Will you spend more time and money at the store? What Miami shoppers will see in 2024

Howard Cohen
·9 min read
2

Shopping has seen changes — and will see more in 2024.

We’re buying groceries online more than ever. We’re getting them delivered. And we’re doing our own checkout at the supermarket.

At malls, we’re heading to resort-like gyms and gaming centers or restaurants to keep us on the grounds longer and later than the traditional department store could ever manage.

We’re even sitting down for lunch or dinner at Publix, Whole Foods Market and Sedano’s store restaurants.

And we’re spending more.

Grocery Dive, the industry tracker, reported that online grocery sales in 2023 reached $8.1 billion in November, up 5.2% compared to the same time in 2022. Delivery also grew by 8.6% — the largest year-over-year sales increase.

And more of us are going to big-box stores like Walmart to buy groceries. In November, 42% of U.S. households said they used a mass retailer for most of their in-store or online grocery shopping, overtaking supermarkets.

The newest Arcade Time Entertainment game center opened at The Falls in December 2023, offering customers of the 44 year-old Kendall mall a reason to hang around on site until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, long after the mall’s stores and restaurants have shut for the day. The trend of opening “lifestyle” attractions like an arcade or mega fitness centers has become popular with malls as customers aren’t lured by department stores like they once were.

What else can we expect in the shopping world of 2024? Here’s a rundown:

Supermarket mergers

Florida has started to see these blue Kroger delivery trucks as the Cincinnati-based grocery company expands into the state but via online orders rather than traditional brick and mortar stores.
Florida has started to see these blue Kroger delivery trucks as the Cincinnati-based grocery company expands into the state but via online orders rather than traditional brick and mortar stores.

Discount grocer Aldi acquired the traditional Winn-Dixie from its Jacksonville-based parent company Southeastern Grocers in 2023. The deal is expected to close in early 2024.

Kroger announced a $24.6 billion merger proposal with Albertsons in October 2022 with an eye toward early 2024 for the deal to go forward if approved. In December, Kroger told the Federal Trade Commission that it has met all the antitrust law requirements to win approval, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.

Though an early 2024 time frame may not happen, but if approved, “there would be massive retail media implications,” Supermarket News reports. The combined grocers would have a reach of over 85 million households and rival national market leader Walmart.

Supermarket supersizing

Grand opening of a new Publix at The Crossings in West Kendall on Thursday, June 15.
Grand opening of a new Publix at The Crossings in West Kendall on Thursday, June 15.

READ MORE: Publix is opening four supermarkets in January. What to know about the new stores

Publix stores are getting bigger, either through new stores or demolition and rebuilding. The trend can be seen at the Briar Bay Publix across the street from The Falls, which was torn down in August. Plans indicate that the shuttered 32,000-square-foot Publix will grow into a two-story, 56,070-square-foot grocery store. Publix would not say when a rebuilt store will open.

Some new Publix stores in Florida also are more than 50,000 square feet, leaving more room for BOGOs, grab-and-go items, grocery store cafes and self-checkouts.

The Publix at the Briar Bay Shopping Center at 13005 SW 89th Place in Miami, across the street from The Falls, is temporarily closed so that the Lakeland-based chain can build a more contemporary Publix on-site.
The Publix at the Briar Bay Shopping Center at 13005 SW 89th Place in Miami, across the street from The Falls, is temporarily closed so that the Lakeland-based chain can build a more contemporary Publix on-site.

Self-checkout at the supermarket

Customers use newly-installed self-checkout lanes at the Publix supermarket at 13401 S. Dixie Highway in Pinecrest on Oct. 2, 2022. The store added the machines about two weeks earlier.
Customers use newly-installed self-checkout lanes at the Publix supermarket at 13401 S. Dixie Highway in Pinecrest on Oct. 2, 2022. The store added the machines about two weeks earlier.

According to Delish, the first self checkout machine was installed in a Georgia Kroger way back in 1986. They’ve come a long way since — to about 96% of the nation’s grocery stores in 2023, reports The Food Industry Association. You’ve seen the machines at Target and Walmart and even at some Miami International and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airports’ shops and dining locations.

Publix started adding self-checkout lanes inside some of its existing stores and made them a part of coming stores’ plans in 2022.

“Where we are able to we will offer self-checkout,” spokeswoman Lindsey Willis told the Miami Herald at the time. “As stores go up for remodel we will offer self-checkout if there is space.”

