Dive Brief:
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Several former big box retail stores across the nation are being converted to self-service storage spaces and fulfillment centers, reports the Davenport, IA-based Quad-City Times.
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Such buildings are fairly easily converted to such spaces because they already have HVAC systems and are conveniently located for potential customers, according to the paper.
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A former K-Mart store and former Menards store in the Davenport, IA, area and others in Wisconsin are examples the paper uses in its report.
Dive Insight:
As the big-box store era recedes, those stores are finding new purpose as convenient spaces for truck haulers and self-storage companies.
While there are victims of the trend shifting away from big-box stores, including Circuit City, many chains like Target, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Office Depot, and Best Buy, while not abandoning the big-box approach by any means, are adapting by adding smaller more urban stores in the mix. Nationwide, retailers, including even Wal-Mart in some areas, are closing underperforming stores and moving into more urban areas with smaller stores. Even Circuit City, whose new owners recently said they would be reviving the brand, plan a more urban-centered approach.
The latest United States Census found that America's urban population increased 12.1% from 2000 to 2010, outpacing the overall growth rate of 9.7% in that time. Public transit and other city conveniences make urban areas more appealing to many Americans, with more young people opting to live, and continue living, in cities.
Scaling down and untethering from a mall, meanwhile, can provide a wider array of real-estate choices for some stores, although doing so can also introduce more intricate planning logistics. And those retailers have willing buyers for their old big-box centers as a more mobile population finds a need for a place to stash belongings.
Menards spokesperson Jeff Abbott told the Quad-City Times that the company has repurposed a store in Eau Claire, Wis., to self-storage and looks at such opportunities whenever it shutters a store. “We consider all of our options whenever we need to sell a building, including self-storage,” he told the paper.
