Academy Sports + Outdoors plans to open 20-25 new stores in 2025

Academy Sports + Outdoors has surpassed 300 stores after opening in York, Pa., Harrisburg, Pa. and Hagerstown, Md. These 2025 openings mark Academy's first locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland, increasing the retailer's footprint to 21 states.

In addition, Academy opened a new store in Kansas City, Mo. in March, and will open another new location in Charlotte, N.C. in April 2025.

The company plans to open a total of 20-25 new stores in its 2025 fiscal year. In 2024, Academy opened a total of 16 new locations across 10 states, including its first in Ohio.

Read more: Academy hits 300 stores; expands into two East Coast states (Chain Store Age)

The Paper Store expands new concept "Uncharted" with second store.

TPS Group Holdings, which operates The Paper Store and other retail concepts around the world continues to expand its new concept store branded as Uncharted. The second store opens this Saturday, March 29, 2025 in Greenvale, N.Y. The new store fills a 10,782-sq.-ft. corner location on Long Island’s Green Cove Plaza.

The first Uncharted store opened last November at The Shops at Oak Brook Place in Chicagoland, and Tom Anderson, president and CEO of The Paper Store is pleased with the results. In fact, the Oak Brook store has become the highest performing store in TPS Group Holdings' portfolio of brands. Six additional Uncharted stores are slated to open throughout Illinois this year as part of the company’s $60 million investment in new and existing stores over the next four years.

Uncharted carries home decor, beauty, toys and clothing brands including BIRKENSTOCK, Free People and Kendra Scott. For photos of the new store, follow link to article.

The Paper Store currently operates 100 stores.

Read more: Uncharted, sister to The Paper Store, unveils first Long Island location (Long Island News)

PGA Tour Superstore opened second store in Michigan; seven more to open in U.S. in 2025

PGA TOUR Superstore, founded by Arthur M. Blank, who is still chairman of AMB Sport & Entertainment, has 75 locations in the U.S., and will open seven more in 2025, according to a prepared statement by Jill Spiegel, president.

Most of the locations are in the Southeast and the West Coast in 27 states, but by the end of the year, it will have a presence in 30 states when the company adds new stores in Connecticut, Kentucky and Missouri. The PGA Tour Superstore has already began the buildout for a new store in St. Louis County, its first store in Missouri. The goal is to grow more in the central part of the country, according to Spiegel. PGA Tour Superstore locations average 35,000 square feet.

The newest store opened in greater Grand Rapids, Mich. It features a wide range of golf equipment and apparel, an 896-square-foot indoor putting green, and offers lessons from certified professionals and an in-house club repair and custom club-making facility for repairs, regripping, adjustments and custom fittings. It has two Studio-brand bays for golf instructions and club fitting, four practice bays and four simulator bays for customers to play virtual rounds and test equipment.

Read more: PGA Tour Superstore, ‘A Disneyland for Golfers,’ Continues Rollout (Women’s Wear Daily)

Ocean State Job Lot is acquiring 15 Big Lots leases in eight different states

Ocean State Job Lot is the latest chain to scoop up former Big Lots leases from Gordon Brothers, acquiring 15 stores in eight different states: Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

The Rhode Island-based discount chain already has 159 locations in the Northeast, and the expansion will add two new states to its presence: Delaware and Maryland. The Big Lots stores are expected to be renovated, rebranded and reopened as Ocean State’s Job Lot by mid-summer 2025.

OSJL said in a statement that these converted stores range in size from 27,188 square feet to 43,021 square feet.

Ocean State Job Lot has previously taken over former Christmas Tree Shops and Toys"R"Us stores to turn them into new locations.

With those 15 Big Lots leases and its previously planned organic expansion, Ocean State Job Lot plans to open 22 new stores in 2025.

Read more: Ocean State Job Lot acquires 15 former Big Lots locations (WPRI)

Five Below plans to open at least 150 stores in 2025

With consumers trading down and seeking discounts, Five Below is on a tear. In FY2025, Five Below plans to open at least 150 stores, and the chain is already one third of the way there.

