Here's how gyms, salons and ice cream are changing America's Main Streets

Retail space leased to service businesses — gyms, spas, restaurants — surpassed goods-selling tenants nationally last year for the first time, according to real estate data firm CoStar, and the shift is visible in downtown Ridgewood, New Jersey, where a former ski shop is now a sushi restaurant and a bank vault houses an Italian eatery. Chamber of Commerce director Joan Groome counts 11 barbershops and three ice cream cafés on a single block.

Analysts at Coresight Research attribute the long-running shift to consumers redirecting spending from goods to experiences, a pattern paused briefly by pandemic lockdowns but now accelerated, driven partly by wealthier spenders and partly by online shopping siphoning off traditional retail. Local merchants are split on the consequences: bookstore manager David Logan says a new bakery next door has driven foot traffic his way, while jewelry shop owner Gina Jeon worries fewer boutiques means less reason to actually walk the street.

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