CUF Report: State of the Chains, 2024

Center for an Urban Future (CUF) recently released its 17th annual State of the Chain’s report — a ranking of national retailers in New York City. Findings of CUF’s tracking of chain retail trends reveal that over the past year the number of chain stores throughout New York City declined for the fifth time in the past seven years. The largest declines were among retailers selling merchandise — pharmaceutical products, cell phones, clothing, shoes, cosmetics, and vitamins as the growing strength of e-commerce increases competition. However, many food retailers are also reducing their store footprint. Among the over 450 national retailers ranked by CUF, 130 had a net reduction in store locations, in contrast to the 94 brands that had a net store gain; while 229 retailers had no change, resulting in an overall net decline of 109 stores from last year’s total of 8,148 to 8,039 in 2024. Although all five boroughs saw a net decline, Manhattan saw the largest reduction of 56 stores at the high, or 1.8% of the total; and in contrast, the Bronx saw the smallest decline of 4 stores, or 0.4% of the total. Popeye’s led the 13 largest retailers in store gains, adding 52 stores in 2024, followed by Chipotle Mexican Grill’s 32 store increase in locations. Since December 2019, the 13 largest chains tracked have a combined total of 797 fewer store locations, standouts among those chains that pulled back are Metro by T-Mobile, with a net loss of 229 stores at the high; and at the low, AT&T and Baskin-Robbins ad a net decline of 36 stores each. The continuation of the declining trend suggests that the “environment for many national retailers remains challenging” even though many of the “city’s commercial districts have seen a strong recovery in storefronts.”

Source:    https://nycfuture.org/pdf/CUF_StateoftheChains_2024.pdf