higher-income metros continue to trail 2019 benchmarks but drive the strongest Year-over-year gains, signaling a potential inflection in office utilization trends.
• Sunbelt markets along with New York, NY are closest to pre-pandemic office visit levels, while many coastal gateway and tech-heavy markets trail 2019 benchmarks.
• Many of the metros still furthest below pre-pandemic levels are now posting the strongest year-over-year gains.
• Leasing velocity may accelerate in coastal markets – particularly in high-quality assets – even if full recovery remains distant. The expansion of AI-driven firms and innovation-focused employers could support incremental demand in these ecosystems, reinforcing a bifurcation between top-tier buildings and the broader office inventory.
• Higher-income metros such as San Francisco show deeper structural gaps vs 2019, perhaps due to their higher concentration of hybrid-eligible workers – yet those same metros are driving the strongest YoY recovery in 2025.
• Accelerating growth in 2025 suggests that shifting employer policies, workplace enhancements, or broader labor dynamics may be beginning to drive increased in-office activity.
• Office performance in higher-income markets will increasingly depend on workplace quality and policy alignment. Assets that support premium amenities, modern design, and tenants implementing clear in-office expectations are likely to influence sustained office visits and leasing velocity in these metros.
Retail traffic is broadly improving across states, though performance varies by region and format.
• Retail traffic growth is broad-based, with the majority of states showing year-over-year gains in shopping center traffic in 2025.
• Still, even as many states are posting gains, pockets of softer performance remain – specifically in parts of the Southeast and Midwest.
• Broad-based traffic gains indicate consumer demand is more durable than anticipated. In growth states, operators can shift from defensive stabilization to capturing upside – pushing rents, upgrading tenant quality, and accelerating leasing while momentum holds. In softer markets, the focus should remain on protecting traffic through strong anchors and necessity-driven tenancy.
• Convenience-oriented formats are leading traffic growth, with strip/convenience centers materially outperforming all other shopping center types, and neighborhood and community centers also posting gains. This reinforces the strength of proximity-driven, daily-needs retail.
• Destination retail formats, including regional malls and factory outlets, continue to lag, while super-regional malls were essentially flat. Larger-format, discretionary-driven centers are not capturing the same momentum as convenience-based formats.
• The data suggests that consumer behavior continues to favor convenience, frequency, and necessity over destination-based shopping. Operators should lean into service-oriented and daily-needs tenancy in strip and neighborhood formats, while mall operators may need to further reposition assets toward experiential, mixed-use, or non-retail uses to stabilize traffic.
Domestic migration continues to reshape state-level demand, with gains clustering in select growth corridors.
• Domestic migration drove population gains in parts of the Southeast and Northern Plains, while several Western and Northeastern states show flat or negative migration.
• Some previously strong in-migration states in the South and West, including Texas and Utah, are showing softer movement, while other established migration leaders such as Florida and the Carolinas continue to attract net inbound residents.
• Migration flows are shifting relative to prior years. Operators should temper growth assumptions in states where inflows are slowing and prioritize markets where inbound demand remains strong.
• Florida dominates metro-level migration growth, with eight of the top ten U.S. metros for net domestic migration are in Florida.
• The markets with the strongest domestic migration-driven population gains are not major gateway cities but smaller, often retirement- or lifestyle-oriented metros, suggesting that migration-driven demand is increasingly flowing to secondary markets.
• CRE operators should prioritize expansion, leasing, and site selection in high-growth secondary metros where population inflows can directly translate into retail spending, housing absorption, and service demand.
1. Expanded grocery supply is increasing overall category engagement. New locations and deeper food assortments across formats are bringing shoppers into the category more often, rather than fragmenting demand.
2. Grocery visit growth is being driven by low- and middle-income households. Elevated food costs are leading to more frequent, budget-conscious trips, reinforcing grocery’s role as a non-discretionary category.
3. Short, frequent trips are a major driver of brick-and-mortar traffic growth. Fill-in shopping, deal-seeking, and omnichannel behaviors are pushing visit frequency higher, even as trip duration declines.
4. Scale is accelerating consolidation among large grocery chains. Larger retailers are using their size to invest in value, assortment, private label, and execution, allowing them to capture longer and more engaged shopping trips.
5. Both large and small grocers have viable paths to growth. Large chains are winning by competing for the full grocery list, while smaller banners can grow by specializing, owning specific missions, or offering compelling value that earns them a place in shoppers’ routines.
While much of the retail conversation going into 2026 focused on discretionary spending pressure, digital substitution, and higher-income consumers as the primary drivers of growth, grocery foot traffic tells a different story.