Expect more opportunities to do it yourself in 2024 — but you don’t have to. You can still go to a staffed cashier lane at South Florida Publix, Whole Foods, Winn-Dixie, Target, Walmart and other retailers. Though they are in almost every grocery store, self-checkout lanes account for 29% of all transactions, according to statistics from the Food Industry Association.

Online shopping

Walmart’s new InHome delivery service gives customers the option of having a delivery person come into their homes or garages and stock their refrigerators when they order groceries or goods. The new delivery service arrived in South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, as well as cities in other states, in July 2022.
Walmart’s new InHome delivery service gives customers the option of having a delivery person come into their homes or garages and stock their refrigerators when they order groceries or goods. The new delivery service arrived in South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, as well as cities in other states, in July 2022.

Another trend we’ll see more of in 2024 is online grocery shopping.

According to the Food Industry Association, 81% of retailers sell groceries online using providers like Instacart or the store’s own service, like Kroger did when it bypassed brick and mortar in Florida to begin selling its groceries in the state, including in South Florida from an Opa-locka warehouse hub in 2022.

Walmart followed with its InHome delivery service that entered the South Florida market in 2022.

In December, Insider Intelligence reported that Amazon, which has struggled to dominate online grocery sales despite owning Whole Foods, started testing a grocery subscription add-on for Prime members. The deal is the same price as an Instacart+ subscription ($9.99 monthly) and Prime members can access unlimited free grocery delivery on orders of $35 or more from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.

The test is not yet in Florida and limited to Prime users in Sacramento, Denver, and Columbus, Ohio.

Apartment and retail combos

The Winn-Dixie at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami was being torn down on July 21, 2023, to make way for a proposed apartment complex. The grocery store was in the neighborhood since 1962.
The Winn-Dixie at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami was being torn down on July 21, 2023, to make way for a proposed apartment complex. The grocery store was in the neighborhood since 1962.

▪ A Winn-Dixie grocery store, built in the 1960s at 5850 SW 73rd St. in South Miami across the street from the Deli Lane Cafe and Sunset Tavern, was torn down in July. What’s coming? A nine-story mixed-use project on the 1.9-acre site that would include 36,395 square feet of commercial space for a yet unnamed grocery store, 283 apartments and a 400-space parking garage.

▪ Kimco Realty, which owns and manages Palms at Town & Country, plans to redevelop a portion of the sprawling outdoor complex by building a pair of 12-story apartment buildings with of 630 apartments between the two buildings, along with 35,000 square feet of retail space on the site of a Kohl’s building on the property at 11800 Mills Dr.

“The plans referenced outline a long-term vision for the site,” Christa Kremer, Kimco’s director of marketing for the Southern region, told the Miami Herald. “We are currently in the earliest planning stages, and over the course of 2024 will be engaging with key stakeholders while also monitoring the residential market and overall economic conditions to determine timing and next steps.”

▪ The 800,000 square foot indoor Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale that opened in 1980 was listed for sale in November as a potential redevelopment site and may fetch over $100 million, The Real Deal reported. Keystone-Florida had twice tried to redevelop the former luxury mall in 2014 and 2022, but Fort Lauderdale did not approve the mall owner’s proposed plans to build a project with at least 1,900 apartments on the 31.6-acre site.

A file photo from May 27, 2015, shows a rendering of a proposed redevelopment at 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale. Developers were planning a $750 million redevelopment that would consist of residential, commercial and hotel space. The plan was not approved.
A file photo from May 27, 2015, shows a rendering of a proposed redevelopment at 2414 E. Sunrise Blvd., Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale. Developers were planning a $750 million redevelopment that would consist of residential, commercial and hotel space. The plan was not approved.

Restaurants in the grocery store

Whole Foods’ El Bocadillo bars inside the seated cafe area at Whole Foods supermarkets give customers like the Garcia family, seen here on Nov. 7, 2023, at the 7930 SW 104th St. location in Pinecrest Plaza near Kendall a place to eat during the grocery shopping experience.
Whole Foods’ El Bocadillo bars inside the seated cafe area at Whole Foods supermarkets give customers like the Garcia family, seen here on Nov. 7, 2023, at the 7930 SW 104th St. location in Pinecrest Plaza near Kendall a place to eat during the grocery shopping experience.

Dining inside a grocery store like Publix or Whole Foods isn’t new. We’ve done so for more than a decade. About 30% of grocery stores nationally contained cafes said Phil Lempert, a national grocery industry analyst known as the Supermarket Guru.

Then came COVID. And the figure was more than halved. But the trend is growing again with stores opening cafes or newly built Publix stores, for instance.

