From USA Today:
“Retailers lost in the last
decade: Toys R Us, Sports Authority, Blockbuster, Borders and Payless”
America lost a record number of
household names in 2019 as store closings capped a tough decade of accelerating
decline for the troubled retail industry. No category was safe from the retail
apocalypse that shuttered thousands of stores – not books, toys, clothing,
shoes or electronics – as shoppers deserted malls for the ease of online
shopping. It's not just shoppers' habits that are hurting retailers. Heaps of
debt, bruising competition from Amazon and crushing pressures to reduce their
physical footprint forced a wave of closures, some after companies filed for
bankruptcy. The 2010s were cruel. Retailers shed thousands of stores in 2017,
too, another record year of losses in the past decade. Michael Brown, a partner in the retail
practice of consulting firm A.T. Kearney who has studied the future of shopping
centers, said the closings represented a changing of the guard. “As we exit
this decade, we’re really seeing the tidal wave of shift from physical to
digital in many respects whether it’s physical to digital shopping or physical
to digital products that are impacting what and how people are buying it,”
Brown said. Now they're headed into a new decade saddled with fresh worries,
from growing consumer debt to the trade dispute with China. A significant
downturn isn't forecast for the industry, but chances are the pain won't let up
anytime soon for some of America's struggling chains. The brick-and-mortar downturn is expected to
continue, according to a report released in April from UBS Securities.
Investment bank analysts said 75,000 more stores would need to be shuttered by
2026 if e-commerce “penetration rises from 16% currently to 25%.” "Amazon
is the biggest threat to the retail industry and as such retailers are spending
heavily to keep up with Amazon," John Haber, Spend Management Experts CEO,
told USA TODAY, noting "this strategy has proved deadly for those
retailers that spent themselves straight into bankruptcy." Brown said
there’s been a singling out of big box stores where there used to be two
players in each sector. “We had Dick’s (Sporting Goods) and Sports Authority
and lost Sports Authority. We had Borders and Barnes & Noble, we lost
Borders,” Brown said. “We’ve seen a narrowing of the big box sector based on
the strength of growing online but also on the growing strength of Walmart and
Target being able to service those categories for the consumer.”
A decade of store closings
Here's a look at some of the
biggest stores that shuttered all or nearly all locations in the 2010s, many of
which relaunched an online presence.
Blockbuster: 1,700-plus stores- The
saga of Blockbuster's demise was drawn out for several years. In 2010, the
company filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Dish Network in 2011, which
planned to keep most of the 1,700 remaining stores it bought open. By the end
of 2014, all corporate stores closed but a few franchise stores stuck it out.
After two of the last three U.S. locations in Alaska closed in 2018 and the
last store in Australia closed in March 2019, there's only one remaining
location of the iconic franchise left worldwide in Bend, Oregon.
Borders: 399 stores - Kmart owned
the bookstore chain in the early 1990s before spinning it off into a separate
company. At one time, the book retailer operated more than 1,000 stores but
lost business with the rise of e-readers like Amazon's Kindle and the growth of
discount retailers. In 2011, the chain filed for bankruptcy protection and announced
some stores would close but then ended up closing its remaining 399 stores.
Borders also operated Waldenbooks, which it also shuttered.
Charlotte Russe: 510 stores - The
San Diego-based mall chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early
February 2019 and outlined plans to close 94 stores. After not finding a buyer
for the remaining stores, the fast-fashion retailer announced in March it would
liquidate its 500 stores. Toronto-based clothing manufacturer YM Inc. purchased
the Charlotte Russe brand and intellectual property in late March and less than
two weeks after the final stores closed, the new owner promoted a comeback. As
of Dec. 27, there are 139 new stores, according to the Charlotte Russe website.
Dressbarn: 649 stores - Ascena
Retail Group announced the "wind-down" of its Dressbarn stores in May
2019 and closed the last remaining Dressbarn bricks-and-mortar stores closed
Dec. 26. New Jersey-based Ascena's other brands include Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor
Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherines and the Justice tween brand and it sold the
intellectual property assets of Dressbarn to a subsidiary of Retail Ecommerce
Ventures LLC. The brand's new owner plans to launch a new Dressbarn website in
early 2020.
Fred's: 568 stores- Discount
merchandise retailer and pharmacy chain Fred's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
in September 2019 after a series of closings throughout the year. Before the
closures, Fred's had 568 stores in 15 states in the southeastern U.S. The fate
of Fred's had been shrouded in uncertainty since the company's plans to profit
from a mega-merger between pharmacy giants Walgreens Boots Alliance and Rite
Aid collapsed in late June 2017 amid federal antitrust concerns.
Gymboree: 749 stores- The
children’s clothing retailer was the first victim of 2019 when it announced in
January 2019 that it filed for bankruptcy protection and would close both
Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores and sell its high-end children’s fashion line Janie
and Jack, which had 139 stores. The Children's Place purchased the rights to
the Gymboree and Crazy 8 brands for $76 million and is relaunching a new
Gymboree.com and a collection in select Children's Place stores in spring 2020.
The Gap acquired Janie and Jack for $35 million.
Payless ShoeSource: 2,589 stores-
The shoe dropped for the Topeka, Kansas-based discount shoe retailer in
February 2019 when it announced plans to close its nearly 2,600 stores in the
U.S. and Canada and then filed for bankruptcy protection. While all North
American locations closed by the end of June, Payless lives on in the U.S.
through Amazon, which is selling some of its well-known shoe brands. There also
are 750 brick-and-mortar stores in 35 other countries.
Sports Authority: 460 stores - The
sporting goods store chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March
2016 with initial plans to close about 140 stores. After attempting to
restructure debt and not finding any buyers in an auction, all 460 stores
shuttered in the summer of 2016. Dick's Sporting Goods bought Sports
Authority's intellectual property and some leases for $15 million.
Toys R Us: More than 800 stores -
Seventeen months after Toys R Us shuttered its last U.S. stores in June 2018,
the iconic toy brand’s comeback continued in late November when the new parent
company Tru Kids Brands opened its first retail Toys R Us store at Westfield
Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, followed by a second store in
Houston, Texas in December. “These stores are fundamentally different from the
Toys R Us stores that you’ll remember from the past,” Tru Kids Brands CEO
Richard Barry told USA TODAY in October. “They are smaller, very immersive,
experimental as well.” The new company also opened two “toy wonderlands” called
Toys R Us Adventure in Chicago and Atlanta this year and rolled out a new
e-commerce website and partnership with Target.
^ I remember going to Blockbuster
to get VHS tapes and then DVDs all the time. I also went to Borders (and other
bookstores like Walden Books.) It’s a shame so many stores are closing. ^
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