So The Chains Didn’t Take Over During the Pandemic After All…
Remember when there was lots of hand-wringing during the pandemic that MOM-AND-POPS would be decimated, allowing the big bad (and better-capitalized) CHAINS to widen their leads still further in their respective categories? Well, not only did such prognostications underestimate the resourcefulness and resiliency of the former, but also, the presence of large brands, at least on the streets of the nation’s biggest and densest city, has been weakening, not intensifying. According to the Center for an Urban Future (see link below), the number of chain stores in New York City declined 3.1% year-over-year in 2023 — representing the second-largest decrease since the survey was first conducted in 2008 (with 2020 as the largest) — and has contracted by some 13.8% since late 2019! The pullback occurred in all five boroughs, with the steepest drop in Manhattan (18.3%). All eight of the city’s most ubiquitous banners have fewer locations today than they did prior to the pandemic. Moreover, the losses were most heavily concentrated in the very categories that had most bedeviled advocates of small business and neighborhood character in the aughts: large-format drug stores, cell-phone purveyors and bank branches (which were not included in the survey). Of course, New York City is an anomaly in many respects, not the least of which is its unforgiving rent levels, yet these trends are or will be impacting other cities and metros as well. Indeed, as “pharmacy desert(s)” spread across the retail-scape and as the vacated 10,000 to 15,000 sq ft boxes prove challenging to backfill, communities and districts might even start to long for those Walgreens, CVS and/or Rite Aid stores that once blighted their 100% corners…