Discount/Dollar and Off-price retailers announced the most store openings

As has been the case for some time, opening announcements were concentrated in the discount/dollar and off-price sectors, which have historically done well in good and bad economic times and have been less affected by online competition than other areas of retail.

Dollar General was the leader in store opening announcements. It said in December 2022 it would open about 1,050 new stores in its fiscal year 2023 on a base of more than 18,800 stores, and also set a goal to open 35 stores in Mexico by the end of 2023.

Five Below, which has expanded its price points above $5 with its Five Beyond initiative, said early in 2022 it would triple its store count to more than 3,500 by the end of fiscal 2030 and open 925-1,000 stores over the next four years on a base of more than 1,200 stores.

Family Dollar announced plans to open 400 new stores in its fiscal 2022 on a base of 8,000-plus stores, and Dollar Tree was planning to open 190 stores on a base of 8,000-plus stores.

In off-price retail, industry leader TJ Maxx announced plans to open 150 new stores in its fiscal 2022 across its concepts on a base of nearly 4,700 total stores and Burlington announced plans to open more than 115 net new stores on a base of about 840 stores. Ross Stores completed its 2022 store growth plans with the opening of 40 new stores in September-October, which took total openings for the year to 99 and the total store count to 2,019, including 1,696 Ross stores and 323 dd’s DISCOUNTS.

On a combined basis and including a few others not mentioned above, discount/dollar and off-price retailers announced plans to open about 3,230 stores, or more than 40% of all announced new stores for 2022.

*NRF Feb. 2023

Most Retail Categories Posted Strong Winter Sales

Retail Sales Per Square Foot Continued to Climb

Retailers ended 2022 strong, as most categories showed year‑over‑year sales per square foot (psf) growth. Beauty supplies ($773), fast food ($739), supermarkets ($688), and restaurants ($663) led all categories in sales psf.

Movie theatres rebounded, experiencing a 49% increase over 2021. Beauty supplies (38.9%), home improvement (34.5%), and fitness (32.2%) all saw significant growth through December. Specialty retail (29.4%) and sporting goods (20.3%) rounded out the high‑performing categories.

*Source ICSC