Mexico’s Largest Private Retailer Bets Brick and Mortar Is Here to Stay

It’s Saturday and stores are bustling, with families buying shoes for the kids, eyeing new TVs and maybe even a motorcycle. It might feel like the mall heyday of the 1980s and 1990s in the US, but it’s Mexico, now.

Brick-and-mortar stores have proven resilient in the country, even as malls have turned into ghost towns in the US and retailers have restructured in Brazil. That’s why Mexico’s largest private retailer, Coppel, is planning to invest 14.2 billion pesos (about $690 million) in 2025 — more than 60% of which will fund 100 new stores this year and the renovation of another 66 locations.