Black Rock Coffee Bar to grow five-fold

Black Rock Coffee Bar is putting the capital it raised in its IPO last year to work in an aggressive expansion that will take the western coffee chain from 190 locations now open to more than 1,000 units nationwide by 2035.

To do so, the chain has brought on Jon Vingo, a restaurant veteran with Skillets Restaurants, Bloomin'​ Brands, Inc. and Panera Bread, as the new chief development officer where he’ll oversee real estate and site selection.

Black Rock Coffee Bar currently has locations in only seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The largest concentration of its restaurants can be found in Arizona (where the company is currently headquartered) and Texas.

The chain plans to open 36 new restaurants in 2026 in existing Southwest and Pacific Northwest markets but has started evaluating new markets with potential new market entries in 2027 and 2028, according to CEO Mark Davis, MBA.

About 55% of Black Rock’s sales come from coffee while energy drinks make up 25%. Food, a growing category, already makes up 13%.

Black Rock is shifting toward more reverse build-to-suit leases in the near-term as it aims for greater speed to market. Prototype locations call for dual-format foundational (drive-thru plus lobbies). Roughly three-quarters of its locations feature indoor seating to foster a community-driven coffeehouse environment.

As Black Rock aggressively scales its growth, the company can adapt its modular drive-thru-only format for specific tight-space real estate markets where indoor lobbies aren't feasible.

Read more: Black Rock Coffee Bar names development chief; eyes 1,000 locations by 2035 (Chain Store Age)

How retailers choose between storefronts and mall inline space

Some retailers seek only storefront street locations while others seek inline spaces in high traffic malls. Some retailers need both types of exposure.

The retail real estate professional has to understand the retailer’s goals when selecting space.

Storefronts, whether street-level retail or unique freestanding stores in open-air shopping centers, offer brand independence, direct access, great visibility and flexible operating hours.

Mall spaces provide high, consistent foot traffic, shared security, amenities and tremendous cross-shopping opportunities within a managed complex.

Read more: Here’s why vacant downtown storefronts can be hard to lease (CoStar News)

Target Corporation to spend $1 billion in CapEx to open new stores and remodel older ones

Target Corporation is allocating more than $1 billion in CapEx this year to remodel 130-plus stores and open 30 new locations.

The remodels include stores in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia.

Key components of the capital investment include:

- Remodel older stores to improve shopping experience; (especially in beauty, home, apparel and grocery).

- Expand fulfillment capacity for drive up, order pickup and same-day delivery; (important because Target fulfills most online orders from stores rather than warehouses).

- Open stores in faster-growing metro markets where Target believes it is under penetrated.

- Reposition the brand around “style + value” after losing some momentum with consumers.

Target is trying to reverse several years of sluggish traffic and market-share pressure from Walmart, Amazon, other discount chains and fast-growing online competitors.

Deploying significant CapEx to enable physical retail to thrive at Target while expanding the store’s ability to fulfill preorders is a particular smart move at this time.

Many stores are aging. Some locations have not seen major upgrades in over a decade. Target employees on Reddit, Inc. frequently describe outdated layouts, inefficient backrooms and aging equipment.

Target wants to evolve its stores in ways that reflect how the customer is shopping today, which means creating more intuitive layouts and expanded merchandise assortments, but the company is also is looking to strengthen the role the stores play in fulfillment of online orders, according to Laurie Mahowald, senior vice president, Target Properties.

Management told Fortune last November that shoppers now expect stores to feel more curated, convenient and experiential, particularly for younger consumers who still enjoy browsing in-person for beauty, apparel and home décor.

Another factor is growth opportunity. Target has fewer U.S. stores than several key competitors and says it plans to add roughly 300 stores by 2035.

Read more: Target’s ambitious store remodel plans include 130 locations (Drug Store News)

Bob's Discount Furniture plans to open 20 stores this year

Bob's Discount Furniture plans to open approximately 20 stores in 2026. This represents a 10% unit growth.

