Employees' return to the office is helping downtown traffic – a welcoming factor for merchants who had been getting boosts mostly from leisure weekend visits, according to new data for August from Springboard.
That traffic is also apparent during the dinner hour (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.), the study showed, when it was up 3.1% compared to July.
Springboard said that August was the first month since December 2021 when the gap from 2019 in downtown traffic during the dinner period was less than -25%.
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Breakfast and lunchtime hours also saw modest boosts, by +2.4% and +0.1%, respectively.
Overall, August marked the third consecutive month of improvement. Numbers are still significantly off 2019 levels.
Downtown traffic remains significantly lower than in August 2019, but it's a few ticks better in August 2022 compared to August 2021.
Springboard said that US downtown traffic was supported by hot weather and the school vacation period during August, which encouraged employees back into their offices during the working week.
Candidly, Springboard's report suggested that increased traffic downtown was "due to some employees finding home working more problematic whilst children were on vacation from school so heading into their offices."
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