Stock-piling or just… shopping?
For the first time in nearly 50 days,
Retail Tracker shows an increase in retail traffic.
While some states deliberate the timing and scope of their re-openings, it looks like consumers and employees are slowly returning to retail. Directionally, this is very interesting, but the key question is whether or not the return will be sustained or if consumers are just replenishing depleted stores of food and necessities. Stockpiling can’t be ruled out as the source of the uptick in retail traffic, because the industries with the highest traffic are still generally consumer staples like grocery/supermarkets, gas stations, and pharmacies/drugstores. Gyms, malls, and full-service restaurants? Not much to see… yet.
Highlights
Detroit, MI, leads all US cities with a 68.1% drop
Charlotte, NC, “led” for two weeks straight, but now we see midwestern states leading when it comes to decreased retail traffic. Omaha, NE, and Kansas City, MO, are right behind Detroit at the top of list.
Check out your city, here.
Last minute home improvements before the lockdown lifts?
Everyone procrastinates, so maybe that explains why Lowe’s and The Home Depot had the highest retail traffic (relative to their baselines) among
all tracked retail brands. Are people feeling like this prolonged time at home is about to come to an end, and so now it’s time to finish off those pesky home improvements?
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Retail Tracker analyzes over 280 billion mobile data points across 3 million retail locations using our core geospatial mobile technologies. This gets distilled down into trends by city, industry, and brand, showing how consumers are (or aren’t) spending their time in brick-and-mortar locations.