Report: Number of chain stores up in NYC; Dunkin Donuts leads the way

From the EV Grieve inbox... cut-n-paste journalism! Woot!

The Center for an Urban Future today published its fifth annual study ranking the national retailers with the most store locations in New York City. The study shows that retail chains in New York overall fared better this year than last, paced by strong growth in the Bronx and continued expansion from top retailers Dunkin Donuts and Subway.

The report finds that the number of chain stores in the city is up by 2.4 percent over last year, compared to a 1.8 percent gain in stores between 2010 and 2011. Although a handful of prominent retailers like Filene’s Basement and Betsey Johnson closed their stores in New York over the past year, fewer national retailers overall contracted — only 23.5 percent of retailers on our list reduced their retail footprint in the city, compared to 31 percent last year. This marks the fifth straight year there has been a net increase in the number of national chain stores in the five boroughs.

For the fifth consecutive year, Dunkin Donuts tops our list as the largest national retailer, and with a total of 484 stores it is on the precipice of becoming the first national retailer with 500 stores in the city. But even though Dunkin Donuts had a net gain of 18 stores over the past year, its lead over second ranked retailer Subway has continued to shrink. Subway added 24 stores this year, bringing its total to 454. In 2010, Dunkin Donuts had 77 more stores than Subway, but this year the donut retailer only had 30 more stores.

Starbucks regained its position as the third largest retailer in New York City, overtaking MetroPCS, which had moved up to the third spot last year. Starbucks, which registered a net gain of nine stores, has the most stores in Manhattan by far — with 200 of its 272 New York City locations in the borough.

Of the 10 largest national retailers in the city, T-Mobile added the most stores over the past year (13 – going from 161 to 174 stores overall) while GNC had the largest percentage growth (9.2 percent, going from 131 to 143 stores). Other retailers with notable increases over the past year include: Potbelly Sandwich Shop (jumping from 4 to 12 stores), Panera Bread (8 to 13) and 7-Eleven (83 to 98).

New to this year’s report is an analysis of the chains that have grown the fastest in New York City since 2008, the first year we published our ranking of the city’s national retailers. Coming in at the top of the list is Panera Bread, which grew by 225 percent since 2008, followed by J Crew (117 percent increase), Pret a Manger (113 percent), T-Mobile (112 percent) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (100 percent).

Digging into the report a bit... the 10003 zip code (which includes Union Square and parts of Fifth Avenue) is second in the city with 179 national retailers...

The 10009 zip has 23 chains while 10002 has 36.

You can find the full report here.

We'll continue to look at all this... not sure if the report took into account the two Subways that recently closed in the East Village.