The home furnishings chain continues to see a clear path to operating more than 500 stores by 2035, according to CEO Bill Barton. The company has been on an aggressive growth path, filing for an IPO this past February.

Bob’s currently operates 219 stores. The stores are spread across 26 states. While the chain started in the Northeast, it now has a significant presence in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and West Coast.

As of now, Bob’s has no presence in the deep South (states like Florida, Georgia or Texas) or the Pacific Northwest (Washington or Oregon).

The stores are designed to be no-frills to underscore its discount image but they try to be experiential, famously featuring a "Bob’s Cafe" at the center of every showroom where customers can get free coffee, cookies, candy and ice cream.

Most stores range between 30,000 and 40,000 square feet.

Read more: Bob’s Q1 growth defies wider sector trends (Retail Dive)

Retail rents are rising at a 2.4% annual rate, as availability of space falls to 4.9%

Available retail space is quickly filling up this year and for leases expiring in 2027 and 2028.

Retail rents are rising at a 2.4% annual rate, outpacing the 10-year average, amid record-low deliveries, according to CBRE. Three consecutive quarters of positive net absorption has kept the availability rate low, at just 4.9 percent at the end of the first quarter.

Occupancy is extremely high, particularly in high-quality, grocery-anchored suburban centers, and in many markets, such as the Sun Belt.

It's no longer retailers taking up retail space. It's now, restaurants of all types, entertainment, educational providers, medical and other services that are chasing good retail space for proximity to customers in suburban America. According to Ebere Anokute, head of retail research for the Americas at CBRE, last year was the first time that more retail space was leased by service tenants than by tenants selling actual goods.

Add to that the lack of new development, and you have a condition where occupancy and rents increase to meet demand for space. Construction for retail space is currently at historic lows with 2025 and early 2026 ranking among the weakest periods for new retail development in this century.

Read more: Why Retail Shines On (Commercial Property Executive)

Former Taubman Specialty Leasing Expert Cheri (Baker) Cook Joins Woodcliff Realty

Strategies to enhance landlord revenue beyond the conventional leasing of space remain a central focus for owners, particularly at properties in redevelopment during pre-leasing and construction phases.

To further advance this initiative, Woodcliff Realty Advisors, LLC welcomes Cheri Cook, a specialty leasing expert formerly with The Taubman Company.

Cheri (Baker) Cook will offer her extensive experience in driving incremental, top-line revenue growth for our retail real estate clients.

Her past experience working with premier landlords, such as Taubman Centers, Inc., GGP, Kravco Company LLC and Trammell Crow Company, spans a wide range of capabilities—from curating distinctive merchandise concepts to creating partnerships with local community entities that not only generate revenue but also drive incremental traffic to the shopping center.

She will help Woodcliff Realty clients boost NOI by introducing incremental revenue opportunities, such as pop-up and brand activations, digital signage, sponsorships, telecommunications leases, automated retail, ghost kitchens, food trucks and short-term storage solutions, to name a few.

Cheri managed specialty leasing and common area initiatives for Taubman Centers before its collection of trophy mall assets was acquired by Simon Property Group in November 2025. This allowed her to transition from working with one landlord to now assisting multiple landlords as a consultant. She will continue to be based in Detroit Metro. Please give a warm welcome shoutout to Cheri.

If you wish to discuss how to improve your specialty leasing income, let’s chat at ICSC Las Vegas.

Read more: Cook joins Woodcliff Realty Advisors (New York Real Estate Journal)

A&G Real Estate Partners is marketing Walgreens leases and company-owned parcels

A&G Real Estate Partners, LLC has begun marketing Walgreens leases and company-owned parcels.

The portfolio includes 78 properties, 60 of which are locations leased from landlords that are offered as subleases or possibly direct new leases. In the latter, A&G can negotiate with the landlord on behalf of the tenant insterested in acquiring the site, according to A&G Co-President Emilio Amendola.