According to comments from Five Below CFO Kristy Chipman, CPA, MBA during an earnings call yesterday, at least 50 of those stores are set to be operational by the end of the first fiscal quarter.

This is in addition to 22 Five Below stores that opened at the end of the fourth quarter, contributing to its total of 227 new locations in fiscal 2024. Five Below’s fiscal year ended on February 1, 2025.

The current store count is approximately 1,807 across 45 states. The new locations would put Five Below just under 2,000 locations.

Read more: Iconic discount chain that’s ‘cheaper than Dollar Tree’ to open up 150 new locations in 2025 – and 50 are coming in days (The U.S. Sun)

Publix Super Markets continues expanding but within the same eight states where it operates stores.

Publix Super Markets continues its expansion plans in 2025 at the same pace as 2024 when it opened 43 stores. All 1,400 Publix stores are located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

In 2025, Publix is aiming to expand in the same eight states where it currently has stores, according to an interview that Publix vice president of real estate strategy and operations Bridgid O’Connor did with ICSC's C+CT .

Publix has seven prototype store layouts but the standard store size is about 50,000 square feet. Recently Publix opened large-format (55,000-square-foot) stores in Tampa and in Kentucky. The large-format prototype serves beer and wine and has expanded deli offerings.

Publix continues to look for new locations with the understanding that market dynamics vary, so O'Connor likes to encourage landlords to bring them development opportunities before assuming the potential location is not the right fit.

Sites can be submitted by regular mail to Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Fla., but they must be in writing and directed to one of 10 Publix real estate managers responsible for the territory in which a location is to be submitted.

If you plan to submit a site for consideration, include location (quadrant, intersection, city, county, state), proof of control of the site, zoning, trade area map showing site, competition, existing Publix stores and distance from site to other grocery stores and the demographics of the trade area (1, 2 and 3 mile radius).

Real estate managers responsible for their respective territories are Sarah Johnston, MBA, Julianne Polston, Dalton Locke, Mike Leahy, David Parry, CCIM, Jon Adams, Austin Stone, Jordan Konieczki, Eva Gullett, CCIM and Mike Gordon.

Publix is not a publicly traded company. It's privately owned by the founder's family and past and present employees.

Read more: Publix’s Bridgid O’Connor Discusses Store Strategy (ICSC C+CT)

Princess Polly expands nationally with seven new stores

a.k.a. Brands is expanding the digitally native Princess Polly chain mostly in A+ malls with seven new stores to open in 2025, according to Eirin Bryett, co-founder and co-CEO of Princess Polly. This brings the total number of stores to 13.

New openings:

1. New York City (SoHo)
2. Dadeland Mall (Miami-Dade)
3. Glendale Galleria (Glendale, Calif.)
4. Easton Town Center (near Columbus, Ohio)
5. The Westchester (White Plains, N.Y.)
6. Roosevelt Field (Long Island, N.Y.)
7. King of Prussia Mall (near Philadelphia)

The stores in Columbus, Glendale, Miami, and New York City will open in the first half of the year, with the remaining stores opening in the back half.

The majority of the new Princess Polly stores will be between 4,000 and 5,000 square feet but the SoHo flagship store will be about 8,000 square feet on two levels.

The first Princess Polly store opened in 2023 at Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles, and the chain already operates six stores, all selling trendy apparel aimed at Gen Zers who monitor Tik-Tok celebrities.

Read more: Princess Polly Grows U.S. Store Fleet with Seven New Openings in 2025 (Business Wire)

DICK'S Sporting Goods bucks trend to open large-format stores

I would say today, smaller is better than bigger when it comes to store size. Just ask Macy's, Burlington Stores, Inc., Kohl's, IKEA, Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods Market, even CVS Pharmacy. All are rolling out smaller locations to reduce real-estate costs, carry mostly fast turning merchandise and increase their sales per-square-foot productivity.

But, there's one exception. DICK'S Sporting Goods continues to open large-format House of Sport locations, which average between 120,000 and 140,000 square feet, many of which have to be carved out of former department store buildings.

