BITE-SIZED RETAIL SPARKLES

Retail is one of the biggest commercial tenant sectors, providing significant income to private landlords. And while, for the past 20 years, some retail economists have been predicting its bricks and mortar demise it always seems to reinvent itself in one shape or another.

The country’s 27,000 retail stores employing around 220,000 staff turned over about $100 billion last year. About 95% of the stores are single location outfits that employ fewer than 20 staff. Roughly, 14,000 of these are sole traders. At the other end of the spectrum are the 600 or so multi-location retailers employing about 140,000 staff.

However, recent Covid restrictions means the