The remaining locations are existing Walgreens stores, shuttered stores or undeveloped land currently fee-owned by Walgreens and are being offered for sale.

The Walgreens buildings range from 2,070 to 23,509 square feet while the undeveloped fee-owned parcels range from 0.12 to 20.86 acres.

If you recall, A&G is the same broker that sold off RITE AID leases under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to Dollar Tree Stores, Five Below, Burlington Stores, Inc., Ross Stores, Inc., Ace Hardware Corporation and several grocery chains. According A&G Principal Joseph McKeska, A&G also sold 50 fee-owned Rite Aid properties to investors and developers.

However, Walgreens, which is not in bankruptcy, does not have the same leverage to peddle leases as was the case with Rite-Aid.

In a normal business deal, if Walgreens wants to sell its lease to a different retailer, the landlord often has the right to block it via an "anti-assignment" clause.

In bankruptcy, these clauses are generally unenforceable. The bankruptcy court can force a landlord to accept a new tenant (assignee) as long as that tenant can prove financial stability sufficient enough to pay future rent obligations under the existing lease.

Since Walgreens is not currently in bankruptcy, the process of selling leases is much more difficult:

- The company with assistance from A&G must negotiate with each individual landlord to buy out the lease or get permission to sublease or assign.

- Without the typical bankruptcy cap on damages, Walgreens will likely have to pay much higher termination fees to walk away from a location.

- Landlords have more power to reject a new tenant if they don't think that tenant fits their tenant mix, credit profile or can achieve market rent through direct negotiations.

Walgreens Boots Alliance underwent a significant shift in late 2025 when it was acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners for approximately $10 billion.

The current marketing of leases is part of a multi-year plan to close roughly 1,200 underperforming stores. While original estimates for 2026 suggested 700 closures, the new ownership has reportedly scaled that back to fewer than 100 closures for this year to focus on stabilizing the remaining healthy stores.

Read more: A&G offering 78 Walgreens properties nationwide (Mass Market Retailers)

Albertsons to spend $2.2B on CapEx for store upgrades and technology

Albertsons plans to spend $2.2B on CapEx this year, focusing on store upgrades and technological enhancements.

The supermarket chain spent over $1.8 billion on capital expenditures during fiscal 2025. The company upgraded 94 stores last year and added nine new locations, but intends to accelerate that pace during fiscal 2026, perhaps adding around 14 or 15 new stores this year.

CEO Susan Morris said that Albertsons believes investing in its stores will play a central role in maintaining shopper engagement and encouraging people to direct their business its way.

After the $24.6B Kroger–Albertsons merger was blocked by federal and state courts in December 2024, Albertsons remains one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S., with thousands of stores and multiple banners (Safeway, VONS, Jewel Osco, Tom Thumb Supermarket, Randalls Food Market, etc.).

Read more: Albertsons looks to store remodels and technology to juice growth (Grocery Dive)

ALDI USA has been testing new formats in Florida

ALDI USA has been testing new formats in Florida aimed at modernizing Aldi’s physical retail presence while preserving the operational simplicity that underpins its low-price (mostly private-label) strategy.

Trials of the new prototype began in late 2025 in Aventura, a notable choice given Florida’s importance as one of Aldi’s fastest-growing regions.

The redesign introduces a modular system that can flex across a range of store sizes and formats, from traditional suburban supermarkets to compact urban locations. While Aldi has historically relied on standardized layouts built for speed, efficiency and lean staffing, the updated model is designed to be more adaptable — allowing stores to respond to local real estate constraints and evolving shopping behaviors without compromising cost discipline.

Globally, Aldi Süd operates more than 7,500 stores across 11 countries, with the U.S. standing as its largest and most dynamic market. The company now runs more than 2,400 stores nationwide and has steadily moved up the ranks of America’s leading grocery chains by store count.

The new design was developed by Australia-based Landini Associates.

