As MSCI wrote in a recent report on capital trends, "Retail is still a dirty word for some investors and lenders. The fact is though, that while online shopping is growing quickly, the plurality of consumer spending still happens in a store location."

Census Bureau data, available from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, shows the leap that ecommerce took from 11.9% of retail in the first quarter of 2020 to 16.5% in the second quarter because of pandemic shutdowns, only to drop back down to 14.4% in 2022 Q2 and now back up to 15.4% in the second quarter of 2023. That's still more than in pre-pandemic times, but the current numbers, moving back to previous trends, is still a minority of total sales.

Part of that is the types of products that people buy online and in person and part is that people look for social interaction and go to stores for more than practical reasons. In-person retail is a long way from being completely online.