Discount stores remain popular, with many brands in this category taking up vacant big-box units. These value-brand tenants fulfill a need for customers looking to “bargain hunt,” a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. The audience for these value-priced stores is not just the trend-seeking Gen Z or millennial shoppers hoping to score great deals on brand-name products that would typically be out of their price range, but also struggling Americans truly looking to spend less money for everyday household, apparel and furniture products. Big players in this category include Bealls Inc. (which incorporates Bealls Outlet, Burkes Outlet and Home Centric), Big Lots and Primark. Expect these discount brands to open units in all forms of retail centers in the future.
Bealls Inc., which encompasses the Bealls Outlet in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, Burkes Outlet and Home Centric brands, anticipates strong expansion at approximately 75 to 100 new units per year over the next two years. This is primarily due to Bealls acquiring the Texas-based Stage Stores, Inc., in October of 2020, which include the brands Stage Stores, Gordmans, Peebles, Bealls (unrelated to the purchaser, Bealls Inc.) and Goody’s Family Clothing Inc. Much of the new real estate growth Bealls is embarking on consists of the brand taking over these former units in the South and the Midwest, in sites found in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas. Bealls is also expanding into Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois, and as far west as Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. As part of the acquisition deal, Bealls acquired a 435,000-s.f. distribution center in Jacksonville, Texas, which will aid expansion goals. For its outlet stores, Bealls prefers inline spaces in 18,000- to 22,000-s.f. range in grocery-anchored power centers found in tertiary locations with a population of 20,000 within a 10-minute drive of the space. For its Home Centric brand, Bealls looks for space in the 15,000-s.f. range with similar demographic goals. Bealls will consider taking over larger vacant spaces, in the 30,000- to 35,000-s.f. range, to open a combination version of its stores, featuring both its outlet, and its Home Centric brand. Preferred co-tenants include Ross, Walmart and Marshalls. The Bealls and Burkes Outlets sell clothing, accessories and beauty products at up to 70% off, and Home Centric sells value-priced home décor items.
Big Lots anticipates opening between 40 and 60 net new stores in 2022, and to then potentially open up to 100 stores per year until 2025. All U.S. markets are targeted for growth in urban, suburban and rural territories, and Big Lots especially seeks fill-in and white space opportunities. The discount chain seeks 25,000- to 40,000-s.f. end cap, inline or freestanding space, in power centers and grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers near major traffic arteries. Ideal co-tenants include grocery stores such as Albertsons and discount furniture retailers such as Bob’s Discount Furniture. Its demographics cover a wide range of consumers, from families to individual men and women in all age ranges. Its stores are now being set up with a 500-s.f. Section in the front area, called “The Lot,” which features new merchandise categories that can be tested out, and which are configured in unique themed presentations, whether it be apparel, outdoor sporting goods or novelty kitchen appliances. Big Lots sells liquidation items at a discount, including large ticket furniture pieces, as well as household supplies, groceries and seasonal décor.
Primark, the Ireland-based off-priced, value-driven store, anticipates opening approximately 10 to 15 new units per year over the next five years in the U.S. Growth will be primarily in states east of the Mississippi River, especially in markets where the brand already has a presence. Look for mall units in the Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago MSAs to be targeted, in addition to new markets being eyed, such as Nashville, Tenn., Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Columbus, Ohio. Although the brand primarily targets major metros, Primark has also found success during the pandemic in less populated mid-sized cities and secondary markets in suburban neighborhoods. For example, the brand will be opening a unit by late 2021/early 2022 in the Crossgates Mall in Westmere, N.Y., a suburb of Albany. Expect Primark to seek super-regional indoor mall spaces in the 30,000- to 45,000-s.f. range, with co-tenants that can run the gamut, ranging from Macy’s and Nordstrom to Five Below and Walmart. Primark, which has a constantly changing replenishment of its men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, home products and beauty items — the majority of which are its own in-house labels — keeps its prices in the
