CaratUS luxury store openings fall 46% to 123,334 square feet
JLL's 8 September leasing report counts the first half of 2026 against 227,000 square feet a year earlier. Jewellery and watch retailers took 43.5% of the smallest size band.
Luxury stopped opening shops. Luxury retailers opened 123,334 square feet of US store space in the first half of 2026. That is down 46% from 227,000 square feet a year earlier, JLL found.
If you lease jewellery space: small boxes are where the activity is. Under 2,500 square feet took nearly half of openings.
If you are a flagship landlord: fewer stores are opening, but the ones that do are over 30% bigger.
What this is not: a jewellery-only count. The 123,334 figure covers all luxury retail.
| Cut | Share or figure | What JLL counted |
|---|---|---|
| Stores under 2,500 sq ft | nearly half | of all luxury openings |
| Jewellery and watch retailers | 43.5% | of that smallest band |
| Independent and family-controlled brands | 46% | of all tracked openings |
| LVMH and Richemont together | about 30% | of openings |
| Total openings | 123,334 sq ft | down from 227,000 a year earlier |
ISmall boxes took the space
Half under 2,500 feet. Stores under 2,500 square feet accounted for nearly half of all luxury openings JLL tracked in the half.
Jewellers led that band. Jewellery and watch retailers represented 43.5% of that smallest store-size category.
IIFlagships grew as counts fell
Bigger, not more. The average size of a luxury flagship store has grown by more than 30%, JLL found in its 8 September report.
One example. Dior opened a 52,000 square foot store on Madison Avenue.
IIIIndependents outweighed the groups
Forty-six percent independent. Independent and family-controlled luxury brands accounted for 46% of all tracked openings.
The groups took thirty. LVMH and Richemont together represented roughly 30% of openings.
01What would change this call+
A second-half figure at or above 227,000 square feet. That would make the first half a pause in a leasing cycle rather than a change in how luxury takes space.
02Why square feet and not store counts+
JLL measures leasing in square feet because that is the unit a landlord and a tenant actually transact in, and because it is the only measure that survives a change in store format. A count of stores would show this half as a collapse; a count of square feet shows it as a fall of 46% against a base swollen by a handful of very large flagships. The two numbers in this report pull against each other on purpose: total space is down sharply while the average flagship is over 30% bigger, which is only possible if far fewer large boxes opened. For a jeweller the useful cut is the smallest band, because that is the format most independent jewellery and watch retailers actually lease.
03Method · the desk’s arithmetic+
The figures are JLL's, read in JCK's write-up of 16 September 2026; JLL's own 8 September report is not published to a public address this desk could reach, and no attempt is made here to quote it directly. The scope of the headline figure was checked against the source sentence before the headline was written: 123,334 square feet is ALL US luxury store openings, not jewellery alone, and this page's headline and What-this-is-not both say so. The percentage was recomputed rather than carried: 123,334 divided by 227,000 is 54.3% of last year's total, so 45.7% below it, which rounds to JLL's own 46%. Archive test, both periods named: zero hits for JLL and zero for 123,334 across the 382-article archive. The paper's prior store-opening coverage is single-property (South Coast Plaza, 2 September 2026) or single-brand (Bucherer, 1 August 2026) and carries no market-level leasing figure for any half-year. NEW.
04Sources1 document
1,600 square feet at South Coast Plaza: Jessica McCormack takes the West Coast
One 1,600-square-foot jewellery lease, which is exactly the band this report says took nearly half the market.
The trade, filed before the New York open.
Prices, tenders and the one story that moved the industry overnight. Ninety seconds.
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