Weekly Perl: A Commercial Real Estate News Recap
10-year Treasury yield is little changed after May inflation data comes in as expected
U.S. Treasury yields were relatively unchanged on Thursday as Wall Street assessed key inflation data for May.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note — the key benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — fell less than 1 basis point to 4.396%.
The 2-year Treasury note yield, which more closely tracks short-term Federal Reserve interest rate policy, declined 1 basis point to 4.127%. The longer-dated 30-year Treasury bond yield was up less than 1 basis point at 4.861%...
Circana: Toy unit sales increase 5% to start 2026
Despite shaky consumer sentiment, the U.S. toy industry is off to a strong start to the year.
New data from Circana reveals that the toy category posted 13% dollar growth from January through April compared to the same period last year. Unit sales increased by 5%, while average selling price (ASP) grew by 7%.
Seven of the 11 "supercategories" tracked by Circana posted dollar gains, with the majority posting growth in dollars, units and ASP. The top-performing segments were games and puzzles (39% year-over-year increase), driven by Pokémon; explorative and other toys (36%), led by Major League Baseball (MLB) and NeeDoh; and building sets (20%), driven by LEGO Botanicals and Formula 1 sets...
Walmart Pilots Dark Store Depots For Faster Last-Mile Delivery
Walmart is doubling down on last-mile delivery speed by testing so-called “Spark Delivery Depots” in
vacant retail locations, according to Talk Business & Politics. The latest dark store was set up in a shuttered Walgreens at 2964 W. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Fayetteville, Arkansas, joining earlier efforts in Dallas and with more planned in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Carlstadt, NJ. These dark stores are closed to walk-in customers and serve as rapid fulfillment points for online orders, targeting delivery speeds as fast as 30 minutes in select markets for a $10 express fee..
Retailer Olive Young's expansion mirrors K-beauty demand in US
For the past decade, a beauty trend from Korea has swept the United States in the form of face creams and other skin care products. The phenomenon, dubbed K-beauty, is moving from social media onto the shelves of national chains — and reshaping commercial real estate.
Olive Young, South Korea’s largest beauty chain, is using the Los Angeles area
as a launchpad for national growth, opening this month at Westfield Century City, just a few weeks after it started business at its first U.S. store about 20 miles away, in Pasadena...
The Container Store + Bed Bath & Beyond concept expands to 22 locations — here's where
Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store’s retail co-branding efforts have expanded.
After the two retailers opened their
first location in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 16, the concept is rolling out to nearly two dozen stores in “phase one” of the expansion (see locations later in article). In April, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. announced plans to
purchase The Container Store for $150 million in stock and convertible notes, and later announced plans for a “phased integration” of The Container Store’s 98 locations to include Bed Bath & Beyond merchandise...
US Core Retail Sales Hit Record as Shoppers Shift Online
US shoppers continued to open their wallets in May despite high gas prices and persistent cost pressures, with core retail sales rising 0.5%
month-over-month and 5.6% on the year, according to Marcus & Millichap Research Services. The data signals that, even as headline inflation outpaced wage growth for a second consecutive month, households were willing to dig into their savings and spend on day-to-day goods. Yet not all retail categories shared equally; general merchandise, miscellaneous retail, and online stores notched record sales, while spending in restaurants and electronics dipped as some consumers trimmed discretionary budgets...
Kroger beats Street with Q1 revenues, misses on earnings
The Kroger Co. exceeded analyst projections for sales with help from e-commerce, even as it came in slightly below expectations for profits.
The supermarket giant reported net earnings of $903 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 ended May 23, 2026, up 4% from $866 million during the first quarter of the prior fiscal year. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.58 per share, just missing consensus estimates of $1.59 per share but up from $1.49 in the previous period...
Changes in Retail Real Estate Nationwide Have Accelerated: Forum
Kicking off a panel on the nature of experiential retail and the future of destination developments during Commercial Observer’s recent Retail & Hospitality Forum, Nima Fazeli, senior vice president of development for the H.wood Group, made a statement that should have seemed more shocking than it was.
“I don’t think you can really differentiate the different asset classes anymore,” Fazeli said of commercial real estate in general. “I think everybody in this room would agree that it’s all becoming blended into one homogeneous experience...”
Construction Costs Jump 9.6% as Materials Spike in May
Post-Pandemic Inflation Hits Construction Input Costs
Construction input costs surged in May, with Associated General Contractors (AGC) and Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reporting the highest annual increase since the pandemic first disrupted supply chains. According to Multifamily Dive, the 9.6% year-over-year jump is double the growth rate of the broader US consumer price index, signaling a new round of inflationary pressure across the sector. The report shows that contractors are facing faster-rising input costs every month in 2026, a reversal from trends seen during the previous year, when costs had briefly stabilized...
