Even with a strong Holiday season at the end of 2019, brick and mortar stores have been struggling to increase in-store sales and compete with online giants. Coming into 2020, experts anticipated that there were going to be a number of store closings in addition to the previously announced upcoming closings.

Something relatively new in the market is the takeover of non-traditional users moving into previously occupied spaces. Businesses like urgent care centers, CBD stores, dog grooming & boarding and new entertainment concepts like axe throwing are taking over the scene. Fitness concepts like CKO Kickboxing, SPENGA (Spin, Strength, Yoga) and Planet Fitness have been looking to expand and are showing preference to shopping centers with a variety of tenants, including grocery store anchors. It appears that the retail market has been adjusting to supply and demand fluidly, and in the first couple of months this year it did begin to thrive again.

Note: We would be remiss to not mention the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, the novel coronavirus was just a blip on the radar. Many people had not even heard of the virus spreading through China & abroad. With many retailers now shut down and others doing their part to #stopthespread, it remains to be seen how the overall retail market will be impacted.

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