Which mix of stores should fill your square footage?
You have 12,700 leasable square feet and five kinds of tenant who would happily take it. The catch is that a second coffee shop earns less than the first and a third earns less again, so the answer is not lease the best type and repeat. This template lays out every count option for every type and lets an optimizer pick the one combination that fits the floor plan and pays the most rent.
Operations Advanced Optimization free
After you install, this is the model to open.
Retail Space Mix Optimizer
- In your spreadsheet, click the Sortia icon in the strip of icons down the right-hand edge. No strip? Click the arrow at the bottom-right to open it. You can also use Extensions, then Sortia, then Open Sortia.
- Click Start from a template and put that name in the search box.
- Pick the card with that name and click Load this template. It arrives on a new tab with real numbers already in it.
The answer
One click on Optimization reshuffles the lineup and finds the mix worth the most rent inside the space you actually have.
- Best annual rent
- $130,200 6% of $2,170,000 tenant profit
- Winning mix
- 13 stores 2 coffee, 2 apparel, 3 home goods, 3 jewelry, 3 wellness
- Floor space used
- 12,600 sq ft 99% of the 12,700 available
- Gain over an even 2-of-each lineup
- +$18,300 per year, up 16%
Three of everything would need 14,400 sq ft, so 1,700 sq ft has to come out somewhere, and the honest answer is not the obvious one. The third home goods store is the worst earner per square foot in the whole set at $4.88 of rent per sq ft against $6.43 for the third coffee shop, yet the optimizer keeps it and drops the third coffee shop and the third apparel store instead, because cutting home goods alone frees only 1,600 sq ft and leaves you 100 short. That lineup pays $130,200 a year, which is $18,300 more than the even two-of-each floor plan the sheet starts on and $8,100 more than filling up with the best-value types first.
The model
Five tenant types, each priced at 0, 1, 2 or 3 stores, with the profit curve flattening as the count rises. Rent to the landlord is a flat share of whatever the tenants earn.
| Leasable floor space | 12,700 sq ft |
| Rent to the landlord | 6% of tenant annual profit |
| Store types on the table | 5, each at 0, 1, 2 or 3 stores |
| Footprint per store | 450 to 1,600 sq ft |
| Home goods profit, 1 store | $330,000 |
| Home goods profit, 3 stores | $650,000 (not three times $330,000) |
| Starting lineup on the sheet | 2 of every type, $111,900 rent |
Once it is in your sheet
- The model arrives with real numbers in it and runs as it stands, so you can press the button first and understand it second.
- Change the numbers to yours. The sheet marks which cells are inputs and which hold formulas, and most labels carry a note explaining the row.
- Press the run button at the bottom of the panel. It is labeled for the tool you are in, and the result lands on its own tab, with a written reading of it beside the figures.
Never used Google Sheets? Start here goes the whole way, in seven steps, and assumes nothing.
Next question
- How much contingency does this bid actually need?How Much Contingency Does This Bid Need?
- How much should you order each time?How Much to Order Each Time (EOQ)
- Which plant should ship to which store?Which Plant Ships to Which Store?
- How many servers does the queue actually need?How Long Will the Line Get?
- Can you actually keep your wait-time promise?What Shape Are Your Wait Times?
- Does the night shift really produce less?Shift or Line: What Moves Output?
Every model like this one, and the method behind them: Optimization in Google Sheets.