More economic woes are washing over the United States, as retailers across the country have announced the closures of almost 2,600 stores just this year. And we’re only about four months into the fiscal year, so yeah, that’s pretty bad and does not bode well for economic improvement as times continues to move forward. And these aren’t just little stores in your local community, either. Some of these are huge names in the retail industry.
We’re talking Macy’s, Walmart, Foot Locker, 7-Eleven, and even Walgreens have all revealed they are closing up a number of stores. And they haven’t taken the worst hit. No, Family Dollar and the now bankrupt 99 Cents Only have essentially taken a proverbial bullet to the head. We’re talking economically fatal wounds here.
Check out the details from The Daily Mail’s latest report:
If the closures were to continue at the same rate for the rest of the year they would total 7,800 in 2024 – almost 40 percent more than the total in 2023. Bricks-and-mortar locations are struggling in the face of competition from online.
Between January 1 and May 3, retailers closed or announced plans to close a total of 2,599 locations, according to Coresight Research. An additional 12 store closures in the last week were led by Skechers and Save A Lot with eight and two respectively. QuikTrip and Walmart each planned one.
Meanwhile, store openings were up to 3,560, less than the 3,824 that had been planned by this time last year. Year to date, major US retailers have therefore announced 2.5 percent more closures and 9.5 percent fewer openings compared to the same time last year. Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, which are owned by the same company, revealed in March that more than 600 stores would close in 2024. Those represent around 15 percent of all locations.
The retailer that experienced the second highest number of store closures was the 99 Cent Only Store. Several months back, in April, the store said it would be closing down all 371 locations. The reason for the closures? The same things that are killing regular folk: theft and super high inflation.
The store brand had locations all over California, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada. There has been no official timeline given for when the stores will officially close their doors for good.
In a statement, interim CEO Mike Simoncic said the decision was due to ‘lasting challenges in the retail environment, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting consumer demand, rising levels of shrink, persistent inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic headwind.’
Major drugstores were also behind a significant proportion of the closures this year. CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens were responsible for 315, 165 and 77, respectively. While the CVS and Walgreens targeted underperforming stores, the Rite Aid closures come after it declared bankruptcy in October. Since then it has shut 431 locations.
Pharmacies are also experiencing negative impacts from economic factors at the moment. Rite Aide hasn’t been able to settle the staggering number of lawsuits against them for allegedly overprescribing opioids. They number in the hundreds.
Just a month ago, Express, a fashion retailer, turned in paperwork to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, revealing it had plans to close up over a hundred stores.
The retailer, whose portfolio of brands also includes Bonobos and UpWest, listed assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion, according to a filing with the bankruptcy court in Delaware. As part of the bankruptcy process, the company said it would close approximately 95 Express retail stores and all of its 12 UpWest stores.
And yet, the Democrats in power at the moment are trying to convince us everything is just fine and dandy. Don’t buy it, guys. The facts say otherwise.
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