DICK’S needs that much space to house a variety of amenities, including rock-climbing walls, golf simulators, outdoor running tracks and lots of merchandise. These stores generate about $35 million in their first year of operation (including e-commerce sales attributable to the store), compared with $14 million at DICK’S new smaller locations.

And if you are a landlord with a vacant big box, you might be asking about required tenant allowance. These large-format stores cost about $15.5 million more to build than DICK’S smaller stores.

DICK’S has already opened 19 House of Sport locations since the first one in 2021. According to DICK’S Executive Chairman Ed Stack, whose father, an avid fisherman named Dick Stack, founded the sporting-goods chain in Binghamton, N.Y., 77 years ago, DICK’S plans to add dozens more House of Sport locations over the next 10 years, with House of Sport stores eventually comprising more than a quarter of the company’s total fleet. DICK’s currently operates 856 stores in various concepts including DICK’S, Field House, House of Sport, Golf Galaxy and Going Going Gone!

Read more: Inside a Dick’s Sporting Goods Megastore, Complete With an Ice Rink and Climbing Wall (The Wall Street Journal)

Retail entrepreneur women to be featured in docuseries

Are you aware about the trailblazing women who helped change the face of retail in the 20th century and even before? These include Lord + Taylor’s Dorothy Shaver, Bonwit Teller & Co.'s Hortense Odlum and Henri Bendel’s Geraldine Stutz.

In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum began her career in marketing her husband's store and ended up running Bonwit Teller. During World War II, Dorothy Shaver promoted American over Parisian designers and her success led her to earn $1 million in salary at Lord & Taylor. And in the 1960s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store.

All of this is in a book published last year. It is titled “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion," written by Julie Satow. Now, that book has just landed on best-seller lists from The New York Times and USA Today, and the story is getting traction.

But not everyone reads books, so Macy's has acquired the exclusive rights to develop a scripted TV series based on the book to raise the profile of these women. Macy’s CMO Sharon Otterman spearheaded the deal.

In this adaptation, Macy’s is looking to spotlight the often unsung role women played in shaping department stores. Macy’s Margaret Getchell, third cousin to Rowland Hussey Macy, the department store's founder, was one of the first women in retail to hold an executive role in the 19th century. As such, Getchell will be added to the screen adaptation of the documentary series, which is likely to be available for streaming by one of the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video or HBO MAX TV, when the project is completed. That deal has not been finalized, but I'll look forward to streaming it.

“These are stories of resilience, ambition and creativity — women who understood the power of storytelling and branding long before it was a business strategy,” Otterman said in a press release.

Read more: Macy’s to Develop TV Series on Women in Retail (Women’s Wear Daily)

Forever 21 lying on its deathbed underscores that in retail, nothing is forever.

It's sad to see Forever 21 finally lying on its deathbed, an ironic ending that underscores that in retail, nothing is forever.

As vacancies are still low at A-plus mall properties, Forever 21 closures will be a good thing for those landlords, which will quickly replace those vacancies with more productive retailers at higher rents. However, in bankruptcy cases, the court tries to sell those leases, and that would be bad for any landlord. RCS Real Estate Advisors has already began to market about 360 store leases in the U.S.

Fast fashion is a segment where strong players such as Zara are doing well but others like Forever 21 can’t seem to turn out a profit.

Some international online competitors like SHEIN and Temu have been detrimental to Forever 21 and other fast fashion retailers because they sell fast fashion directly to American consumers bypassing tariffs through the "de minimis" tariff loophole that allows these online sellers to import single items without tariffs while Forever 21 and other retailers that import the merchandise in bulk from China have to pay tariffs.

Another problem that is inherent with Forever 21 is the very large footprint of most of its leased premises, which ranges from 4,000 to 150,000 sq. ft. The average Forever 21 store is 21,000 sq. ft. Because of its size, the chain hasn’t managed to perform adequately on a sales-per-square-foot basis to pay for its occupancy costs. Today, retailers are shrinking their footprints to achieve greater sales and minimize occupancy costs, all on a per-square-foot basis.

