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: Why Retail Companies Are Closing Stores
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Why Retail Companies Are Closing Stores
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Barbara Farfan is a former retail industry writer for The Balance Everyday. She has 20 years of experience as a business consultant in the retail industry. Read The Balance's editorial policies
Barbara Farfan
Updated August 05, 2019
Traditional U.S. retailers are on course to close more stores than they did in 2017, when major retail chains closed a record 8,139 stores. Through July 5, 2019, large U.S. retail chains announced 7,062 store closures, according to Coresight Research. That compares with 5,864 store closings for all of 2018. If the pace continues, major retailers could shutter as many as 12,000 stores by year-end, Coresight forecasts. In that case, the number of closures would come close to doubling the 6,163 that occurred in 2008, the only full calendar year in the Great Recession. Online Competition
Part of the explanation for retail chains' difficulties since 2017—what some have called the "retail apocalypse"—is the continuing trend of Americans making purchases online. Consumers enjoy the freedom of shopping on their computer or phone and avoiding trips to a store that may not have had what they were looking for anyway. As of the first quarter of 2019, e-commerce purchases accounted for 10.2 percent of all retail sales, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.