PODCAST · business
Retail Retold
by DLC Management Corp.
The Retail Retold Podcast highlights community retailer stories from across the country and gives a behind-the-scenes perspective from business leaders in both retail and real estate industries. The show’s episodes contain valuable insights that help solve the needs of entrepreneurs and real estate pros.Each week our guests share stories of what worked, what didn’t, the ups and downs – giving the audience a critical set of tools needed for business success. Join host Chris Ressa and new guests weekly for amazing insights and thought-provoking stories. Brought to you by DLC Management Corp.
Episodes
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Hotel Chocolat Is Checking Into the U.S.
Is that the sweet smell of premium chocolate in the Windy City air? Premium chocolate is growing faster than the broader confectionery category. Hotel Chocolat wants a bigger piece of that growth in the U.S. Backed by Mars and already established with roughly 170 stores in the UK, Hotel Chocolat…
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FunBox Bouncing Into a Vacant Box Near You
What does it take to scale kids entertainment nationwide? Family entertainment has become a major part of the retail real estate conversation. But as the category gets more crowded, the concepts that grow will need more than a good idea. Suat Gokmen, co-founder and part owner of FunBox, joins…
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The People Are the Plot
The People Are the Plot What does it take to make a retail real estate deal work? Ask Chris Ressa, and he’ll tell you it starts with people. In this episode, University of Alabama student Asa Moran, host of CRE Simplified, interviews Chris about the lessons he has learned across his career.…
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Retail Retold Replay: One deal, 100 calls later
Persistence, scarce retail space and the fundamentals behind the right deal. This Retail Retold replay brings us back to a conversation with Kevin Nassimi, Vice President of Real Estate at Nassimi Realty, about a question that still matters: Does America actually have enough physical retail…
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Retail Is Winning. Can Institutional Capital Keep Up?
The case for more retail investment is getting harder to deny. Retail real estate has spent years proving its strength. Vacancy is tight, rents are growing and recent performance has outpaced other major commercial real estate asset classes. Yet retail still accounts for just 13% of institutional...
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Working out solidcore's real estate growth strategy
Prime retail space is hard to find. How does solidcore keep growing? Solidcore is scaling fast. The boutique fitness brand will have approximately 190 locations open by the end of the month, up from about 85 when Josh Rainey joined the company. It expects to reach roughly 240 locations by the end...
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A LiveView of technology, trust, and safer retail
How do technology and trust create safer shopping centers? Security is easy to notice after something goes wrong. The harder question is whether owners and operators are doing enough before that moment arrives. Chris Ressa talks with Mark Bradshaw, vice president of property management at DLC…
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The Dark Horse of Consumer Spending: Is Retail Paying Attention?
The Dark Horse of Consumer Spending Retail is obsessed with the next consumer. What does Gen Z want? How will younger shoppers change stores? Which brands, experiences, and trends will win their attention? But while everyone looks ahead, retail may be overlooking one of the most powerful…
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Why Retail Rents Are Rising and New Supply Is Still Years Away
Retailers want to grow. The question is what they’ll pay for the right space. Retailers want more stores. Vacancy remains historically low. And meaningful new retail development is still years away. So what does that mean for the next five years of retail real estate? What are the forces today…
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The Real Value of the Bank Branch
In a World Using Less Cash, Banks Keep Opening Branches! Why? Bank branches are everywhere, even as more of our banking happens online. You can deposit a check from your phone, transfer money in seconds, and apply for a loan without ever walking into a bank. Yet some of the country’s largest…
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Retail Retold Replay: The Store That Changed Five Below Forever
What if one real estate decision changed the trajectory of an entire company? Back in 2021, the retail industry was navigating supply chain disruptions, soaring construction costs, and an uncertain recovery. Today, this conversation with Five Below Vice President of Real Estate Zach Minteer feels...
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What Is Retail Traffic Really Telling Us?
The consumer behaviors behind today's strongest retail trends and what they mean for retailers, landlords, and shopping centers. Retail traffic is telling a very different story than most headlines suggest. According to Ethan Chernofsky, Chief Marketing Officer at Placer.ai, consumers aren't...
