If the U.S. economy really is improving, then why are big U.S. retailers permanently shutting down thousands of stores? The “retail apocalypse” that I have written about so frequently appears to be accelerating. As you will see below, major U.S. retailers have announced that they are closing more than 6,000 locations, but economic conditions in this country are still fairly stable. So if this is happening already, what are things going to look like once the next recession strikes? For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the U.S. economy, and I still feel that way. And since I started The Economic Collapse Blog at the end of 2009, I have never seen as many indications that we are headed into another major economic downturn as I do right now. If retailers are closing this many stores already, what are our malls and shopping centers going to look like a few years from now?
The list below comes from information compiled by About.com, but I have only included major retailers that have announced plans to close at least 10 stores. Most of these closures will take place this year, but in some instances the closures are scheduled to be phased in over a number of years. As you can see, the number of stores that are being permanently shut down is absolutely staggering…
While the state of our economy may be a factor the loss of retail sales in real world stores to o line shopping is likely a bigger factor.
Don’t believe it. The american consumer is tapped out, and debt ridden. Can you shop online with an EBT card?
Amazon’s quarterly report is due shortly but Jeff Bezos is not doing so well. With most companies now collecting sales tax on Internet sales, the incentive to buy online has diminished. 4th quarter revenue for 2014 for Amazon was short of expectations.