Read more: First Look At New Aldi Format Set To Rollout Across The U.S. (Forbes)

Crunch Fitness is expanding in neighborhood and community centers

Crunch Fitness continues to expand.

Chequan Lewis, president of Crunch Fitness says the company is planning around 100 new locations, domestically and internationally, for 2026. In 2025 alone, Crunch signed leases for approximately 4.27 million square feet of space, which is a 48% jump from 2024, according to CoStar Group.

Lewis said that the most successful Crunch locations are those that fit seamlessly into a member’s daily routine, for example, locations anchored by grocery stores, discount retailers and everyday service businesses.

Affordability, convenience and efficiency are what consumers prioritize, and the company’s site selection strategy is built around those principles, he told Chain Store Age.

Grocery-anchored centers illustrate this approach well. Crunch’s peak hours — typically between 5 and 6 p.m. — align naturally with after-work shopping trips, allowing both the gym and neighboring tenants to benefit from shared foot traffic.

Adaptive reuse has also become a key strategy for landlords. Crunch is repurposing second- and third-generation retail spaces into gyms, reducing build-out costs while taking advantage of established, high-traffic locations that are already familiar to its target customers.

Read more: Q&A: Crunch Fitness president talks expansion plans, gym category trends (Chain Store Age)

7-Eleven will shutter 645 struggling stores and open new larger locations

Amid a national trend toward bigger c-stores from growing competitive convenience store chains like Wawa, Inc., Sheetz and Buc-ee's, Ltd., the parent company of 7-Eleven will shutter 645 locations during its 2026 fiscal year to swap struggling stores for larger footprints.

This isn’t simply a wave of closures—it’s a strategic repositioning. The company is shifting into an expansion phase that replaces older, smaller locations with larger, food-centric stores.

Across 2024 and 2025, 7-Eleven has closed more than 600 stores, including nearly 450 in North America. At the same time, it plans to open 122 stores this year while closing 373, followed by a more aggressive push next year with 205 openings and 645 closures. All of this aligns with a broader plan to add 500 new stores between 2025 and 2027.

Read more: 7-Eleven will close 600 stores this year to prepare for massive makeover (New York Post)

Saks and Neiman store closures are good or bad for retail landlords

The closure of a full-line Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus store will be pure hell for some malls but a blessing for others.

You have to look at the stores on a case-by-case basis, but in some cases, the closures can wreak havoc to the shopping center’s luxury positioning and cotenancy provisions while in other cases can provide an opportunity for landlords to redevelop that space in a much more financially advantageous way.

Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix and Fashion Show Las Vegas, will do well even with their Saks Global stores closing, as those landlords can re-lease the space at much higher rents per square foot. But for The Collection at Chevy Chase in Maryland; The Summit in Birmingham, Alabama; The Shops at Canal Place in New Orleans; Triangle Town Center in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Utica Square in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the loss of Saks Fifth Avenue stores may be damaging.

Read more: Mall owners plot how to fill Saks Global’s abandoned space (CoStar News)

Bed Bath & Beyond combines with The Container Store under one roof

Combining the traditional merchandise categories of Bed Bath & Beyond with The Container Store within the latter’s existing store portfolio has the potential to fill a clear, market-driven gap—if executed with discipline.

Layering in bedding, bath, textiles, kitchen, entertaining essentials, home services, flooring, lighting and cabinetry alongside The Container Store’s core strength in organization—especially custom closet design—could create a differentiated, all-in-one home solution that is largely absent in today’s brick-and-mortar landscape. But to do this quickly the right real estate is needed, and it comes as part of the package.

Real estate has been the strongest element of The Container Store from the outset; all locations painstakingly curated and negotiated by Valerie Richardson, who headed the company’s real estate for years. The existing leases is the most valuable asset that Bed Bath & Beyond is acquiring in this deal.

The Container Store’s portfolio of 100+ high-quality locations in affluent, high-traffic trade areas offers the right real estate foundation: strong visibility, easy access and box sizes capable of supporting a broader, integrated concept under one roof.