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A Culture of Curiosity
The questions everyone new to retail real estate needs to ask. Sometimes the best conversations start with someone willing to ask questions. That's exactly what happened when Chris Ressa handed the microphone to DLC Marketing Coordinator Jordyn Levine. Retail Retold usually features founders…
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Partnership as a Competitive Advantage
Commercial real estate has entered a new era where execution, partnership, and long-term thinking have become the industry's greatest competitive advantages. In commercial real estate, everyone talks about capital. Not enough people talk about partnership. That's what makes the relationship…
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From Gas Stations to Shopping Centers: The Evolution of EV Charging
Is EV charging becoming an essential retail amenity? Electric vehicles have become impossible to ignore, but one of the biggest conversations isn't happening inside the car. It's happening in the parking lot. As EV adoption continues to grow, retail real estate is becoming an increasingly…
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Retail Retold Replay: Research, Data and Retail...AI!
The market has evolved. The questions are just as relevant. A Retail Retold Replay looking back at retail in 2024. We're throwing it back to ICSC 2024 with James Cook, Americas Director of Retail Research at JLL and host of the Where We Buy podcast. From the DLC booth in Las Vegas, James and…
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The Treasure Hunt Economy
Just how niche is the secondhand retail market? Secondhand retail is one of the fastest-growing forces in retail, with the market expected to approach $80 billion by 2030. According to America's Thrift CEO Chris Homewood, that scale would make the category larger than the GDP of more than 130...
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Scaling Across the U.S. With Speed and Execution
How Tahini's is Winning the Race for Growth For growing brands, expansion is the goal. The real question is how you get there. At a time when restaurant concepts are racing to sign development deals, enter major markets, and announce aggressive expansion plans, Tahini's is taking a different...
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Looking Back on the Road to Leadership
What happens when experience becomes perspective? Every year, thousands of retail real estate professionals descend on Las Vegas looking for answers. Where are rents headed? Who's expanding? What's the next opportunity? Which relationships will create the next great deal? But before the meetings...
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What was Impossible to Ignore at ICSC Las Vegas
The predictions that looked a lot more like reality on the show floor. Everyone arrives at ICSC with predictions. The real question is which ones survive contact with 25,000 people on the show floor. Chris Ressa and CBRE's Karly Iacono weren't just attending ICSC Las Vegas. They were in the…
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Inside ICSC Las Vegas 2026: Why Retail Real Estate Has Never Been Stronger
The retail real estate industry is entering ICSC Las Vegas with momentum, confidence, and a fundamentally different supply-demand dynamic. Recorded live from the SiriusXM Studios at Wynn Las Vegas ahead of ICSC Las Vegas 2026, this special episode of Retail Retold brings together two of the...
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The Pregame Show for Retail Real Estate’s Super Bowl
From the SiriusXM Studio at Wynn: Retail’s Next Big Move Broadcast live from the SiriusXM Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas and kicking off ICSC Las Vegas, Retail Retold stepped onto one of the biggest stages in the industry for a special conversation between Chris Ressa and DLC Founder and CEO Adam...
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Can AI Negotiate a Lease?
Retail leasing could be entering a completely different era of speed. Anyone who has worked on retail leases knows the process can feel endless. Versions flying back and forth. Redlines buried in email chains. Hours spent drafting language that’s been negotiated a hundred times before. And…
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AI is Coming for Retail Operations Faster Than You Think
What does an AI-powered retail organization actually look like? Retail real estate has spent decades trying to optimize speed, scale, and execution. Now AI is forcing the industry to rethink all three. Surfaice Pro is taking this to a different level using mission-critical systems engineering to...
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Show Me the Deals: What’s Ahead for ICSC Las Vegas
As ICSC Las Vegas approaches, one theme is expected to rise above the rest: dealmaking. On the surface, the story looks simple. Retail fundamentals remain strong. Vacancy is near historic lows. Construction costs continue to limit new supply. Capital is returning to the sector. But beneath that...
