Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #43 - WET SEAL

𝟱𝟬𝟬+ 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿: 𝗹𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 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

Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #42 - RITE AID

If you grew up in the Northeast or Mid‑Atlantic, Rite Aid was just… there. Flu shots, film developing, late‑night 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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The Attention Economy: Reshaping Retail (the Consumer) and Real Estate

Let’s start with a simple idea: Information isn’t scarce anymore...Attention is. We don’t 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

Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #41 - THOM McAN

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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Nostalgia to End 2025...

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

Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #40 - JOANN (Fabrics & Crafts)

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.  Becoming a publicly traded company in 1969,

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Where Did Site Selection Come From?

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

Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #39 - MARSHALL FIELDS

Marshall Field’s 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

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The CRE Data Deluge

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

Nostalgic Retail Series #38 - MEDIA PLAY

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

Retailer

Nostalgic Retail Series #37 - CALDOR

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

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Mobile Location Data: Powerful Insights or Expensive Noise? (The Difference Is in the Details)

In the commercial real estate industry, data-driven decision-making has become essential. Among the various data sources available, mobile location data (MLD) has emerged as a powerful tool, but one that requires careful understanding and application. I talked about this many years ago, not long after this data became