Store closures in the U.S. last year hit the highest level since the pandemic \u2014 and even more locations are expected to shutter this year, as shoppers\u2019 dollars increasingly go to a few industry winners, according to an analysis by Coresight Research.<\/p>\n
Major retailers,\u00a0including Party City\u00a0and\u00a0Macy\u2019s, closed 7,325 stores in 2024, according to the retail advisory group\u2019s data. That\u2019s the sharpest jump since retailers in the U.S. shuttered almost 10,000 stores in 2020, the year when the Covid pandemic began.<\/p>\n
So far this year, closures continue to climb. Retailers have already announced 1,925 store closures so far in 2025 \u2014 and that was only as of Jan. 10. The five retailers that have announced the most closures this year are Party City,\u00a0Big Lots,\u00a0Walgreens Boots Alliance, 7-Eleven and Macy\u2019s, respectively.<\/p>\n
The retail advisory firm projects that retailers will close about 15,000 stores this year as some legacy brands shrink and file for bankruptcy protection, or liquidating companies shutter locations.<\/p>\n
The striking numbers reflect the stark divide between retailers that are gaining market share and those that have lost ground.\u00a0Amazon,\u00a0Costco\u00a0and\u00a0Walmart\u00a0have gotten bigger as shoppers seek value and convenience. On the other hand, some smaller chains and specialty retailers have struggled to keep doors open or been forced to downsize.<\/p>\n
A spike in bankruptcies contributed to the high number of closures in 2024. According to Coresight\u2019s data, there were 51 retail bankruptcies in 2024, up from 25 in 2023. Some of those, such as Party City, have most of their closures taking place in 2025.<\/p>\n
Consumer spending has stayed strong \u2014 but a larger share of the dollars has gone to fewer retailers. Holiday sales increased 4% year over year to $994.1 billion for Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, according to the National Retail Federation, the industry\u2019s major trade group. That total excludes auto dealers, gas stations and restaurants.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s about in line with pre-pandemic holiday spending, which rose an average of 3.6% from 2010 to 2019.<\/p>\n
The number of jobs in the industry also did not appear to fall despite the closures. Employment in the retail trade \u201cchanged little\u201d last year, after the industry added about 10,000 jobs per month in 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Specialty retailers in particular have struggled: In December, The Container Store\u00a0filed for bankruptcy protection.\u00a0Big Lots\u2019 new owner is in the middle of an effort to keep some stores open, after the discount retailer said in December that it would\u00a0start going-out-of-business sales\u00a0across all stores.\u00a0<\/strong>Fabrics and craft retailer Joann\u00a0filed for bankruptcy\u00a0protection earlier this month for the second time in a year.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just specialty stores.\u00a0<\/strong>Last year, the highest number of closures came from\u00a0Dollar Tree-owned Family Dollar,\u00a0CVS Health, Conn\u2019s, rue21 and Big Lots, respectively. Conn\u2019s, a home goods and furniture retailer, and rue21, a teen apparel retailer, closed all stores after the parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2024.<\/p>\n John Mercer, Coresight\u2019s head of global research, said competitive threats, not a decline in demand, is to blame.<\/p>\n \u201cDemand may be strong among consumers, but where is some of that increased demand going? Where is it being channeled to?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mercer said the retailers that are shuttering stores tend to fall in three categories: They are closing all locations as part of a liquidation, such as Party City; shutting down many of their stores after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, such as The Container Store; or trimming back their footprint as they adapt to fast-changing consumer preferences, such as drugstores Walgreens and CVS and legacy department store Macy\u2019s.<\/p>\n Macy\u2019s, for example, is in the middle of\u00a0closing about 150 of its namesake stores\u00a0across the country by early 2027. The department store operator has been shuttering roughly 50 of those per year, since it made the announcement in early 2024. It is opening a limited number of shops that are\u00a0smaller, off-mall versions of its namesake stores\u00a0and new locations of its better-performing brands, Bloomingdale\u2019s and beauty chain Bluemercury.<\/p>\n Some newcomers are chipping away at legacy retailers\u2019 sales, Mercer said. Coresight estimates that Chinese e-commerce companies Shein and Temu pulled in a combined roughly $100 billion in sales last year, with the majority of that coming from outside of the U.S.<\/p>\n For example, more Americans are turning to sites like Temu for party balloons and storage tubs, which may have contributed to the bankruptcy filings of Party City and The Container Store last year, he said.<\/p>\n Even a small percentage drop in sales can be a blow to retailers\u2019 stores, which come with high fixed costs like leases and labor, Mercer said.<\/p>\n Some unique factors have widened the gap between store openings and closures, according to David Silverman, a retail analyst at Fitch Ratings. When a major mall anchor like Macy\u2019s closes, he said that can lead smaller retailers to exit, as well. As some stores in mall or strip shopping centers shutter, they\u2019re also\u00a0getting replaced\u00a0by fitness studios, urgent care clinics\u00a0or apartments\u00a0instead of another retail store.<\/p>\n He added that population shifts during the Covid pandemic changed retailers\u2019 store traffic patterns and shook up where they may want to be located.<\/p>\n \u201cMost companies are not adding a significant number of square footage and even the ones that until recently were adding a lot, like the dollar stores, are rethinking their footprints,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Silverman said he expects more stores will continue to close than open in the U.S., as retailers\u2019 growth comes from online sales and as larger companies take a bigger share of the market. Some of those, such as Walmart, add a lot more volume with one store than specialty retailers get from the dozens of locations they close, he added.<\/p>\n Investors will soon get an update on which retailers are outperforming and underperforming. Most major retailers will deliver their holiday-quarter results starting in mid-February.<\/p>\n Some retailers, including\u00a0Kohl\u2019s\u00a0and Macy\u2019s, announced their own plans for store closures before they shared full quarterly results. Kohl\u2019s said earlier this month that it will\u00a0close 27 underperforming stores\u00a0by April, along with shuttering an e-commerce fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California, in May.<\/p>\n There\u2019s some hopeful news for the retail industry, however: Store openings also accelerated last year in the U.S. to 5,970 \u2014 the highest number since Coresight began tracking store openings and closures in 2012. The firm anticipates that will stay about flat in 2025, with an estimated 5,800 stores opening.<\/p>\n Last year,\u00a0Dollar General, Dollar Tree, 7-Eleven, Mexican convenience store Oxxo and\u00a0Five Below\u00a0tallied the most store openings.<\/p>\n So far this year, the top five retailers in terms of announced store openings in the U.S. are Aldi, JD Sports,\u00a0Burlington Stores,\u00a0Pandora\u00a0and Barnes & Noble, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Store closures in the U.S. last year hit the highest level since the pandemic \u2014 and even more locations are expected to shutter this year, as shoppers\u2019 dollars increasingly go to a few industry winners, according to an analysis by Coresight Research. Major retailers,\u00a0including Party City\u00a0and\u00a0Macy\u2019s, closed 7,325 stores in 2024, according to the retail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}