Sit through enough data vendor demos in #CRE and you start to notice something. Every dataset is "proprietary." Every platform has a "unique edge." Every company is the only one who can give you "this view of the market." Funny thing - pull back
Every conference. Every pitch deck. Every vendor demo. The message is the same: AI will save you. Faster decisions. Smarter insights. Automated everything. The hype is real. And honestly? Some of it is more than deserved. AI is transforming how we work. But here's what nobody wants to
Retail Success Is a Chain Reaction. Data Tells You Where the Links Are Breaking. I've been saying for a while now that "experiential retail" has become one of the most overused and misunderstood terms in the retail industry. The brands that succeed don't just
If you walked through any mall in the 80s and left with an acid-washed jean jacket, parachute pants, or a skinny leather tie, you probably know Chess King. In 1967, traveling salespeople from Melville Corporation's Thom McAn shoe division spotted a gap: young men had nowhere to shop
A few months ago, I wrote about how traditional trade area analysis is dead. Radius rings and demographic overlays can't capture the micro-market dynamics that actually drive retail performance. But here's what I've been thinking about since: if AI and dynamic location analytics are
The Rise of Prediction Markets as a #CRE and #Retail Data Source The CRE industry has traditionally relied on a familiar forecasting toolkit: historical sales data, comps, macroeconomic models, demographic data, and good old-fashioned gut instinct. That has changed recently with the introduction of more refined persona data, mobile location
๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ช๐ฅ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐ค๐ง ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฃ๐จ๐ฎ๐ก๐ซ๐๐ฃ๐๐, ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฌ ๐ฝ๐ค๐ฃ-๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐. Carson's. Younkers. Elder-Beerman. Bergner's. All the same company. All gone. The beginning started in 1898 when Max Grumbacher and his father Samuel open a one-room millinery store in York, Pennsylvania. The Timeline: ๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ต: The company incorporates. "Bon-Ton" (French for "high society") becomes
๐๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ'๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ-๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ'๐ด ๐ธ๐ข๐ด. Frieda Loehmann, a former department store buyer, opens the first store in 1921 in Brooklyn with her son Charles. Her strategy? Pay cash for designer overstock and samples, sell them at deep discounts. No returns. No alter
"Experiential retail" is the most overused term in CRE right now...And I think we're using it wrong. Everyone talks about creating "experiences" for customers. Immersive moments. Instagram-worthy activations. The wow factor. But here's what I keep seeing: the wow fades. Fast.
๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐. ๐ง-๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ธ๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐ป๐. ๐ง๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐. ๐๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด $๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ. If you walked through a mall in the late 90s, you probably stopped at the Discovery Channel Store. Fossils. Science kits. Nature documentaries on VHS. Discovery Communications built it as a brand extension. Retail as marketing. It worked. Until it didn't. A Timeline: * 1995: Discovery Channel Store
The industry has been obsessed with "experiential retail" for years. Destination shopping. Instagram moments. Dwell time. Meanwhile, convenience quietly drives more frequent traffic and more opportunities than any experience-driven concept ever will. The market is recognizing this: In late 2024, SITE Centers spun off its convenience retail portfolio
๐ข๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ. $๐ฑ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฎ๐๐ป๐. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐ต ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ. If you shopped at a mall in the 80s or 90s, you knew The Limited. Dark wood. Stained glass. Used brick. The store that made sportswear fashionable for the everyday woman. Leslie Wexner opened the first location on August 10, 1963, in the Kingsdale Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio.
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๐๐ฑ๐๐น๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป'๐ ๐ท๐๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐'๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น. The above photo is my oldest son's (29) lego city, called Bricklanta...a work in progress over the last 15 years. What started as a kid, has become a love of Lego that has lasted long into adulthood. This obsession has even taken over my wife
Retailer
๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ+ ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐. ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ณ๐ฎ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ผ๐ป. ๐ง๐๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ: ๐น๐ถ๐พ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป. If you were a teenage girl in the late 90s or early 2000s, Wet Seal was your spot. Metallic graphics on the walls. Graphic tees. Fast denim. The soundtrack of mall culture. Founded in 1962 in Newport Beach, California as "Lorne's" (a swimwear boutique), the name
Nostalgic Retail Series
If you grew up in the Northeast or MidโAtlantic, Rite Aid was justโฆ there. Flu shots, film developing, lateโnight snacks, first jobs. But behind that familiar blue script was a brutal balance sheet story. Founded by Alex Glass in 1962 in Scranton, PA as Thrift D Discount Center,
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Letโs start with a simple idea: Information isnโt scarce anymore...Attention is. We donโt live in a knowledge economy. We live in an attention economy. Online, everything is designed to grab your focus: * Platforms push outrage over nuance * Brands chase clicks over connection * Politics rewards extremes over
Nostalgic Retail Series
For anyone who grew up in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, the familiar red Thom McAn sign was as much a part of the American mall experience as the food court and the fountain. Ward Melville and J. Franklin McElwain opened the first Thom McAn store in New York City
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One of the unexpectedly viral series of posts this year for me has been the Nostalgic Retail and Nostalgic Restaurant Series. These have been fun to do, have brought back successful strategies, questionable decisions, failed leadership, and most of all....brand attachment that we all had to many of these
Nostalgic Retail Series
Founded in 1943 by German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, and Justin and Alma Zimmerman, the business began as the Cleveland Fabric Shop in Ohio, later adopting the Jo-Ann Fabrics name as it expanded beyond a single location.ย Becoming a publicly traded company in 1969, then
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I decided to dig into the history and theory of site selection, wanting to write about it, but with brevity (and not with the old "walking though 5 miles of snow to get to school attitude). Site selection has significantly evolved over the years...part due to economic development
Nostalgic Retail Series
Marshall Fieldโs roots trace to 1852, when Potter Palmer opened P. Palmer & Company in Chicago as an upscale dry-goods store focused on service and trust. In 1865, Marshall Field and Levi Leiter joined the business, and by 1881 Field had taken control and rebranded it as Marshall Field
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In Commercial Real Estate, data used to be scarce, proprietary, and hard to access. Today, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. We are awash in information: geospatial data, foot traffic data, building sensor data, hyperlocal demographic and persona data, transaction data, crime and employment data, sophisticated predictive models
Retailer
In 1992, Musicland Group saw an opportunity to revolutionize entertainment retail by creating a one-stop superstore that combined everything a media enthusiast could want: CDs, VHS tapes, video games, books, electronics, toys, anime, and more. The first Media Play opened its doors in Rockford, Illinois, at the Forest Plaza Shopping
Retailer
Founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett, Caldor started as a modest second-story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Chester, New York. The couple pooled their $8,000 in savings after visiting an E.J. Korvette store, inspired to create something different from typical