Dive Brief:
- Planned Grocery, a grocery location intelligence company, has teamed with Intalytics, a predictive analytics firm, to form a data partnership that will allow clients to get a detailed look at grocery real estate locations, according to Grocery Headquarters.
- The value of the program, according to the companies, is in the accuracy of the locations and the overall collection of sites.
- The new program features more than 1,200 locations across the U.S. that have some type of grocery anchored development activity, and includes sites that are proposed, under construction and recently built.
Dive Insight:
In a crowded — some would say "over-stored" — grocery industry, location is everything. So a grocery site company combining with a predictive analytics firm could be of immense value to retailers looking to get a leg up on their competition.
With the grocery store landscape rapidly evolving in the U.S., finding the best places for new stores has become not just a matter of targeting the right town or the right zip code, but the exact point on the map where favorable demographics, customer traffic, atmosphere and numerous other factors converge. So many new stores are coming to market—especially discount retailers and dollar stores—that grocers need to frequently check the real estate landscape for new opportunities and competitive threats.
Planned Grocery's data is updated weekly, and details on each planned grocery event include the status, location, opening date, square footage, and news source. Combining with Intalytics' SiteIntel platform, according to the firms, will offer a more detailed, up-to-date survey of grocery real estate than media sources, which many in the industry rely on.
Overall, grocery real estate is at a premium, both in terms of price and availability. There are numerous site openings for grocery stores in declining and low-income neighborhoods, but locating in these areas can be a big gamble. Increasingly, grocers are concentrating on areas of the country where millennials are gravitating and live/work/play environments are popping up.
Grocers also are quick to jump on any real estate that comes available due to store closures, bankruptcies, and so on. When Dominick’s closed in late 2013, it left behind 72 stores with prime real estate in the Chicago area. The former retailer’s competitors, including Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s and Whole Foods, quickly swooped in, and in a period of just over two years snapped up the most promising sites. Analysts said it was a rare opportunity for retailers to gain stores in a highly sought-after market.