Niche retailers changing landscape

As major chains close doors, smaller stores, new concepts fill void.

There’s a saying that “when one door closes, another opens.” In retail, it’s true.

You may have noticed that some major chain stores such as Sears and Kmart leaving your neighborhood. At the same time, you could see new stores popping up, some with less familiar names such as “Aldi” and “Trulieve.”

Nationally, large stores are closing, “but there’s just as many, if not more, stores opening,” said Katy Welsh, senior director for Colliers International, a real estate and investment management company with South Florida offices.

“The general public says, ‘Oh no, another store closing!’ But we look at it as ‘Thank goodness.’ Look at how much more money the shopping center is going to make with that space,” Welsh said.

Zach Winkler, retail lead in South Florida for commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, agrees. “People like to talk about the doom and gloom. But when I look at the numbers, it’s telling the opposite story. There are new concepts.”

Gyms, schools, urgent care centers, grocery stores, theaters, sports complexes and day care centers are leasing spaces once occupied by former Sears or other stores, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York.

Different types of stores are opening in strip malls. These include discount stores, smaller grocers, medical marijuana dispensaries and clinics, and fitness centers and game rooms, experts say.

Welsh said the tri-county region of South Florida is attractive to retailers because of its year-round