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[CyberPanda]

As an executive vice president at Great American Group, a firm that helps liquidate the merchandise, clothing racks and mannequins at stores that are closing, Ryan Mulcunry has been watching booms and busts in the retail industry for almost two decades.
Companies like his have been busy in recent years, but lately one thing has been missing.

“In all the other cycles, including 2008, a lot of people would come in and buy racking, circular racks and so on,” Mr. Mulcunry said. “They’d buy it all and warehouse it and wait until somebody wanted to reopen a store and sell it back to them. Those people have gone away.”
He added, “People don’t think retail is going to grow again from a bricks-and-mortar perspective.”

As the internet continues to change shopping habits, stores across the United States continue to close. Less than halfway through April, American retailers have announced plans this year to shut 5,994 stores, exceeding the 5,854 announced in all of 2018, according to data from Coresight Research.
Retailers in good financial shape are paring locations as their leases expire, while brands like Payless ShoeSource and Charlotte Russe are filing for bankruptcy and shutting hundreds of stores within months. Payless and Gymboree — which both filed for bankruptcy this year for a second time — account for almost half of the announced closings.

“For a long time, companies have talked about the squeeze in the middle of retail, but then you see the closure of a Payless,” said John Mercer, a senior analyst at Coresight, a research and advisory firm. “There’s just so much choice now that it’s not so much always the middle.”
Stores that are surviving tend to offer consumers more compelling experiences and better complement online shopping options, Mr. Mercer added.

More here

 

[niveaformen]

always depressing hearing about that stuff.

 

[CyberPanda]

always depressing hearing about that stuff.

Yep. It really is.

 

[demigod]

My mom would take me to payless back in the 80s/early 90s. My wife loves Gymboree for our son. Sucks both are closing. Carter’s for kids already closing too.

 

[DiscoJer]

Part of me wonders if this is just a long cycle. Mail order used to be huge 100 years ago and dominated for decades, but retail became a thing because of the social aspect of shopping at malls and such. Maybe some day people will get tired of just looking at their phones 10 hours a day.

 

[IzukuMidoriya]

I got myself some shoes from Payless recently. The girls working the counter seemed not to care and on the line of smoking, as they were giggling a lot when they came to the checkout.

It's sad, and I hate how these bankrupt places seem to have people who absolutely don't care during the store closing sales. It seems like adding stabs to what remains to me.

 

[juliotendo]

Physical retail will always exist, it’s just there are a lot of retailers that haven’t evolved through the years and now they’re suffering because of it.

Payless, Toys R Us, SEARS, Radio Shack, etc all victims of never changing and they’ve paid for it.

 

[n0razi]

It's sad, and I hate how these bankrupt places seem to have people who absolutely don't care during the store closing sales. It seems like adding stabs to what remains to me.

Honestly, who would want to work a near minimum wage retail job knowing you will be let go soon anyways since its going bankrupt?