I am fulfilling my promise to “have more on Business Insider on the retail apocalypse with an emphasis on stores instead of malls” to conclude Business Insider and Dan Bell on dead malls in the Retail Apocalypse with two graphs and a video.
First, Business Insider reported last September that more than 6,400 stores were shutting down in 2017. In true “a picture is worth 1000 words” fashion, they presented the data visually.
I wrote last time that I would write about the demise of Payless. This graphic shows that Radio Shack is another famous chain I need to examine. Once again, Retail Archeology has videos, which I will use when I post that follow-up.
The third company closing lots of stores is Ascena Retail Group. I didn’t know who they were, but I did know some of the chains they own, including Ann Taylor, Dress Barn, Lane Bryant, and Loft. I might suggest Retail Archeology look at them. He already has a video about Claire’s.
Next, Business Insider followed up this April by reporting more than 3,800 stores will close in 2018. The following graph displays the affected chains.
Both J.C. Penney and Macy’s closed more stores last year than Sears and are still closing stores this year, but fewer than Sears both this year and overall. That doesn’t mean they’re immune from my eye. I’ll look at all three of them in the future as well.
Modified from Business Insider on stores closing in the Retail Apocalypse at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.
For today’s drink, I’m celebrating both National Ice Cream Day and France’s winning the FIFA World Cup with Strawberries and Cream Champagne Floats; recipe originally included in Drink to France in the World Cup on National Ice Cream Day 2018.
Was surprised at how many Bust Buy outlets are closing – guessing it is mostly the small outlets in malls as opposed to their larger stores? Even in my community’s depressed economy, that larger store does extremely well (or at least appears well-visited).
Best Buy here died I think early 2017; the first store to replace it in that location is also already dead. The economy is not depressed here but Silicon valley rents can be high, maybe the owner wants to sell the land.
i should have said before that the “dead mall” topic is especially interesting to me since both the malls closest to me are dead and how to redevelop both properties has been a huge issue in the cities of Sunnyvale and Cupertino CA. The Sunnyvale property (my city) has stood mostly empty for I don’t remember how long, 10 years or more? It has the anchor store at each end, Macy’s and Target (originally Penney’s), with no mall in the middle any more. IIRC the city contracted with a developer who didn’t do anything but also wouldn’t give up their right to maybe do something. There’s a new developer now, I’m not sure what’s going on except that Macy’s isn’t promising to stay much longer either.
Our mall lost its east anchor (Sears) in January this year. One of the other anchors cut the amount of space it occupies in half. Upshot is that about a third of the mall is essentially dead. I would not be too surprised if the remaining businesses in the east wing relocate elsewhere in the mall or relocate to another shopping center in the area. Retail has struggling in my community since a major manufacturing plant shut down earlier this decade. It’s weird going through the mall and seeing it in worse shape now than at the worst of the Great Recession. But that is the reality. In the meantime what to do with the vacant Sears location? Turn it into an indoor skateboard park? Who knows. No one seems in much of a hurry to occupy it.