Consumers are not holding back this holiday season. A new report from CBRE forecasts that holiday spending will increase 8.4% this year to $800 billion, a new record. Southern California is expected to benefit from the surge in retail sales.

"There is a lot of pent-up demand among shoppers in Southern California, and we are expecting a robust Holiday shopping season," Jamie Brooks, First VP at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. "This region has a lot of popular existing open-air shopping centers that have performed pretty well during much of the pandemic, which has created additional momentum going into the holidays this year."

Brick-and-mortar sales specifically will grow 8% to a 10-year high. Brooks says that isn't surprising because people want to resume in-person experiences. "I am not really surprised. People are excited and really looking to connect and re-connect socially with family, friends and co-workers, especially considering that last year we were forced to deal with a second round of shutdowns during the holiday shopping season," he says. "This is obviously translating into higher foot traffic and increased sales projections for brick-and-mortar stores during the holiday shopping season."