Rather than being diluted by new formats or eroded by e-commerce, brick-and-mortar grocery engagement is expanding. Visits are rising even as grocery supply spreads across wholesale clubs, discount and dollar stores, and mass merchants. At the same time, growth is being powered not by affluent trade areas, but by low- and middle-income households navigating higher food costs through more frequent, targeted trips. Shoppers are showing up more often and increasingly splitting their trips across retailers based on value, availability, and mission – pushing grocers to compete for portions of the grocery list instead of the full weekly basket.
The data also suggests that the largest grocery chains are capturing a disproportionate share of rising grocery demand – but the multi-trip nature of grocery shopping in 2026 means that smaller banners can still drive traffic growth. By strengthening their value proposition, specializing in specific products, or owning specific shopping missions, these smaller chains can complement, rather than compete with, larger one-stop destinations.
Ultimately, AI-based location analytics point to a clear set of grocery growth drivers in 2026: expanded supply that increases overall engagement, more frequent and mission-driven trips, and continued traffic concentration among large chains alongside new opportunities for smaller banners.
One driver of grocery growth in recent years is simply the expansion of grocery supply across multiple retail formats. Wholesale clubs are constantly opening new locations and discount and dollar stores are investing more heavily in their food selection, giving consumers a wider choice of where to shop for groceries. And rather than fragmenting demand, this broader availability appears to have increased overall grocery engagement – benefiting both dedicated grocery stores and grocery-adjacent channels.
Grocery stores continue to capture nearly half of all visits across grocery stores, wholesale clubs, discount and dollar stores, and mass merchants. That share has remained remarkably stable thanks to consistent year-over-year traffic growth – so even as grocery supply increases across categories, dedicated grocery stores remain the primary destination for food shopping.
Meanwhile, mass merchants have seen a decline in relative visit share as expanding grocery assortments at discount and dollar stores and the growing store fleets of wholesale clubs give consumers more alternatives for one-stop shopping.
While much of the broader retail conversation heading into 2026 centers on higher-income consumers carrying growth, the trend looks different in the grocery space. Recent visit trends show that grocery growth has increasingly shifted toward lower- and middle-income trade areas, underscoring the distinct dynamics of non-discretionary retail.
For lower- and middle-income shoppers, elevated food costs appear to be translating into more frequent grocery trips as consumers manage budgets through smaller baskets, deal-seeking, and shopping across retailers. In contrast, higher-income households – often cited as a key growth engine for discretionary retail – are contributing less to grocery visit growth, likely reflecting more stable shopping patterns or a greater ability to consolidate trips or shift spend online.
This means that, in 2026, grocery growth is not being propped up by high-income consumers. Instead, it is being fueled by necessity-driven shopping behavior in lower- and middle-income communities – reinforcing grocery’s role as an essential category and suggesting that similar dynamics may be at play across other non-discretionary retail segments.
Another factor driving grocery growth is the rise in short grocery visits in recent years. Between 2022 and 2025, the biggest year-over-year visit gains in the grocery space went to visits under 30 minutes, with sub-15 minute visits seeing particularly big boosts. As of 2025, visits under 15 minutes made up over 40% of grocery visits nationwide – up from 37.9% of visits in 2022.
This shift toward shorter visits – especially those under 15 minutes – is driven in part by the continued expansion of omnichannel grocery shopping, as many consumers complete larger stock-up orders online and rely on in-store trips for order collection or quick, fill-in needs. At the same time, the rise in short visits paired with consistent YoY growth in grocery traffic points to additional, behavior-driven forces at play – consumers' growing willingness to shop around at different grocery stores in search of the best deal or just-right product.
Value-conscious shoppers – particularly consumers from low- and middle-income households, which have driven much of recent grocery growth – seem to be increasingly shopping across multiple retailers to secure the best prices. This behavior often involves making targeted trips to different stores in search of the strongest deals, a pattern that is contributing to the rise in shorter, more frequent grocery visits. At the same time, other grocery shoppers are making quick trips to pick up a single ingredient or specialty item – perhaps reflecting the increasingly sophisticated home cooks and social media-driven ingredient crazes. In both these cases, speed is secondary to getting the best value or the right product.
So while some shorter visits reflect a growing emphasis on efficiency – as shoppers use in-store trips to complement primarily online grocery shopping – others appear driven by a preference for value or product selection over speed. Despite their differences, all of these behaviors have one thing in common – they're all contributing to continued growth in brick-and-mortar grocery visits. Grocers who invest in providing efficient in-store experiences are particularly well-positioned to benefit from these trends.
