Sources: DVRPC, 2013; and Google Maps, 2020 and 2022.
Sources: Google, 2020 and 2022; Facebook, 2020 and 2022; Instagram, 2020 and 2022; and Twitter, 2020 and 2022.
Prior to the pandemic, increased competition from e-commerce prompted traditional brick-and-mortar retail businesses to curate their own online presence, and during the pandemic e-commerce was a lifeline for retail during periods of economic shutdown. However, research has found a beneficial relationship between a combined approach to retail that includes both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar. This benefit has been termed the Halo Effect.
Learn more about the Halo Effect, and the role it played in our region during the pandemic, by watching DVRPC’s webinar on How E-Commerce Can Actually Save Main Street.
Please note, that e-commerce is defined as commercial transactions that are conducted electronically. However, for the purposes of the retail district inventory and the above chart, there was no distinction made between websites that facilitated/enabled e-commerce activities and those that did not.
SSources: DVRPC, 2013; and Google Maps, 2020 and 2022.
Between 2012 and 2022, there was a net loss of 405 bank branches in all of Greater Philadelphia, mirroring a national trend commonly referred to as the Great Consolidation. The socioeconomic implications of the Great Consolidation are multifaceted as it has the capacity to impact mortgage and small business lending, lead to obsolescence of and redundancies in the workforce, and exacerbate the inequities related to the digital divide.
More detailed information on the Great Consolidation, and the role that community banks play in local economies, can be found in DVRPC’s publication The Great Consolidation: Community Banking Decline in Greater Philadelphia.
Sources: DVRPC, 2013; and Google Maps, 2020 and 2022.
What constitutes a healthy mix of chain and locally owned businesses will be unique for every community. But it is important that local retail be a part of the retail mix for the health of the local economy, and the retail district itself.
DVRPC’s publication Cultivating a Homegrown Economy discusses the trends behind, and benefits of, locally owned businesses and local identity in general. A follow-up three-part webinar series provided a deeper dive into the subject, and can be viewed via the links below.
Session 1: Economic Sustainability, July 15, 2022 Session 2: Environmental Sustainability, August 5, 2022 Session 3: Social Sustainability, September 9, 2022
Source: Buxton Co., 2020 & 2023
In the retail industry, gap analyses are used to determine when a “surplus” or “leakage” exists. A surplus indicates that sales in a specific retail category exceed local demand, which means that consumers from elsewhere are coming to the community to make purchases. This brings outside wealth into the local economy. Conversely, leakage indicates that there is local demand for a specific retail category, but consumers are leaving the community to purchase those goods or services elsewhere. The result being money and wealth leaving the local economy. Chapter five of Revitalizing Suburban Downtown Retail Districts: Strategies and Best Practices provides further details on how to evaluate retail supply and demand.
Source: Buxton Co., 2022-2024
In an era with greater telework capacity and competition from e-commerce, proactively working to attract visitors to a downtown, main street, or retail district is growing increasingly important. Fortunately, visits to the region’s retail districts increased every quarter between the first quarter of 2022 and 2024.
Take a look at a similar analysis from 2021 to see how visits to changed during the pandemic.
DVRPC’s Downtown Revitalization work highlights and discusses a variety of evolving issues related to commercial corridors, downtowns, and main streets, which for the purposes of this web map are collectively referred to as “retail districts.” By leveraging insights gleaned from an inventory of the region’s retail districts and location analytics efforts, this web map treats each retail district as a type of case study so that the user can better understand how various issues impact and manifest differently across the region, and within each retail district.
Since 2013, a sample of commercial corridors, downtowns, and main streets across Greater Philadelphia have been regularly inventoried, and referred to as “retail districts.” These retail districts were identified based on the mix of land uses found within them, as well as the qualitative characteristics of their built environments.
Although the exact mix of uses is unique for each district, they all have a relatively high share of retail uses, which include restaurants, service oriented businesses and convenience stores. For this analysis, retail stores are placed into five categories: Experiential (EXP); Food and Beverage (F&B), General Merchandise, Apparel, Furnishings, and Other (GAFO); Hospitality (HOSP); and Neighborhood Goods and services (NG&S). These places are generally considered to be destinations for shopping and dining.
In terms of the built environment, retail districts have a unique sense of place, are more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, and tend to be better served by transit when compared to more auto-oriented suburban shopping centers like strip malls and big box stores. While the retail districts contained in this effort are not an exhaustive list of all retail districts across Greater Philadelphia, they are a robust representative sample.
The original inventory was conducted in 2013, with subsequent updates in 2020 and 2022 that captured the composition of uses found within those retail districts just before, and following, the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to cataloging the mix of uses within each district, the inventory also includes the types of retail, and the number of retail establishments with a website and/or social media presence.
Additionally, nine different district typologies were identified, with each district being categorized as one or more of these typologies:
As part of the pandemic response and recovery efforts, DVRPC acquired data from the Buxton Company, which provides location intelligence data for retail and government decision-making.
DVRPC used Buxton’s geolocated, de-identified cell phone data to determine if visits to the region’s retail districts changed over the course of the pandemic. Analysis found that diverse downtowns were generally more resilient in terms of visits. This web map picks up where that analysis left off by providing the change in visits to each retail district, as well as the median change for the region, by quarter from 2022 through 2023.
The information provided through this web application is the culmination of field work and research done by DVRPC staff. For more information on how this analysis was used to support and develop strategies for these retail districts, please visit our Downtown Revitalization webpage.
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This web page is a public resource of general information. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) makes no warranty, representation, or guarantee as to the content, sequence, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the spatial data or database information provided herein. DVRPC and partner state, local, and other agencies shall assume no liability for errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the information provided regardless of how caused; or any decision made or action taken or not taken by any person relying on any information or data furnished within.
Land use categories found within the region’s retail districts.
Civic: Includes municipal buildings, firehouses, police stations, libraries, post offices, or any other government office.
Cultural: Includes entertainment activities, such as art galleries, performing arts centers, historic theaters, as well as religious institutions.
Construction: Active construction sites, even where the intended end use was known.
Institutional: Includes institutions of higher or continuing education.
Office: Includes professional office space from both the public and non-profit sectors. Offices above ground floor retail may not have been captured if the use could not be verified.
Residential: Includes single-family and multifamily housing units. Residential units above ground-floor retail may not have been captured if the use could not be verified.
Vacant: Unoccupied buildings or storefronts.
Retail Types:
Experiential (EXP): Experiential retail is a relatively new trend within the retail industry that includes uses such as axe throwing, pottery making, and painting with wine. Given the relatively recent rise in experiential retail, this type was not contained in the 2013 inventory.
Food and Beverage (F&B): Includes sit-down restaurants, take-away food, cafes, bars, coffee shops, sandwich shops, ice cream shops, fast food restaurants, and similar types of tenants.
General Merchandise, Apparel, Furnishings, and Other (GAFO): Includes clothing stores, furniture stores, discount stores, bookstores, jewelry stores, gift shops, pet supply stores, home decor stores, music stores, sporting goods stores, craft stores, mattress stores, electronics stores, auto parts stores, hardware stores, and similar types of tenants.
Hospitality (HOSP): Includes bed and breakfasts, hotels, inns, motels, and other similar types of lodging. Restaurants and bars associated with a hospitality use would have been captured separately in the F&B retail type. Hospitality uses were not treated as a separate retail type in the 2013 inventory.
Neighborhood Goods and Services (NG&S): Includes grocery stores, convenience stores, drugstores, florists, gyms, bakeries, delicatessens, butchers, dry cleaners, yoga studios, salons, tailors, laundromats, spas, liquor stores, shoe repair, and similar types of tenants.