Placer.ai: Mall traffic inches closer to pre-pandemic levels
The American mall’s traffic recovery from COVID-19 is proceeding at a healthy pace, according to a new white paper from Placer.ai.
During the heart of the pandemic, visits to all mall types tracked by the foot traffic analytics provider’s Mall Index were between 10.7% to 15.3% lower than they were in 2019. But shoppers began streaming back in 2022 and, by 2023, visit gaps across all sectors of retail real estate were just 2.3% lower than they were in 2019.
Open-air centers included in Placer.ai’s Mall Index actually outperformed the industry average during that time period with a visit gap of a mere 1%. Enclosed malls, meanwhile, narrowed their traffic falloffs to 5.8% after having dropped by 11.3% in 2022.
Many of the remote workers born of the pandemic are back at the office, and that has resulted in a small decrease in weekday visits to malls during the early morning and late evening dayparts. Weekday visits during the afternoon and early evening hours, however, have continued to increase.
The weekday share of visits at enclosed malls during 4:00-to-7:00 p.m. rose from 29.1% in 2019 to 32.4% in 2023. During the 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. period over those same years, the share moved from 28.4% to 29.4%. Around the clock, the share of weekday visits have remained nearly identical to pre-COVID levels.
“So although changes in work habits have not altered the weekly visit distribution, it seems like hybrid workers are taking advantage of their new, and likely more flexible schedules to frequent malls in the afternoon instead of reserving their mall trips for after work,” read the Placer.ai report.
One trend unrelated to the pandemic that’s boosting traffic is the increased flow of new entertainment and food and beverage tenants into malls.
In September 2023, a 250,000-sq.-ft. Scheels store opened at the Chandler Fashion Center in Arizona that — as well as being filled with athletic wear and sporting equipment — holds a Ferris wheel and a 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. Scheels immediately boosted Chandler traffic as high as its 45-foot wheel. Traffic shot up by 45% in October and remained 30% higher in November and December.
The Southgate Mall in Missoula, Mont., had a similar experience following the opening of a Texas Roadhouse that opened in October of 2023. Overall visits to the mall rose by 10% in November and by 17% in December.