As early as 2022, the top 15 most-visited grocery chains already accounted for roughly half of all grocery visits nationwide. And by outpacing the industry average in terms of visit growth, these chains have continued to capture a growing share of grocery foot traffic.
This widening gap suggests that scale is increasingly enabling grocers to reinvest in the factors that attract and retain shoppers. Larger chains are better positioned to invest in broader and more differentiated product selection, stronger private-label programs that deliver quality at accessible price points, competitive pricing, and operational excellence across stores and omnichannel touchpoints. These capabilities allow top chains to serve a wide range of shopping missions – from quick, convenience-driven trips to more intentional visits in search of the right product or ingredient.
Consolidation at the top of the grocery category is reinforcing a virtuous cycle: scale enables better value, selection, and experience, which in turn draws more shoppers into stores and supports continued grocery traffic growth.
In 2025, the top 15 most-visited grocery chains accounted for a disproportionate share of visits lasting 15 minutes or more, while smaller grocers captured a larger share of the shortest trips. As shown above, larger grocery chains, which tend to attract longer visits, grew faster than the industry overall – but short visits, which skew more heavily toward smaller chains, accounted for a greater share of total traffic growth. Together, these patterns show that both long, destination trips and short, targeted visits are driving grocery traffic growth and creating viable paths forward for retailers of all sizes.
Larger chains are more likely to serve as destinations for fuller shopping missions, competing for the entire grocery list – or a significant share of it. But smaller banners can grow too by competing for more short visits. By specializing in a specific product category, owning a clearly defined shopping mission, or delivering a compelling value proposition, smaller grocers can earn a place in shoppers’ routines and become a deliberate stop within a broader grocery journey.
As grocery moves deeper into 2026, growth is being driven by the cumulative effect of how consumers are navigating food shopping today. Expanded supply has increased overall engagement, higher food costs are driving more frequent and targeted trips, and shoppers are increasingly willing to split their grocery list across retailers based on value, availability, and mission.
Looking ahead, this suggests that grocery growth will remain resilient, but unevenly distributed. Retailers that clearly understand which trips they are best positioned to win – and invest accordingly – will be best placed to capture that growth. Large chains are likely to continue benefiting from scale, consolidation, and their ability to serve full shopping missions, while smaller banners can grow by earning a defined role within shoppers’ broader grocery journeys. In 2026, success in grocery will be less about winning every trip and more about consistently winning the right ones.
To optimize office utilization and surrounding activity in 2026, stakeholders should:
1. Plan for continued, but slower, office recovery. Attendance continues to rise and has reached a post-pandemic high, but moderating growth suggests the return-to-office may progress at a more gradual and incremental pace than in prior years.
2. Account for growing seasonality in office staffing, local retail operations, and municipal services. As office visitation becomes increasingly concentrated in late spring and summer, offices, downtown retailers, and cities may need to plan for more predictable peaks and troughs by adjusting hours, staffing levels, and local services accordingly, rather than relying on annual averages.
3. Align leasing strategies with seasonal demand. Stronger attendance in Q2 and Q3 suggests these quarters are best suited for leasing activity, while softer Q1 and Q4 periods may be better used for renovations, repositioning, and targeted activation efforts designed to draw workers in.
4. Design hybrid policies around midweek anchor days. With Tuesdays and Wednesdays consistently driving the highest office attendance, employers can maximize collaboration and space utilization by concentrating meetings, programming, and in-office expectations midweek.
5. Reduce early-week commute friction to support attendance. Monday office attendance appears closely correlated with commute ease, suggesting that reliable and efficient transportation may be an important factor in early-week office recovery.
6. Prioritize proximity in leasing and development decisions. Visits from employees traveling less than five miles to work have increased steadily since 2019, reinforcing the value of centrally located offices and housing near employment hubs.
2025 was the year of the return-to-office (RTO) mandate. Employers across industries – from Amazon to JPMorgan Chase – instituted full-time on-site requirements and sought to rein in remote work. But the year also underscored the limits of policy. As employee pushback and enforcement challenges mounted, many organizations turned to quieter tactics such as “hybrid creep” to gradually expand in-office expectations without triggering outright resistance.
For employers seeking to boost attendance, as well as office owners, retailers, and cities looking to maximize today’s visitation patterns, understanding what actually drives employee behavior has become more critical than ever. This reports dives into the data to examine office visitation patterns in 2025 – and explore how structural factors such as weather, commute convenience, and workplace proximity have emerged as key differentiators shaping how and when, and how often workers come into the office.