Read more: Mall mainstay Forever 21 slated to close all 350 stores in second bankruptcy (CoStar News)

Mexican fast-casual Qdoba and Chipotle Mexican Grill continue rapid expansion

Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, America's No. 2 restaurant brand in the Mexican fast-casual category after Chipotle Mexican Grill, has built a pipeline of more than 500 restaurants to be opened in the future through franchise commitments throughout most areas of the country, according to Jeremy Vitaro, Chief Development Officer at QDOBA.

But even with those commitments, QDOBA continues to seek experienced multi-unit franchisees to develop key markets, including Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville and Tampa, while also expanding in non-traditional venues such as airports, universities, military bases, and casinos.

As the fast casual Mexican food chain continues to expand, total sales sales have increased accordingly but because of brand recognition, so have same store sales. QDOBA achieved a 6.1% comp sales growth in fiscal year 2023, followed by 7.7% comp sales growth in fiscal year 2024. Chipotle’s comp sales increased by 7.4% in 2024, signifying that the fast casual Mexican food category dominated by both restaurant chains continue to perform well.

QDOBA now operates approximately 800 locations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. However, in the fast casual Mexican category, QDOBA is dwarfed by Chipotle, which has grown through company-owned stores rather than through franchising as is the case with QDOBA.

There are over 3,700 Chipotle restaurants as of December 31, 2024, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. Chipotle is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants in North America and Europe.

Chipotle added more than 300 new restaurants in 2024 and plans to add another 315 to 345 new company-owned restaurant openings in 2025 with over 80% having drive-thru access.

Read more: QDOBA Celebrates Remarkable Franchise Growth with 500+ Development Commitments (PRNewswire QDOBA)

Ross Stores plans to open 90 new stores in 2025

Ross Stores, Inc. plans to open 90 new stores in fiscal year 2025; about 80 stores under the Ross Dress for Less banner and 10 dd’s Discounts locations.

According to Richard Lietz, EVP, property development at Ross Stores,
the company expanded Ross's presence in the newer markets of Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York, while dd’s growth primarily focused on existing markets in California, Georgia and Texas.

Ross now operates 2,205 Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts locations across 44 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Ross's long-term goal for brick-and-mortar locations is about 3,600 locations, so they have 1,400 more stores to open in the coming years.

Read more: Ross Plans 90 New Stores This Year; Long-Term Goal is 3,600 Locations (Retail Touchpoints)

"Medtail" continues to thrive at neighborhood shopping centers

Medical uses in a retail setting or #Medtail for short is alive and well at your neighborhood shopping center as more medical service providers seek locations at America’s neighborhood centers.

PDS Health is just one of many. According to Chris Aguon, vice president of real estate for PDS Health, which operates more than 300 dental units in California, PDS loves neighborhood grocery-anchored centers because people buy food often and many of the shoppers are women.

“We found that women tend to make most of the healthcare decisions for the house,” he said. “If they notice that the dentist is conveniently located in that same center, they’ll tend to give us a try.”

Are you seeing more or less interest from medical uses?

Read more: Getting a filling — at the mall. Why dentists and other wellness tenants are in big demand (Los Angeles Times)

Jollibee plans 350 new restaurants in the next couple of years

The QSR fried chicken brand of Philippines-based Jollibee Group wants to expand its restaurant count from its current 76 throughout 14 states in the U.S. and 28 in Canada to 350 across both the U.S. and Canada in the next couple of years through a newly launched franchising program.

Locations targeted include typical fast food formats, such as freestanding buildings with or without drive-thru, strip center endcaps, urban storefronts and exterior mall entrances. However, Jollibee is also open to exploring opportunities in other high-traffic locations, like airports, transit hubs, food courts and college campuses.

Through its 19 brands, Jollibee Group operates over 9,500 stores across 32 countries.