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Retail Leasing in Focus: Trends, Talent, and What’s Ahead
Insights into evolving market conditions Retail real estate isn’t defined by one trend right now. It’s being shaped by a mix of forces all hitting at once. Two of CBRE’s top retail leaders, Laura Barr and Scott Schnuckel, join Chris Ressa to dive into what’s actually happening across the…
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No Space, No Problem: Building When the Map Looks Full
A disciplined pipeline and strategic site selection approach are enabling growth despite limited supply Retail real estate didn’t change as much as people thought. The fundamentals never left. What changed is how precisely you have to execute them. Jim Lampassi, Senior Vice President of Real…
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Açai You Later, Status Quo: Building a Brand That's Actually Authentic
A disciplined approach to product, experience, and real estate is fueling a fast-growing food and beverage concept Palmetto Superfoods didn’t grow by chasing trends. It grew by challenging them. Hessam Shirmohammadi, co-founder and COO, built the brand around a simple idea: if the product is real...
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Building the Next Generation of a Family Business
A different background, and a different lens on retail real estate Careers aren’t linear. And the best ones usually evolve. Anya Wolf didn’t start in retail real estate. Her background was in art, including studio work, art history, and hands-on experience in galleries and education. She was…
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16 Host Cities and a Major Retail Opportunity
What if the biggest World Cup winners aren’t the teams? The next major tailwind for retail real estate isn’t coming from policy, rates, or supply it’s coming from global demand. The World Cup is set to drive one of the largest concentrated waves of consumer activity the U.S. has seen in years.…
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Reputation, Risk, and Reality in Today’s Hiring Market
Are you solving the problem, or just applying? How people get hired and what companies actually value is shifting fast. Cary Beale, one of the most active recruiters in retail real estate at Poline Search Partners, sees the disconnect every day. Companies want people in the office. Candidates…
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Retail Retold Replay: Golf Factory is a hole-in-one at Randhurst
Can a niche hobby become a viable retail concept? The golf industry quietly experienced one of the biggest participation surges in decades during the pandemic. Millions of people picked up clubs for the first time, and the ripple effects are still reshaping the business of golf, from course...
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Retail Retold Replay: Why Retail Real Estate Is STILL "Too Good to Ignore"
What did Adam and Chris get right about retail in 2024? Back in 2024, Chris Ressa sat down with DLC CEO Adam Ifshin in Las Vegas ahead of ICSC to talk about a retail market that was already showing unusual strength. Looking back from 2026, that conversation reads less like commentary and more…
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When global events become retail catalysts
Is 2026 about to be the biggest year for retail real estate in decades? Retail real estate doesn’t move in a vacuum. It moves when consumers have a reason to act. 2026 is shaping up to be one of the strongest demand environments in decades because three massive global catalysts are converging at...
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Why grocery keeps winning when retail keeps changing
Why is grocery-anchored retail still the most resilient asset class in 2026? Grocery-anchored retail continues to prove why it remains one of the most durable and coveted asset classes in commercial real estate. Despite persistent narratives around online grocery, delivery economics, and shifting...
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How to Get a Retail Lease Done in 14 Days
What does it take to win a competitive retail LOI today? Retail leases are moving fast again, and in East Tennessee, they are moving faster than most people think is possible. Chris Ressa talks with Lindsey Barden, founder of Dark Horse CRE, a tenant-rep-only broker covering Knoxville…
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What Franchise Longevity Looks Like From the Inside
What do long-term franchise operators know that others miss? Longevity in retail is earned, not engineered. Chris Ressa and David Habas, Managing Partner at HK Enterprises, unpack what it actually takes to build and operate a service retail business over decades, cycles, and constant change.…
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From the Front Lines: The Reality of Running Retail Centers
What Does It Mean to Think Like an Owner in Property Management? Retail real estate is not won in boardrooms. It is won in the field. Chris Ressa sits down with Tine Helton, Regional Property Manager at DLC, to talk about the work that actually keeps open-air retail centers running across…
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2026: The Year Retail Real Estate Turns Momentum Into Pricing Power
What Signals Say 2026 Could Outperform a Strong 2025 for Retail Real Estate? 2026 might be the year retail real estate finally turns momentum into pricing power. Chris Ressa and Karly Iacono open with a confident call: next year will outperform an already-strong 2025, and the data is starting to...
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Built to Last: Retail Real Estate Strategies for the Current Cycle
What Does It Take to Go the Distance in Retail Real Estate Today? Retail real estate in early 2026 is defined by imbalance. In many suburban, open-air markets, demand is overwhelming supply. Five tenants are chasing one quality space. Vacancy is razor-thin. New construction still does not pencil....
