It seems like the news has been dominated by store closing announcements. But there are retailers still expanding. RBC Capital Markets has begun to track projected retailer store openings in a new monthly report.
According to data the firm has collected, 2,000 retailers plan to open 64,939 stores in the next 24 months. Overall, that’s a 7 percent drop from January, but up 1.7 percent from February. The high number of store openings for the database occurred in October 2008 at 71,956.
Some highlights from the report include the nugget that typical mall store tenants look to open 21,077 stores, down from 22,000 previously. Apparel stores look to open 4,935 stores, down from 5,500 previously. Big box stores, the most heavily impacted by bankruptcies so far in 2009, look to open 4,324 stores. (That figure does not include Wal-Mart or Target, however, who currently are not tracked in RBC’s database.)
The retail categories showing the largest number of planned store openings over the next 12 and 24 months are still food related, followed by salons/health, banking, and family apparel.
