Holidays & Seasonal Trends

Retail traffic is up slightly in 2025 (January-May). Western states show strong growth, while Eastern states see declines. Last year's top back-to-school categories will likely perform well again. This year, secondary categories like home furnishings, off-price, and thrift stores may see stronger growth, driven by early buying and value orientation.

Memorial Day – the unofficial start of the summer season – is typically accompanied by major retail promotions and movie releases. We dove into the visit data to see how consumers celebrated the holiday and see how brick-and-mortar retail traffic compared to last year's numbers. 

Find out which retail categories got the biggest visit boosts from Mother's Day 2025.

We take a closer look at the discretionary retail categories that outperformed during 2024's holiday season - home furnishings, beauty, and apparel.

The end of the year is a time of bustling activity as many visit family and friends, go on vacation, and more. Using the latest location analytics for transportation hubs, hotels, museums, and aquariums, we uncover key trends in consumer behavior during the holiday season.

This year's holiday season had one fewer week between Thanksgiving and Christmas, leading retailers to consolidate promotions and encourage repeat visits. We took a look at the visitation trends to see how well this strategy played out.

The Placer 100 Index for Retail and Dining is a dynamic list of leading retailers, providing insight into the wider trends impacting the retail and dining space. And while December had fewer shopping days in 2024 than in 2023, visits remained close to last year's.

Malls continued to display their resilience once again in 2024, with traffic to indoor malls, outlet malls, and open-air shopping centers remaining essentially on par with 2023 levels, suggesting a strong positioning ahead of 2025.