Title: Why Retail Companies Are Closing Stores
Headings: Why Retail Companies Are Closing Stores
Why Retail Companies Are Closing Stores
Online Competition
The Decline of Malls
Private-Equity Debt
Quarterly Announcements

Content: Eventually, substantial numbers of malls were certain to fail in such an oversaturated retail environment. As some of a mall's stores begin closing—especially anchor tenants such as a Sears or Macy's—the mall loses favor with shoppers, and the declining foot traffic means more stores lose revenue, which leads to more store closures. The vacancy rate of malls in the second quarter of 2019 remained at the 9.3 percent level reported for the first quarter, according to Reis . The provider of commercial real estate data and analytics said that prior quarter's vacancy rate was the highest seen since the third quarter of 2011. The Great Recession also caused shoppers to stretch their declining or flat disposable incomes at lower-cost, big-box stores, such as Target and Walmart, that are generally not located in traditional shopping malls. Furthermore, people of all ages—but especially younger people—are increasingly shifting their spending preferences from things to experiences. They want shopping excursions to be fun rather than just a search for consumer goods. That's why malls that offer diversions like roller coasters or aquariums have outperformed their retail-only peers. Private-Equity Debt
Yet another reason for store closings is the leveraged buyouts of retail companies by private-equity firms that saddle the retailers with tremendous amounts of debt. For example, Gymboree Group, which sold children's clothing in stores with the names Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, Janie and Jack, and Crazy 8, first filed for bankruptcy in June 2017, almost seven years after Bain Capital purchased it in a deal that involved $1 billion in debt.