Both brands enjoy strong recognition and appeal, and they are complementary rather than redundant. Customers drawn to premium organization are often the same consumers willing to invest in higher-end bedding, kitchenware and home solutions.

That said, realizing this vision will require sharp brand positioning and disciplined execution. Branding experts will be essential to distill the combined offering into a clear, cohesive and compelling identity, not just The Container Store / Bed Bath & Beyond.

Read more: Bed Bath & Beyond adds Container Store to its shopping cart for $150 million (CoStar News)

Asian retailers rapidly expanding in the U.S.

Asian retailers are rapidly expanding in the U.S., and there's no better example than the New York area's massive retail-entertainment complex, American Dream in East Rutherford, N.J.

Per my latest count of the megamall's offerings, there were 50 Asian tenants, including famous global brands and newer players as POP MART, MINISO USA, Kiokii and..., H Mart, Rolife by Robotime-Total Puzzle Solution, heytea, Hello Kitty, ALAND USA, Ebisu Lifestyle Store (colorado), GENTLE MONSTER, A BATHING APE®, EP YAYING雅莹, Jollibee Group North America, Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., Kung Fu Tea, Hey! I am Yogost Indonesia, Naixue Tea & Bakery of United States, Real Fruit Bubble Tea, Vanessa's Dumpling House, Little Sheep Hot Pot, Sushi Express Group Pte. Ltd., Ugly Donuts & Corn Dogs, Szechuan Opera, Lady M Confections Co., Ltd., Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, Wagyu House and Chubby Sushi (by Chubby Group), YOYOSO and many others.

The trend to pursue Asian retailers expanding in North America is led by Triple Five Group's visionaries like Raphael Ghermezian, Don Ghermezian, Laura DeSwart and others who truly understand retail and how Asian retail is the wave of the 2020s in America.

Asian retailers not only cater to American tastes but they also attract Asian Americans and Asian tourists. American Dream's New York Metro trade area has among the largest highest-earning Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) population in the U.S. (2.5M residents with median HH income of $86,450 and 2.9M tourists). In the New York area, Asian retailers are also expanding to Flushing (Queens), which has a strong street retail hub and Koreatown in Manhattan.

In California, Asian retailers are moving heavily into Great Mall of the Bay Area (Milpitas), Stonestown Galleria (San Francisco) and Asian Garden Mall (Westminster, a Little Saigon hub in Orange County).

Asian retailers seek top-tier luxury and tourist-oriented malls like Aventura Mall (north of Miami), King of Prussia Mall (Philadelphia suburbs), Lenox Square (Atlanta), and Bellevue Square (near Seattle).

However, this phenomenon is not exclusively coastal. These global chains are opening locations in Austin (Gateway Shopping Center and Barton Creek Square), Houston (Chinatown and nearby malls), Dallas suburbs, Asia Mall (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Woodfield Mall (Schaumburg, Ill.), Streets of Woodfield (north of Chicago), and Fashion Outlets of Chicago (Rosemont).

How do you get your share of this trend? The property has to be located in a market where Asian-Americans live and/or tourists from Asia flock. Analyze your demographics and check to see if there are grocery stores that cater to Asian tastes near your property.

But, most importantly, your leasing efforts have to reach out to Asian retailers and their brokers.

Read more: Asian Retail Brands Are Chasing Space in the U.S. (ICSC Commerce + Communities Today)

Does the "Market by Macy's" concept need more tweaking to survive?

Macy's continues to execute its strategy of shifting focus from in-mall, larger locations toward smaller, suburban, open-air centers.

Thus far, Macy's has opened over 30 to 35 small-format stores (roughly 30,000–50,000 sq. ft.), with plans to expand this concept. But is this experiment working?

Consider this: Macy’s has already closed five of these newer small format stores in Southlake, Texas; Flower Mound, Texas; Johns Creek, Ga.; WestBend in Fort Worth, Texas and the latest in Ramsey, N.J. The latter is surrounded by The TJX Companies, Inc.’s T.J. Maxx, Burlington Stores, Inc., DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse and Old Navy, all successful retail locations.

