The optimal retail space for your business will be obvious in many cases. If you're planning a gas station/convenience store, you would clearly not open it within an enclosed shopping mall. If you are planning a department store, you would not open it in a strip center.

However, there are variations in judgments regarding the best location for a retail store for many types of businesses. Many retailers have a combination of in-line shopping store space and freestanding stores. A freestanding store will likely be more expensive. However, a freestanding store gains more visibility. In most cases, you can effectively place advertising or signage on each side of the building. Your business has much better visibility in comparison to in-line space.

An end-cap space in a shopping center which is perpendicular to the street also has excellent visibility. Restaurants frequently locate in end-cap spaces. If your product or service is an impulse purchase with a relatively low price point, give serious consideration to obtaining premium retail space. Consider paying the additional cost for either a freestanding location or end-cap. Enclosed regional malls can provide a good option for impulse purchases or high-end merchandise.

Enclose regional malls have recently bifurcated into either prime or secondary/tertiary quality malls. The prime malls are doing great. They tend to be full and have an excellent array of tenants. The secondary and tertiary malls are doing fairly to poorly. In many cases, the highest and best use of the property has changed. Many second-tier regional malls are either being redeveloped as retail, perhaps as a power center, or are being scraped and rebuilt in a variety of land uses.

Conversely, if your product or service relates to destination retail, consider cost-effective retail options. In some cases, space in a neighborhood shopping center where the anchor tenant has gone dark (anchor tenant has left the states but is still paying rent) they provide a great overall location and a modest price for rent. For tenants who need larger retail spaces, second-generation grocery store space can be a great option. And the big boxes also provide retail space typically in a good location at much more moderate prices. As Wal-Mart has revised their basic template, they have vacated many medium-sized retail stores. In general, second-generation retail space provides a much less expensive cost of occupancy than first-generation space.