By Diana Olick | CNBC
For the first time nearly two decades, restaurant sales surpassed supermarket sales last year. The turnaround is now showing up in retail real estate, as landlords seek to not only profit from the new normal, but reinvent the now-suffering retail mall. E-commerce may be driving consumers away from shopping centers, but food is pulling them back in.
“It changes the landscape of retail real estate fundamentally, because what we have is a really fundamental shift in the different categories that are performing well and those that are struggling,” said Melina Cordero, CBRE’s head of retail research in the Americas. “With restaurants that are coming in with strong, high growth, they’re sort of the saving grace for landlords of these retail spaces to come in and drive traffic and sales.”
