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The retailing industry is struggling right now as customers choose to skip the mall visit and do their shopping online instead.
Not all companies are closing locations and throwing in the towel, though. Here are a few businesses that are aggressive expanding their store footprints.
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1. Ulta Beauty
Ulta Beauty (ULTA 1.06%) is having no trouble attracting customers to its spa and beauty retailing locations, with traffic spiking 9% in the most recent quarter. That healthy growth pace gave CEO Mary Dillon and her executive team the confidence to add 18 stores to their sales base in the past few months, including one in Santa Monica, California, and one in Trussville, Alabama. Ulta Beauty has 990 locations in the U.S. today, but management sees room to grow that figure to as many as 1,700 over time.
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2. Five Below
By embracing quickly shifting trends, young shoppers are notoriously difficult to market products toward. But Five Below (FIVE 1.76%) has a good grasp on what this demographic wants. The specialty retailer's sales are up 25% over the last six months as the company added 62 stores to its portfolio, compared to 54 opened in the prior-year period. Five Below has been expanding particularly aggressively in Florida, with 32 new spots opened in just the past two years. It also recently added two locations in Wisconsin and one in Buffalo, New York.
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3. Lowe's
The home-improvement market has been expanding at a healthy pace for several years now, and Lowe's (LOW 0.85%) is aiming to capitalize on that positive trend. The retailer aims to open 25 new locations this year, which should help its revenue base expand by 5%. That result would still leave Lowe's stuck in second place against rival Home Depot (HD 1.26%), though. The industry leader enjoys stronger customer traffic trends and higher profitability, and so it is poised to outperform Lowe's yet again in 2017.
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4. The TJX Companies
Off-price retailing giant TJX (TJX 0.83%) is benefiting from turmoil in the industry, since store liquidations allow it to bulk up its own inventory at attractive prices. Passing along those savings helps the company generate market-thumping growth, too. Sales and profits expanded nicely last quarter as TJX raised its business outlook. The company added locations in its TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, and Sierra Trading Post banners last quarter. And with customer traffic driving its healthy sales growth right now, it's likely that the retailer will continue tacking on new stores.
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5. Shake Shack
Burger joint Shake Shack (SHAK +5.56%) recently expanded into Lexington, Kentucky, while adding to its presence in the cities of New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Orlando. The chain is aiming to add 24 locations in the U.S. this year to help revenue rise by as much as 37%. Yet the stock has still trailed the market badly because Shake Shack is enduring soft sales at its existing locations. Nevertheless, management believes it can reach 450 stores across the country in time -- up from just 70 today.
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6. Costco
Costco (COST 0.32%) is the second-biggest retailer in the country, but the warehouse giant is still expanding its store footprint. It added 21 new locations in the U.S. last year, including one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that set a new membership signup record. That pace will drop slightly in 2017 as the retailer focuses more on international growth by adding brand-new markets like France and Iceland to its portfolio. Meanwhile, investors love the stock since Costco's membership approach protects it from some of the biggest e-commerce challenges.
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7. Dollar Tree
There is plenty of room in most cities for retailers that can deliver consistently low prices, and that helps explain why Dollar Tree (DLTR +1.47%) is being so aggressive at adding to its store base. The retailer opened 133 locations last quarter to bring its total to 14,600 across the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar brands. Management believes the market will support as many as 25,000 locations, however, and so it's likely that you'll see a few (more) of these stores pop up near you in the coming years.
