Trends in Supermarket Parking Demand
Since the early 2000s, there has been a steady increase in the use of home delivery services for buying groceries. This has had impacts on the footfall traffic inside supermarkets. It has also changed the way many of the big retailers have sought to expand, with some trending towards smaller convenience stores whilst allowing the ‘big weekly shop’ to be accommodated by online services and home deliveries. This dependence on online deliveries was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has this shift stuck around post-pandemic? Mayer Brown investigates below what the impact of increased home deliveries is on parking demand at supermarkets, and whether some food retailers could afford to reduce their car park sizes in order to accommodate other facilities.