Read more: Jollibee launches first U.S. franchise program (Chain Store Age)

Ollie's, Variety Wholesalers opening stores at former Big Lots locations

Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Inc. is purchasing 40 more leases for a total of 63 Big Lots store leases, all of which will be reopened this year as Ollie’s branded stores.

The company carefully curated the appropriate Big Lots leases from Gordon Brothers, the liquidation company that bought the defunct Big Lots chain from the bankruptcy court and has been marketing the leases and other assets.

These locations are the right size, come with favorable lease terms, are located in existing or adjacent trade areas, and have long serviced value conscious consumers, according to Eric van der Valk, president and CEO of Ollie’s.

With these acquisitions and the additional organic store openings, Ollie’s will open a net total of 75 stores in 2025, a tremendous growth spurt for the close-out merchandise chain that usually grows by 10% a year since its IPO in 2015.

The company's mascot, which bears a striking resemblance to Albert Einstein, is based on a caricature of Oliver “Ollie” Rosenburg, who together with Mark Butler, Mort Bernstein and Harry Coverman opened the first Ollie’s store on July 29, 1982 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Prior to the anticipated openings, Ollie’s operated 568 stores in 31 states.

Besides Ollie’s and other retailers scooping up Big Lots leases, Variety Wholesalers, Inc., the North Carolina-based company, has acquired more than 200 Big Lots leases, and plans four waves of store openings under the Big Lots name.

The first wave of reopenings will start in April 2025 for nine stores in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The second wave of Big Lots reopenings by Variety Wholesalers is rumored to begin in May 2025 in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia.

In addition to the new Big Lots branded stores, Variety Wholesalers operates chains under the Roses, Roses Express, Maxway, Bill's Dollar Stores, Super 10, Super Dollar and Bargain Town brands.

Prior to the bankruptcy led closure of all 870 stores in 47 states, Big Lots had been in business for 57 years.

Read more: Retail chain announces plans to acquire 40 former Big Lots locations (PennLive/The Patriot-News)

DICK'S Sporting Goods is optimizing its real estate portfolio

Here’s the good news: DICK'S Sporting Goods opened seven House of Sport locations and 15 Field House stores in 2024, with plans to open 16 and 18, respectively, in 2025.

Now for the bad news: About 70% of these store openings are relocations or reimaginings of current stores, not net new openings, according to Dick’s CFO Navdeep Gupta.

Reimaginings can be several things like upgrading a regular Dick’s into a House of Sport concept, relocating an older store into a newer larger location or changing a Dick’s Public Lands banner store or a Moosejaw into a Dick’s branded store. In any event, Dick’s is a great concept every landlord wants to anchor a property.

Read more: Dick’s plots ‘significant investments’ in stores, digital as winning streak continues (Retail Dive)

CVS Pharmacy is opening much smaller stores

CVS Pharmacy is cutting its store footprint in half to get more profitable given the drastic changes in the drugstore business.

CVS introduced the smaller store format that will focus exclusively on pharmacy services to better meet the specific pharmacy needs of today’s customers.

The company plans to open in 2025 about a dozen of the smaller stores, which are about half the size of the traditional CVS layout and will eliminate the front-end retail section as part of the company's broader strategy to realign its business model in a changing industry.

However, the cutting of real estate is not limited to individual stores. The CVS turnaround plan also includes more than 1,000 store closures. Walgreens and RITE AID have also reduced real estate in recent years, and you can expect more to follow.

Read more: CVS is opening smaller stores that only have pharmacies (CNN Business)

Costco, Walmart and other retailers pursue affluent customers

One retail category that’s done surprisingly well for Costco Wholesale in recent times: luxury goods. ROLEX watches, Dom Pérignon champagne, 10-carat diamonds and gold bars, according to the chain that operates large warehouse clubs associated with buying staples in bulk.

Affluent people love a good deal and they have money to spend.

Costco isn’t the only retailer to pursue affluent customers as high-income earners continue to account for a higher share of total consumer purchases in the U.S. Walmart has expanded its selection of high-end Apple products, Bose Corporation headphones and other items sought after by more-affluent customers, as part of a stab at upleveling the Walmart brand.