National office visits rose 5.6% year over year in 2025, bringing attendance to just 31.7% below pre-pandemic levels and marking the highest point since COVID disrupted workplace routines. At the same time, the pace of growth slowed compared to 2024, signaling a possible transition into a steadier phase of recovery.
With new return-to-office mandates expected in 2026, and the balance of power quietly shifting towards employers, additional gains remain likely. But the trajectory suggested by the data points toward gradual progress rather than a return to the more rapid rebounds seen in 2023 or 2024.
Before COVID, “I couldn’t come in, it was raining” would have sounded like a flimsy excuse to most bosses. But today, weather, travel, and individual scheduling are widely accepted reasons to stay home, reflecting a broader assumption that face time should flex around convenience.
This shift is visible in the growing seasonality of office visitation, which has intensified even as overall attendance continues to rise. In 2019, office life followed a relatively steady year-round cadence, with only modest quarterly variation after adjusting for the number of working days. In recent years, however, greater seasonality has emerged. Since 2024, Q1 and Q4 have consistently underperformed while Q2 and Q3 have posted meaningfully stronger attendance – a pattern that became even more pronounced in 2025. Winter weather disruptions, extended holiday travel, and the growing normalization of “workations” appear to be pulling some visits out of the colder, holiday-heavy months and concentrating them into late spring and summer.
For employers, office owners, downtown retailers, and city planners, this emerging seasonality matters. Staffing, operating budgets, and programming decisions increasingly need to account for predictable soft quarters and peak periods, making quarterly planning a more useful lens than annual averages. Leasing activity may also convert best in Q2 and Q3, when districts feel most active. Slower quarters, meanwhile, may be better suited for renovations, construction, or employer- and city-led programming designed to give workers a reason to show up.
The growing premium placed on convenience is also evident in the persistence of the TGIF workweek – and in the factors shaping its regional variability.
Before COVID, Mondays were typically the busiest day of the week, followed by relatively steady attendance through Thursday and a modest drop-off on Fridays. Today, Tuesdays and Wednesdays have firmly established themselves as the primary anchor days, while Mondays and Fridays see consistently lower activity. And notably, this pattern has remained essentially stable over the past three years – despite minor fluctuations – as workers continue to cluster their in-office time around the days that offer the most perceived value while preserving flexibility at the edges of the week.
At the same time, while the hybrid workweek remains firmly entrenched nationwide, its contours vary significantly across regions – and the data suggests that convenience is once again a key differentiator.
Across major markets, a clear pattern emerges: Cities with higher reliance on public transportation tend to see weaker Monday office attendance, while markets where more workers drive alone show stronger early-week presence. While industry mix and local office culture still matter, the data points to commute hassle as another factor potentially shaping Monday attendance.
New York City, excluded from the chart below as a clear outlier, stands as the exception that proves the rule. Despite nearly half of local employees relying on public transportation (48.7% according to the Census 2024 (ACS)), the city’s extensive and deeply embedded transit system appears to reduce perceived friction. In 2025, Mondays accounted for 18.4% of weekly office visits in the city, even with heavy transit usage.
The contrast highlights an important nuance: Where transit is fast, frequent, and integrated into daily routines, it can support office recovery, offering a potential roadmap for other dense urban markets seeking to rebuild early-week momentum.
Another powerful signal of today’s convenience-first mindset shows up in commute distances. Since 2019, the share of office visits generated by employees traveling less than five miles has steadily increased, largely at the expense of mid-distance commuters traveling 10 to 25 miles.
To be sure, this metric reflects total visits rather than unique visitors, so the shift may be driven by increased visit frequency among workers with shorter, simpler commutes rather than a change in where employees live overall. Still, the pattern is telling: Workers with shorter commutes appear more likely to generate repeat in-person visits, while longer and more complex commutes correspond with fewer trips. Over time, this dynamic could shape office leasing decisions, residential demand near employment centers – whether in urban cores or in nearby suburbs – and the geography of the workforce.
Taken together, the data paints a clear picture of the modern return-to-office landscape. Attendance is rising, but behavior is no longer driven by mandates alone. Instead, workers are making rational, convenience-based decisions about when coming in is worth the effort.
For cities, the implication is straightforward: Ease of access matters. Investments in transit reliability, last-mile connectivity, and housing near employment centers can all play a meaningful role in shaping how consistently people show up. For employers, too, the lesson is that the path back to the office runs through convenience, not just compulsion, as attendance gains are increasingly driven by how effectively organizations reduce friction and increase the perceived value of being on-site.
