Outlet mall foot traffic has improved significantly since the spring season. According to data from Placer.ai, outlet mall foot traffic was down to 26.9% in August and 12.8% in September compared to pre-pandemic traffic levels. The report looked at 11 outlet malls in New York, Texas, California and Illinois.

Weekly data supports the trend that foot traffic is improving in this retail segment. At the end of September, foot traffic had returned to its best levels since 2019 in all of the assets Placer.ai analyzed. For the asset class as a whole, weekly year-over-year traffic is down 9.3%. That is 3.3% closer to normal or pre-pandemic traffic activity, according to the research platform, than the week prior when visits were 12.6% down.

While the overall foot traffic trends are positive, some geographic regions are outperforming others. Grove City Premium Outlets and The Crossings Outlets in Pennsylvania, for example, had the strongest trends in traffic patterns. Grove City in particular had a 9.9% improvement in foot traffic compared to 2019. Crossing Outlets also did well, with traffic up 2.9% in September compared to 2019 numbers. This was especially true at the end of the third quarter when traffic increased by 3.1% in September.