I make a good portion of my living from grocery-anchored shopping centers, and I love stats. So it’s no surprise that I know about each and every grocery-anchored center in Montgomery and Bucks County, PA, and that I have stats.
Stat number one is 86, as in 86 grocery-anchored shopping centers in Montgomery County, which is Pennsylvania’s third largest county behind Philadelphia and Allegheny (Pittsburgh). That’s one supermarket per 9,000 people. Giant leads the way with 14, followed closely by Genuardi’s (13) and Acme (10). As for owners, Goodman Properties (6), Kimco (5), Centro (4) and Brandolini (4) have the most in the county.
Stat number two is 14,017,685, as in 14 million square feet of shopping center space. That’s 18 square feet for every man, woman and child. I wonder if there’s another suburban county in the United States with 14 million square feet of grocery-anchored shopping center space, or for that matter, 86 grocery-anchored centers.
The stats for Bucks County, the fourth largest county in the state, are impressive as well.
- 64 grocery-anchored shopping centers, or one supermarket per 9,700 people;
- 18 stores for Giant, which dominates the county (including the two it just took over from Genuardi’s), followed by Acme with 9;
- 7 centers owned by Centro, which is 4 more than any other owner;
- 9,267,896 square feet of shopping center space. That’s 15 square feet per county resident.
As for my definition of a grocery-anchored shopping center, I’m counting all supermarkets and the accompanying retail space on the property. A free-standing supermarket counts, just as a Walmart Supercenter (as designated by Walmart) counts.
Montgomery County has 22 different supermarket brands, some of which only have one store (Walmart Supercenter, Amelia’s, Assi and Foodtown) compared to county leaders Giant, Genuardi’s and Acme. Bucks County has 16 different brands, from McCaffrey’s, Wegmans and Swann’s (one each) to the county giant, Giant. The up-and-comer, of course, is Bottom Dollar, which will have 8 stores throughout the two counties by the new year, and many more by this time next year.
Believe you me, I have more stats, but I think I’ve thrown enough numbers around for now. Want more information? Call me. I’m happy to talk shop.