The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes across various industries, with the movie theater industry facing significant disruptions. After prolonged closures, new safety regulations, and the rapid rise of streaming platforms, theaters had to adapt to survive. Now, as we navigate 2024, let’s explore how movie theater attendance in the United States is faring in comparison to pre-pandemic levels and assess year-over-year trends. Despite the gradual return of audiences, the numbers show that attendance is still below pre-pandemic levels.

As businesses navigate the post-pandemic world, the return to office (RTO) trends offer a fascinating glimpse into the evolving work culture across the United States. Data from Advan, the leading provider of accurate cellphone location data, reveals intriguing patterns in office foot traffic, shedding light on employee behaviors and corporate policies throughout 2023 and into early 2024. Last year began with a strong turnout, with January 2023 seeing a significant 37% increase in office visits compared to the previous year.

Following up from our recent blogpost that we measure the recovery of the Malls, we have revisited all these properties to see how the picture looks like if we incorporate the full month of September. In summary nothing has really changed, the full recovery still remains to be seen. The foot traffic on August was worse across the board while September was slightly better than August on a Yo2Y basis but we are still not in a full recovery territory yet.

There was a location data report published last month called ‘Malls Rise Once Again’ that caught people’s attention. It claimed that malls have made a ‘full COVID recovery’ and have as many visitors as in 2019. We at Advan live and breathe location data, so our intuitive response was ‘no way, how have we missed this… ’. The reality is, while mall traffic has certainly been improving, it is still down 22% versus 2019.

Office properties and office leasing companies like WeWork are watching very closely the speed with which employees return to the office. The question at large remains: is the work from home (WFH) phenomenon here to stay, or will it prove to be only temporary for most? Using Advan’s mobile phone location data, these questions can be answered. Our platform tags every device to a home and work location each month, providing insight on whether or not employees work from home or at a separate office location.

One of the most popular use cases of location data for landlords and developers is the site selection. Another more popular for Real Estate investors, Private Equity firms and retailers is monitoring of the performance of their assets/stores. On a recent article published by Kate Gibson, Kroger, one of the most prominent grocers in the US, is expected to shut down two California stores to avoid offering workers ‘hazard pay’. Both of these stores are located in the Long Beach area, one is under the Ralph’s franchise while the second one under Food 4 Less(both brands are Kroger subsidiaries).

With a new phase of lockdowns beginning across the US, many shoppers have opted to get a jump on Black Friday over the past week. Foot traffic to malls increased steadily across most states other than Texas where case numbers have climbed significantly, although lockdown measures have not yet been imposed. Mall visits in Texas have remained more or less flat since the start of the month. Florida saw a week-over-week increase of 7% in mall traffic, on top of a 3% increase in the prior week.

In a previous blog post we talked about how the home improvement sector has been one of the bright spots in the pandemic. Year-over-year foot traffic to building material retailers was up 26% in September. Given this trend, we wanted to look in more detail at one of the most popular companies in the home improvement sector - Ikea. While foot traffic at Ikea stores fell to 0 between April and June, once stores reopened traffic rebounded almost immediately to pre-pandemic levels.

Are you back in the office? It’s a question many of us find ourselves asking our friends and peers. The answer is, it depends. Each has their own comfort level, and it also depends largely on their role and their employer. Morgan Stanley announced in May that it would start bringing traders back to the floor in June. Most recently, JP Morgan made a similar announcement - those in sales and trading roles returned on September 21.

Foot Traffic to Truck Stops Rebounds Post Lock-down A recent article on Wall Street Journal by Peter Grant took an insightful look at how truck stops in the US have been boosted this year, in part due to the increase in demand for e-commerce and delivery. Travel Centers of America (NASDAQ: TA), the largest publicly listed operator of truck stops in the US, saw its share price increase 50% following its quarterly earning announcement in early August.