“Placer's tools helped us analyze trade areas and identify optimal new locations for store expansion. To then see the site selection strategy show a 17% higher visit frequency at a new location while minimizing cannibalization is a testament that the data works. There’s a reason Placer is one of the first tabs I open on my computer every morning."
-- John Mossey, Retail Broker, SHOP Companies
The Challenge
Asian restaurant concept seeks in-market expansion without cannibalizing existing locations
An asian restaurant concept with locations across the United States offers a unique and healthy dining experience to its customers. Intent to expand beyond the Asian specialty shopping centers they occupied in the DFW metro, the chain engaged John Mossey at SHOP Companies, a full-service brokerage firm specializing in retail tenant representation, project leasing, and land brokerage to find sites in non-specialty centers and validate that opening smaller format locations in non-specialty centers would allow greater expansion volume without significantly cannibalizing their existing stores.
The Solution
Using trade area insights to profile existing stores and identify future store locations
Using Placer, SHOP Companies analyzed the trade areas of the restaurant chain’s existing locations in 3 cities that comprise part of the greater DFW metro. These locations, situated in Asian shopping centers, had larger store sizes and larger trade areas due to the center’s role as more of a destination than a frequent place of commerce.
Learn more about Trade Area Overlap
The large trade areas Placer showed for the specialty centers locations aligned with the chain’s experience in other markets, giving them confidence to rely on other findings from other markets, namely that smaller stores located in non-specialty centers see dining patterns consistent with a more localized business, including more frequent use and smaller trade areas.
To validate the store strategy of expanding into non-specialty centers, SHOP Companies combined Placer trade area mapping with data on other nearby dining concepts’ performance and their own knowledge of the area to suggest a new site at a non-specialty center near the edge of the one location’s broader trade area, thus minimizing any cannibalization concerns.
The Outcome
SUCCESS: New store has higher visit frequency and smaller trade area, validates expansion plans
Opened in early 2024, the new location validated the chain’s expansion thesis, with the last 3 months of data showing a 17% higher visit frequency compared to the original locations in specialty Asian centers.
Learn more about Metrics
Placer’s data showing the strong performance at the new non-specialty center store gave the chain and SHOP the confidence to expand with a higher store density strategy than earlier location trade areas would suggest, unlocking the potential for more deals and a greater presence in the market. As of writing, the restaurant chain has multiple other locations planned or in various stages of development within the greater DFW metro.