Read more: Why Costco is targeting the rich, with deals on Rolexes, 10-carat diamonds and gold bars (Fast Company)

BJ’s Wholesale Club plans to open second small format store and 25-30 new warehouses over the next two years

BJ's Wholesale Club plans to add 25 to 30 new warehouse stores in the next two years. According to Bob Eddy, chairman and CEO of BJ’s Wholesale Club, the Dallas-Ft. Worth market offers significant expansion opportunities for BJ's starting in 2026. In 2025, store openings include Casselberry and Delray Beach, Florida, Warner Robins, Georgia, Whippany, New Jersey, Staten Island, New York and Sevierville, Tennessee.

The 2025 openings include Brooksville, Florida and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (both opened in February), and Southern Pines, North Carolina, which opened on March 7.

BJ's introduced a new concept branded as BJ's Market stores, which are about half the size of a full-sized BJ's Wholesale Club, focusing on a selection of groceries, household essentials and other fast moving merchandise. The new concept still requires a BJ's membership to shop. The first location is 43,000 square feet, which opened in Warwick, Rhode Island in 2022 and the second one will be the Delray Beach store that will open in 2025.

Headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the company operates 252 clubs and 188 BJ's Gas locations in 21 states.

Read more: BJ’s Wholesale Club Announces Expansion into Texas as Part of Plan to Add 25-30 New Clubs Over Next Two Fiscal Years (Business Wire)

What is causing so many stores to permanently close in 2025?

Store closures are expected to increase significantly in 2025, according to Coresight Research. What is causing this and what has been the trend in recent years?

Let’s first look at Covid and pre-Covid. In 2019, many store closures appeared to be caused by retailers rightsizing their real estate in the face of competition from online sales. Then the pandemic hit in 2020, reducing tenant sales and profits from temporary closings and declining patronage for most stores other than grocery stores, which resulted in tenant bankruptcies that led to many permanent store closures.

The period that followed led to a slowdown of store closures partly proppped up by federal stimulus pumped into the economy. Then in 2023, we started seeing a rise in store closures, likely caused by rising interest rates and a slowdown of housing sales because unaffordable mortgages led to less residential mobility, which in turn meant less demand for certain categories, such as home improvement and home furnishings.

Other trends also tend to affect tenant bankruptcies, downsizing or a slowdown in growth of physical stores by national chains.

For example, dollar stores were hit by inflation and have had to alter expansion plans. Dollar Tree Stores has closed almost 700 of its poorly performing Family Dollar stores, while 99 Cents Only Stores shuttered all locations.

A shift from casual restaurants to fast casual restaurants has resulted in some bankruptcies and real estate downsizing through closures, such as Red Robin, TGI Fridays, Denny's, Ruby Tuesday, Rubio's Coastal Grill, Hooters of America and Red Lobster.

Drug store chains have experienced declining reimbursement rates for prescription drugs, intense competition from online retailers like Amazon and changing consumer habits, which are leading to staggering store closures for chains like CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, RITE AID and others. This is not a new trend. CVS, the largest U.S. chain, closed 244 stores between 2018 and 2020, and in 2021, it announced plans to close an additional 900 stores over several years.

Online banking has stalled the expansion of physical banks and the electrifying of automobiles will likely slow down the need for more gas stations.

Department stores, that is, the few chains that are left today, such as JCPenney, Macy's and Kohl's are rethinking their real estate strategy and are closing or downsizing their physical store footprint.

Conn’s Home Furnishings, American Freight Appliances & Furniture, Bob's Discount Furniture, HomeLife, Bed Bath & Beyond and other home furnishings chains contributed to stores closures in recent times.

Fast forward to 2025, the announcements of impending store closures from Macy's, Party City, JOANN Stores, Big Lots and others has led Coresight Research to predict that 15,000 locations could shutter in 2025. That would equate to a 55% increase over 2020’s count, and would more than double the total of store closures in 2024.