The Macy’s small format stores are more like mini versions of the Macy’s full line department stores than the value-oriented treasure-hunt locations operated by TJX, Nordstrom Rack, Ross Stores, Inc. and Burlington. All of them are located in open-air community centers.

Can Macy’s make the "Market by Macy's" concept more appealing to customers?

The Macy’s storefront sign barely had time to leave an imprint on the paint underneath it as the store closed permanently after a relatively brief run of roughly two years at the Interstate Shopping Center in Ramsey, New Jersey. The center is owned by a joint venture between Wafra Inc. and Crossroads Companies.

Some fitness chains seek large boxes; others, smaller inline space

Fitness chains continue to expand looking for retail space at open-air community centers, mostly grocery-anchored, where space availability is low.

While larger chains like Planet Fitness, Crunch Fitness, EōS Fitness and LA Fitness are signing leases for the few large spaces that become available for lease in 2026, 2027 and 2028 at community centers, boutique fitness tenants such as Club Pilates, SoulCycle Inc., F45 Training, YogaSix, Orangetheory Fitness and others have smaller square footage requirements, and thus more leeway to snatch up good space in today’s high occupancy environment.

The large chains usually monitor large impending vacancies from retailers like Kroger, Party City, Joann Fabrics, Family Dollar, Rite Aid, Bed Bath & Beyond, Big Lots, Conn’s, Tuesday Morning and others that through bankruptcy or mass closures are abandoning good space at properties that have ample parking.

Fitness tenants typically pay below-average retail rents because they use large spaces and require significant build-out. However, landlords accept the lower rent because gyms drive repeat daily traffic and commit to long lease terms (10–20 years).

Read more: Fitness chains beef up at retail centers (Chain Store Age)

Gen Z’s in-store spending growth is outpacing all other generations

Mall revival: Gen Z’s retail-spending growth is outpacing all other generations, according to NielsenIQ, with the generation’s global annual retail spending expected to exceed $12 trillion by 2030. Gen Zers spend a greater proportion of their discretionary dollars in physical stores than older generations, according to Circana.

The reason this is important, is because the millennial generation never warmed to hanging out at the mall in the same way Gen X had or Gen Z is doing.

Shoppers between the ages of 18 and 24 bought 62% of their total GAFO purchases in stores rather than ordered them online last year. Shoppers ages 25 and older, by contrast, made 52% of their purchases in person, according to Circana.

Who stands to benefit from this trend? Certainly mall owners and operators like Simon Property Group, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Macerich and other companies, but so do retailers that cater to Gen Z: Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Madewell, Urban Outfitters, Nike, UNIQLO, PACSUN, SKIMS, Glossier, Inc. and even more obscure names like Catbird NYC, a jewelry brand catering to Gen Zers with a "magical atmosphere" that feels like a discovery rather than a transaction.

Perhaps the zest for in-person experiences is due to Gen Zers spending their formative years under pandemic lockdown.

Read more: A New Generation of Mall Rats Has Arrived (The Wall Street Journal)

BJ's Wholesale Club ramps up store count

BJ's Wholesale Club will expand its footprint with more warehouse clubs. The company opened 14 clubs last year, the most its ever added in a single year. Including those, the company remains on track to open up to 30 new locations by year end. Due to the existing pipeline of leases in negotiation, the company expects this pace of openings to continue over the coming years, according to chairman and CEO Bob Eddy.

BJ's Wholesale Club currently operates 263 clubs and 199 fuel locations in 21 states.

Read more: BJ’s Wholesale Forecasts Higher Expenses With More Store Openings (The Wall Street Journal)

Nordstrom expansion continues for off-price unit

While Saks Global is practically abandoning its off-price channel with plans to close most of its Saks OFF 5TH locations, Nordstrom, which started as a shoe store in 1901, continues to expand its off-price brand.

