Supermarket Sweep 🛒

Last weekend I had some time to kill while my daughter was at a birthday party, so I took advantage of the party’s location and went to Trader Joe’s. The good news is that I made perfect use of 90 minutes. The bad news is that I violated one out of two cardinal rules of grocery shopping: 

1. Always have a list 
2. Never go hungry 
   

While I did have a general list, I was starving…and boy did it show at the checkout. Do you know how hard it is to spend $200 at Trader Joe’s? My grocery bill at regular ol’ Harris Teeter never hits $200, even when I use Instacart; my small family just doesn't consume all that much. So this was an eye-popper.

Had prices unexpectedly increased at Trader Joe’s? No. I just bought a LOT of stuff, including corn chips and queso, frozen Fiery Chicken Vindaloo, champagne mangoes, and cheese straws. 

When I unpacked back at home, I was relieved to see that this wasn’t the worst hunger-shop I’ve ever done. But even if it were, the consequences are pretty mild. Yes, I would have wasted money on stuff that would sit in my pantry or in my freezer for eternity, but that’s about it. 

⚠️ There is, however, another situation where showing up without a list is a lot riskier, and where letting hunger drive your decision making is downright dangerous. 

Yep. You guessed it. Retail space search and site selection.

📋 First let’s talk about the list — the articulation of your needs and requirements. The "BLTS" as we like to call them: 

Budget: How much you can spend getting the business open, and how much can the business afford in rent each month?

Location: Where does your target customer need you to be?

Timeline: How long must/can you wait before opening?

Space Criteria: What are the physical attributes that a space must have for you to operate your business? 

This is what a proper BLTS list might look like:

B: No more than $362,000 on buildout, No more than $8,254 per month all-in

L: Georgetown, DC, north of Q St NW

T: No earlier than September 2027

S: Must be at least 1,800 square feet and have abundant natural light and customer parking

Without these criteria clearly identified, space search can look a lot like wandering the aisles putting various appealing things in your cart. Ooh, freeze dried raspberries! Trader José’s tomatillo sauce! Peppermint Joe-Joes, I missed you! See what I mean? Each on their own is appealing, but if I just keep putting things in my cart because I like the way they look, I end up back at home a lot poorer and without a plan for dinner.

🎯 The BLTS keep us focused and provide a reality check to our natural enthusiasm. 

Enthusiasm says, “Ooh, I saw the cutest space with roll-up doors! Maybe that’s the one!”

The BLTS answer, “Yeah, it is cute, but there's no parking. We gotta pass.”

Time wasted? Zero. Money wasted? Zero.

Enthusiasm says, “That corner spot next to the library would be a perfect location for me!”

The BLTS answer, “Yeah, it really would, but it’s 3,200sf. We gotta pass.”

Time wasted? Zero. Money wasted? Zero.

🍝  You get the point, so let’s layer on a growling stomach. 

In retail real estate, a growling stomach is a (usually first-time) retailer’s sense of extreme urgency – the burning feeling that if I don’t get this business open RIGHT NOW it will never happen. It’s a deep hunger to begin the “real” part, as if everything before opening day doesn’t really count. 

It’s consuming, it’s painful, and like any other hunger, it’ll lead you right toward bad decisions. This is how otherwise smart, thoughtful people make short-sighted leasing decisions. In the ravenous haze, they grab whatever looks good enough right now.

If you think about it, existing retail businesses always have a list, and if they have an appetite to expand, they never feel like they’re starving; their existing businesses confirm their BLTS, and they know that (a) there’s too much at stake to rush the process, and (b) there will always be another opportunity. That’s not to say that experienced retailers don’t make bad decisions — they do — they’re just not usually due to poorly defined criteria or an existential feeling that if they don’t sign this lease at this moment they’ll never achieve their dreams.

🪑 For small and independent retailers, real estate decisions are very much personal decisions. So at Pedal we say that emotions have a seat at the table. That’s because they always sit at the table, whether we make space for them or not. They’re obnoxious that way. By making time at every meeting to check in emotionally with our Pedal Retailers, we can air and work through the feelings to make sense of them and move forward.

Experiencing brokerage for the first time is overwhelming, and there are consequential choices around every corner. In Dream Space Brokerage, our job is to fill up Pedal Retailers’ bellies (and brains) with preparation and confidence before we go to market and to keep them focused on their list, aisle after aisle until checkout. That way, they get exactly what they need without wasting time or money on knockoff chili-lime Takis.