Academy Sports + Outdoors: The sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer will open at least eight stores in 2022 to fill in its portfolio across Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Texas and to expand into Virginia and West Virginia. That will grow its store count to 267 and expand its reach to 18 states. The company is evaluating additional locations for 2022.

Aldi: The Germany-based supermarket chain is using artificial intelligence to determine the age of customers at its autonomous Shop & Go store in London. A machine-learning algorithm will scan photos of faces for their ages to determine if customers are old enough to purchase restricted products like alcohol.

Amazon: After launching cashierless Amazon Go stores in urban neighborhoods, Amazon is bringing larger-format versions to the suburbs. The first will open in Mill Creek, Washington, near Seattle, in the coming months. At 6,150 square feet, it’s significantly bigger than the 1,000- to 2,000-square-foot Amazon Gos the company has opened in dense, urban areas. It plans to open another larger suburban Amazon Go store in the Los Angeles area.

Cafe Landwer: The all-day Mediterranean diner concept inspired by modern-day Israel’s culture and cuisine is opening a third Massachusetts location, in Boston’s trendy Back Bay, connected to The Charlesmark hotel. Cafe Landwer got its start in 1919 in Berlin, when Moshe Landwer launched a coffee roasting business. Emigrating to Tel Aviv in 1933, he opened the city’s first coffee roasting house. In 2004, four entrepreneurs took the brand and launched a chain in Israel that grew to 80 locations there. Co-founder and CEO Nir Caspi brought the brand to North America in 2017 and has grown it to five locations in Canada, one in Los Angeles and now three in Boston.

David’s Bridal: The retailer will open two stores in the first quarter of 2022, in West Chester Township, Ohio, outside Cincinnati, and Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, California. In the back half of 2021, the bridal chain opened a unit in each Naperville, Illinois, and Clive, Iowa. David’s Bridal has committed to modernizing its existing 300 stores and its physical footprint.

Frankie4: The women’s footwear brand, founded by podiatrists, has opened its first store outside Australia, in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, pictured at top. Frankie4 has four stores in its home country.

Lowe’s: The home improvement chain will open Petco shops inside select stores as part of its plan to become a one-stop shop that customers will shop more frequently. The first will open near San Antonio in early February, and 14 more will come to Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina by the end of March.

Läderach: The Swiss chocolate maker is opening four stores this month, at Toronto’s Yorkdale; Florida’s Town Center at Boca Raton; Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, California; and Los Angeles’ Westfield Topanga and The Village. Each features a counter at the front where large slabs of fresh chocolate are visible behind glass. In February 2021, Läderach announced an asset purchase agreement to assume the leases of more than 30 Godiva locations in the U.S., which includes these four locations. The latest openings brought the North America store count to 37, and Läderach will make more new-store announcements through March.

Nourish + Bloom Market: The first Black-owned, autonomous supermarket opened in a food desert in Fayetteville, Georgia. The company hopes to grow to 800 units nationwide. To offer 24/7 access to its products, it uses a mix of automation, vending and delivery, including delivery robots with temperature-controlled compartments for food.

Sherwin-Williams: The paint company said same-store sales climbed 6% in the fourth quarter despite supply chain kinks. It operates 4,148 stores in the U.S., including the 79 added last year. It expects similar footprint growth in 2022.

Texas Roadhouse: The steakhouse chain will open its first outparcel unit in Puerto Rico, at Urban Edge Properties’ The Outlets at Montehiedra, in mid-2023. Since Texas Roadhouse launched in 1993 in Clarksville, Indiana, it has grown to more than 580 locations in 49 states and 22 more locations across nine countries.

Turning Point: After 23 years of operations, the breakfast, brunch and lunch concept has received venture capital funding from NewSpring and is launching a franchising program. Founded in 1988, Turning Point has 21 units across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware and has additional corporate-owned stores under development. It’s seeking franchisees nationwide and plans company-owned restaurants in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Florida.

U-Haul: The company continues to convert former big-box stores. The latest example is a former Kmart in Rock Springs, Wyoming. U-Haul Moving & Storage acquired the 8.2-acre property on Dec. 17 and transformed the box into an 89,792-square-foot space with 700 indoor, climate-controlled self-storage units. “Big-box stores like this tend to sit on the market for a long time because they're so large and only suit a certain type of business," said Paul Johnson, president of U-Haul Company of Wyoming. "U-Haul can fully utilize a property of this size, and we can do it without the environmental impact of building a new facility from the ground up.”