Is Retail still leading the race?

[Twpchair]

I want to apologize in advance if I'm mistaken, but I believe someone mentioned during a recent lounge conversation that retail has either surpassed restaurants as the leading sector for Square/Block or has outpaced the restaurant industry altogether. It's not meant to be a competitive comparison—I'm just curious. 

I work in retail, and our business has been strong since October, aside from a couple of weeks affected by bad weather. We are up last I looked 71% over last year already. Additionally, I’m wondering if there’s a resource where we Mod can access data comparing the two sectors. I’d love to see how coffee shops are performing, particularly in terms of light breakfast and lunch options. I might have something else in the works related to this! Thank you to anyone who has knowledge in this. @Minion besides your construction side job anything 

[Minion]

OH that I am not sure of.  I only have the one business myself though, no construction job here.  I did just punch in some questions into the AI, and I am up 9.43% from last year though  

[Twpchair]

That’s awesome to hear. I have been using AI lately more and more. Especially on here and away from the loan board. Info pops right up. Seems to be a lot of people who have been picking up lately, which is awesome. 

[Twpchair]

 should have just asked huh? SMH. It also leads all loan questions. But, 2021 was the data on google. 

[Minion]

Yeah that seems a bit odd its missing data though from 4 years .

[Twpchair]

I didn’t go digging but their first 3 responses were all outdated. Square/Block has really done a great job with it. Another one is CashApp. I did the business side a few months back and even their little chatbot is pretty thorough. Downside is the amount of scam accounts. 

[Minion]

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@Twpchair wrote:

I didn’t go digging but their first 3 responses were all outdated. Square/Block has really done a great job with it. Another one is CashApp. I did the business side a few months back and even their little chatbot is pretty thorough. Downside is the amount of scam accounts. 

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I use cashapp with a few friends for personal things, I think I have it set up for business but my demographics don't really use that or Venmo  Plus its just another source that I would need to pull data to/from. Definitely beneficial to many businesses' though

[DinaLRosenberg]

Promising to hear you are up year over year... we are off- not by a ton- but off- and it's been a slow slide down since 2022. For us I do think it is industry specific- our industry got super trendy and it is in a correctly phase with a lot of shops closing.

[Twpchair]

I just looked up your store, and it is adorable. I do understand what you mean; I’m in retail furniture, and when you need a couch or table, it’s usually because yours has had it. I’m so rural we don’t have any stores like yours, but our big push would be we are 15-20 minutes from CMU, and the younger crowd (my niece) would go crazy in your store. Hopefully, things will pick back up soon for you. Wishing you all the best. It’s a little gem.