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The Forces Aligning Behind Retail Real Estate in 2026
What Happens When Strong Consumers, Limited Supply, and Leasing Demand Collide? Retail real estate is not just stable — it is entering a meaningfully better phase of the cycle. Drawing on recent conversations with owners, brokers, tenants, architects, engineers, and contractors, Chris Ressa...
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The Conversations You Didn’t Hear at ICSC New York
Is Retail Entering 2026 with More Certainty Than Ever? Fresh off the energy of ICSC New York, Chris Ressa and Carly Iacono unpack what really matters in retail real estate right now and where the market is headed into 2026. In this episode of What’s in Store, they move past surface-level…
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Deal Protection and Personal Edge: Lessons Worth Replaying
Are you managing risk in your leases, or just hoping for the best? Flashing back to December 2023, this Retail Retold replay proves just how relevant the details still are. In this episode, host Chris Ressa breaks down one of the most underestimated risks in retail real estate leasing: possession...
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Do Psychographics Beat Demographics?
How is Spatial.ai mapping real retail demand? In this episode of Retail Retold, host Chris Ressa gets inside the mind of Lÿden Foust, the CEO and founder of Spatial.ai—the company turning real human behavior into a map retailers can actually use. If you think location strategy is still built on...
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Scaling Fun: The Real Estate Machine Behind Unleashed Brands
Can entertainment concepts win in a tight real estate market? The kids’ entertainment world is exploding, and in this episode of Retail Retold, host Chris Ressa dives straight into the center of that momentum with Melissa Tinsley, Director of Real Estate at Unleashed Brands. Melissa pulls back…
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Which of These Four Luxury Trends Will Reshape Brands the Most?
Which of these trends will reshape brands the most? This week on What’s in Store, Karly Iacono and Chris Ressa break down the power moves happening across luxury retail—and why the category is rewriting the rules of real estate. They open with a jolt: luxury brands are no longer just leasing the...
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Exiting a Winning Brand and Hatching Something New
Could a pandemic business-plan lesson for a bored kid spark the next breakout fast-casual brand? This episode moves fast — because Rob Gresham’s career has never slowed down. Chris Ressa sits with the restaurant veteran who went from washing dishes at 15 to helping architect the early operational...
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Pizza, Hot Chicken, and Hustle: A Playbook for Explosive Franchise Growth
What Does It Take to Scale from Two Gyms to 100+ Stores Across America? n this episode of Retail Retold, Chris Ressa welcomes franchise powerhouse Kal Gullipali — the man who turned two Orange Theory studios into a 100-unit empire spanning Marco’s Pizza, Dave’s Hot Chicken, European Wax Center…
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5 Trends, 2 Experts, 1 Big Question: Where Is Retail Headed Next?
Is Foot Traffic the New Gold Standard of Retail Success? What happens when two of retail’s sharpest minds go head-to-head on the data behind the industry’s biggest shifts? You get this week’s episode of Retail Retold, where Chris Ressa sits down (again!) with Ethan Chernofsky, Chief Marketing...
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Is franchising still a wealth play — or peak risk?
Are we witnessing a reset in what “proven,” “scalable,” and “investable” mean in franchising? This is not the sugar-coated version of franchising. Patrick Buckley sits down with Chris Ressa to unpack what is actually happening behind the curtain of franchise growth, exits and unit-level...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Retail Retold Podcast highlights community retailer stories from across the country and gives a behind-the-scenes perspective from business leaders in both retail and real estate industries. The show’s episodes contain valuable insights that help solve the needs of entrepreneurs and real estate pros.Each week our guests share stories of what worked, what didn’t, the ups and downs – giving the audience a critical set of tools needed for business success. Join host Chris Ressa and new guests weekly for amazing insights and thought-provoking stories. Brought to you by DLC Management Corp.
HOSTED BY
DLC Management Corp.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Retail Retold have?
Retail Retold currently has 398 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Retail Retold about?
The Retail Retold Podcast highlights community retailer stories from across the country and gives a behind-the-scenes perspective from business leaders in both retail and real estate industries. The show’s episodes contain valuable insights that help solve the needs of entrepreneurs and real estate...
How often does Retail Retold release new episodes?
Retail Retold publishes regularly with 398 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Retail Retold?
You can listen to Retail Retold on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Retail Retold?
Retail Retold is created and hosted by DLC Management Corp..
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