If you haven’t noticed lately, retailers are closing left and right. Over the years it seems more and more people would rather shop online than in brick and mortar stores. Declines in foot traffic and heavy discount sales are causing department stores to plummet. Whose to blame? The 250 billion dollar online retail giant, Amazon.
Macy’s recently named 68 locations that will close and estimated to cut about 10,000 employees. Sears, struggling with financial performance for a number of years, settled to sell the Craftsman brand to Black & Decker for $900 million.
The well known fast fashion brand H&M is also closing stores. Last year sales were up however profits were down dropping 11%, due to mass markdowns. It was reported that the company expanded by 400+ stores, however, this year scaling back on store growth and focusing more on web sales is the route H&M will take.
The online competition is getting bigger and bigger every year and physical stores are feeling the pressure. However not all store closings portray signs of trouble but “sacrifices necessary to achieve greater profitability.”
DeAnn Harte 