Earlier this year Atlanta-based Marcus & Millichap associate vice president Sonny Molloy, along with colleagues Philip Levy and Jason Vitorino, brokered the sale of a 115,396-square-foot BJ's in Woodstock, GA for $16.05 million, or $139 a square foot.

"Because these companies are performing well, investors have a stronger interest in them and they're having an easier time getting them financed," Molloy says. "From a more practical standpoint, I think they perceive consumers spending more at wholesalers like BJ's because they get more bang for their buck."

Gill Warner, senior director of Stan Johnson Co. in Tulsa, OK, is less sanguine. While he hears the sales pitches for "recession-proof tenants," he says he doesn't necessarily see a significant volume in deal activity taking place. In part that's because not many properties leased to perennial favorites like Wal-Mart and Target Corp. are ever on the market, he says. And as for dollar stores, which are much more plentiful among properties available for purchase, he says, "they're not flying off the shelf. They're still not priced right."

Among Warner's current listings is a newly built Family Dollar store. "There's good interest, but the bid-ask gap is big," he says. "It's still going to sell at a market cap rate. It's not going to sell [at a lower cap rate] just because it's in that industry."

Molloy sees that bid-ask gap--a gap that he says is widening as a result of the sheer amount of supply on the market--as a signal of buying opportunities. "I think there's an opportunity to purchase dollar stores right now if you can find one with a market location that's fundamentally sound," he says. Dollar stores "are positioned to do very well in this environment."