Retail Watchers

REI is opening 10 stores in 2024: Beavercreek, Ohio and Beaverton, Ore. this spring. Summer lineup includes stores at Arrowhead Promenade, Glendale, Ariz.; Ithaca, N.Y., and The River, Rancho Mirage, Rancho Mirage, California.

Fall: Albany, N.Y. and Tulsa, Okla. Three more stores are set to open this year as it finalizes the contracts.

https://chainstoreage.com/rei-open-10-stores-2024

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2024, 9:07 pm REI is opening 10 stores in 2024: Beavercreek, Ohio and Beaverton, Ore. this spring. Summer lineup includes stores at Arrowhead Promenade, Glendale, Ariz.; Ithaca, N.Y., and The River, Rancho Mirage, Rancho Mirage, California.

Fall: Albany, N.Y. and Tulsa, Okla. Three more stores are set to open this year as it finalizes the contracts.

https://chainstoreage.com/rei-open-10-stores-2024

I wonder what the square footage of these stores will be.

storewanderer wrote: ↑January 12th, 2024, 12:54 am

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2024, 9:07 pm REI is opening 10 stores in 2024: Beavercreek, Ohio and Beaverton, Ore. this spring. Summer lineup includes stores at Arrowhead Promenade, Glendale, Ariz.; Ithaca, N.Y., and The River, Rancho Mirage, Rancho Mirage, California.

Fall: Albany, N.Y. and Tulsa, Okla. Three more stores are set to open this year as it finalizes the contracts.

https://chainstoreage.com/rei-open-10-stores-2024

I wonder what the square footage of these stores will be.

The Albany one (in Crossgates Mall, a former Forever 21 spot) is supposed to be around 25,000 Square Feet (per the local newspaper Times Union article).

EDIT - Also posted on the rei news page as well

Beaverton is technically a relocation from "The Pearl District" in Portland, Ore. but good on them I suppose, this seems like organic growth.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2024, 9:07 pm REI is opening 10 stores in 2024: Beavercreek, Ohio and Beaverton, Ore. this spring. Summer lineup includes stores at Arrowhead Promenade, Glendale, Ariz.; Ithaca, N.Y., and The River, Rancho Mirage, Rancho Mirage, California.

Fall: Albany, N.Y. and Tulsa, Okla. Three more stores are set to open this year as it finalizes the contracts.

https://chainstoreage.com/rei-open-10-stores-2024

The River at Rancho Mirage had some serious tenant atrophy in the past.

Perhaps this will fix it.

I'm going to assume nearly all are converted BB&B stores. That is the size they seem to like these days, which is scaled down from the 45K stores they were opening.

They have become a bit aggressive, for example they outbid Marshall's on a very old location in Laguna Hills that had run out of lease term. Marshall's supposedly found out they lost their lease in the REI press release announcing the store at their address the next year. Not a tenant that usually gets the boot.

ClownLoach wrote: ↑January 12th, 2024, 2:53 pm I'm going to assume nearly all are converted BB&B stores. That is the size they seem to like these days, which is scaled down from the 45K stores they were opening.

They have become a bit aggressive, for example they outbid Marshall's on a very old location in Laguna Hills that had run out of lease term. Marshall's supposedly found out they lost their lease in the REI press release announcing the store at their address the next year. Not a tenant that usually gets the boot.

The Reno unit is only 20k square feet (total building size). They own the building. The small store is probably the only way they've been able to survive against Scheels. On the other hand a store closer to Lake Tahoe that was larger may work very well for them. They are near the Reno Costco in an otherwise terrible location in a not great neighborhood. Once Reno gets another new Costco (lots of rumors) things will get difficult for REI.

I assume they are leasing these?

I believe College Station, TX is on the list, taking 40k square feet of an old Albertsons.

They've built a variety of sizes for a very long time. The relatively new DC store is a flagship that replaced a 26K sf suburban location that opened in the 80s. The Pike & Rose store in North Bethesda is probably 40K sf and replaced a much smaller store a mile away. They have been doing smaller suburban locations for a long time, filling in gaps between larger stores---the one in Arcadia CA seems barely 20K sf. The initial stores in metros that don't justify a flagship seem to be about 25K sf--the one outside of Cleveland is like this. They have some very small stores in vacation/outdoor sport locations like Grand Junction, CO---maybe 10K sf. I would imagine that the Ithaca store would be that size.