Twenty of Sedano’s 35 markets in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and Orlando have indoor cafes and seating where shoppers can order sandwiches, empanadas, milkshakes, pastries and croquetas. And more are coming. New or remodeled Sedano’s will have cafes or hot food service, according to the Miami-based grocer.

“One of the drivers of grocerants is the fact that grocers want to capture more of the ‘food dollar’ away from restaurants and in many cases, especially against quick-serve restaurants like Chili’s and others, can compete very effectively food- and service- wise with the added convenience of combining the shopping with dining,” Lempert said.

READ MORE: This grocery trend ended with COVID. Now Publix, Whole Foods, Sedano’s bet you’re hungry

Gasoline prices

Highlights from GasBuddy’s 2024 Fuel Outlook include:

▪ Gas prices could fall below a national average of $3 per gallon this winter before starting to rise in late-February, getting close to $4 per gallon as summer approaches, then mildly declining into summer, with hurricane season presenting uncertainty in late summer, according to analysts with GasBuddy.

▪ Miami’s forecast highest daily average gas price in 2024 is $3.75-$4.25, which puts it above select cities including Tampa ($3.65-$4.10) and Orlando ($3.70-$4.15) but below New York City ($3.85-$4.35) and California cities, which are the highest like San Francisco’s ($5.70-$6.35).

▪ Florida’s yearly average will be $3.19-$3.51. The lowest state in the forecast yearly average is Mississippi at $2.81-$3.10. The highest is Hawaii at $4.29-$4.82.

▪ The most expensive holiday? Memorial Day 2024 is forecast to find gas at $3.56-$4.04. That could be because Memorial Day is at the end of May. The outlook forecasts the highest prices will be seen at the peak of the summer driving season in May, with the national average potentially rising as high as $3.89 per gallon, according to GasBuddy analysts. More uncertainty is expected with hurricane season in late summer.

▪ The least expensive holiday? Christmas 2024 is forecast to find gas at $2.83-$3.16.

“As 2023 fades away, I’m hopeful those $5 and $6 prices for gasoline and diesel will also fade into memory,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “The global refining picture continues to improve, providing more capacity and peace of mind that record-setting prices will stay away from the pump in 2024. I anticipate that we’ll still have some volatility, unexpected outages and disruptions, and potentially weather-related issues, but I do not expect it to lead to record prices.”

Retail lifestyle additions

KNOW MORE: Two popular Kendall malls are making big changes. What they’re doing to lure customers

Tina and Alan Miller head back to their car after working out in the new EOS Fitness center at The Palms Town and Country Mall on a Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 1, 2023. The couple live nearby in a Kendall neighborhood and find the strip mall convenient.
Tina and Alan Miller head back to their car after working out in the new EOS Fitness center at The Palms Town and Country Mall on a Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 1, 2023. The couple live nearby in a Kendall neighborhood and find the strip mall convenient.

The evolution of malls in 2024 will include the trend of placing more “lifestyle” additions like mega fitness centers or attractions like gaming centers, bowling alleys or other destination venues that draw crowds and serve as anchors where department stores like Macy’s once stood as the anchor.

Health club and gym Life Time opened on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at The Falls shopping mall in Kendal. Above: A view of the outdoor saltwater pool from the top of the water slide in Life Time.
Health club and gym Life Time opened on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, at The Falls shopping mall in Kendal. Above: A view of the outdoor saltwater pool from the top of the water slide in Life Time.

Three recent examples: Palms at Town & Country’s mega gym, EōS Fitness; The Falls’ replacement of a shuttered Bloomingdale’s with the opening of Life Time, a three-story resort-like spa; and the December opening of Arcade Time Entertainment, a play area with arcade games, virtual reality, motion simulation rides and an indoor restaurant that opened in the space of a former American Girl doll retailer.

And such places are keeping customers at the malls well past regular business hours that see most stores close around 9 p.m. Arcade Time at The Falls is open until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and midnight on other days.

EōS Fitness at Palms is open 24 hours. Even a screening of a butt-numbing long “Oppenheimer” won’t keep customers at mall movie theaters at Aventura and The Falls out so late.

A large Retro Arcade room inside the new Arcade Time Entertainment venue at The Falls in Kendall boasts modern versions of pinball machines and Pac Man games from the 1970s and ’80s.
A large Retro Arcade room inside the new Arcade Time Entertainment venue at The Falls in Kendall boasts modern versions of pinball machines and Pac Man games from the 1970s and ’80s.