Nordstrom, Inc., now operating as a private company, is rapidly expanding its discount concept with 22 new Rack locations announced to open in 2026 across the U.S.

Signed leases will result in new Rack stores in Sarasota, Fla.; Pompano Beach, Fla.; Lake Nona, Fla. (near Orlando); Tampa, Fla.; Encinitas, Calif.; Elmwood, La.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Canton, Ohio; Fairlawn, Ohio; Deptford, N.J.; East Brunswick, N.J.; Marlton, N.J.; Plymouth, Mass.; Mansfield, Mass.; Williamsburg, Va.; Spokane, Wash.; Park City, Utah; Columbia, Mo.; Atlanta, Ga.; Media, Penn.; Exton, Penn. and Rockville, Md.

Most 2026 openings range between 23,000 and 31,000 square feet. Larger format locations like Spokane, Wash. (31,000 sq. ft.), Marlton, N.J. (30,000 sq. ft.) and Exton and Media, Penn. (30,000 sq. ft. each) are being placed in premier power centers alongside major anchors like Walmart, IKEA or Ulta Beauty. Compact format stores in Mansfield, Mass. (23,700 sq. ft.) and Canton, Ohio (23,800 sq. ft.) are tailored for smaller footprint lifestyle centers.

The upcoming openings show Nordstrom’s deliberate shift toward open-air shopping centers and lifestyle hubs (like Atlantic Station in Atlanta or Pinnacle at Turkey Creek in Knoxville) rather than traditional enclosed malls where Nordstrom operates full-line department stores.

The last time Nordstrom opened a brand-new, full-line department store was on October 24, 2019, in New York City. However, on March 6, 2025, Nordstrom opened a new 138,000-square-foot full-line store at Fashion Place Mall (Murray, Utah), which was relocated from another space within the same mall.

The Rack concept now represents about three-fourths of Nordstrom’s 390-plus stores nationwide. Amid rising demand for off-price retail concepts, which includes continued expansion by The TJX Companies, Inc., Burlington Stores, Inc. and Ross Stores, Inc., Nordstrom continues to expand Nordstrom Rack. It added about 20 locations last year.

Spend growth at off-price chains is among the strongest in retail, ‌with gains ⁠across all income segments, recently led by lower-income shoppers but with solid growth from middle- and higher-income households as well, Michael Gunther, CFA, SVP of research and market intelligence at ConsumerEdge Research told Reuters.

Read more: Nordstrom Rack adds more store openings — here is the 2026 lineup (chain Store Age)

TJX to open 146 stores; three-fourths in the U.S.

Driven by strong sales in 2025 and a solid start to 1Q2026, The TJX Companies, Inc. plans to open 146 new stores in 2026, bringing its total global footprint over 5,300. Nearly three-quarters of new store openings will be in the U.S.

The company also plans over 540 remodels of existing stores and plans to relocate ~40 others to better-performing sites this year. The latter proves that just because the store a leasing person wants is already located in a nearby shopping center, the retailer can be convinced to relocate the store.

The retail chain is a big believer in brick-and-mortar retail and has proven success in drawing customers to its stores year after year. "We remain confident that in-store shopping is not going away and believe our focus on offering customers an exciting treasure hunt shopping experience every day will continue to serve us well," CEO Ernie Herrman said in the earnings call this week.

T.J. Maxx and Marshalls remain the company’s largest brands, with over 2,500 combined U.S. locations.

HomeGoods is the brand with the largest long-term store growth potential. TJX aims to nearly double this concept's U.S. footprint from ~1,000 to 1,800 locations over the next decade. Homesense, a newer U.S. home concept (distinct from HomeGoods) focuses on large-scale furniture and decor.

Sierra, the activewear and outdoor concept is a key growth vehicle, with plans to eventually reach over 325 stores nationwide.

Read more: TJX goes on offense as rivals struggle to keep pace (EMarketer)