(OPINION) Why are retailers closing thousands of stores if the U.S. economy is in good shape? Of course the truth is that the U.S. economy is not in good shape at all. The cost of living crisis is absolutely crushing working families all over the nation, and U.S. consumers simply don’t have as much discretionary income as they once did.
Needless to say, our retailers are highly dependent on discretionary spending, and many of them have been reporting very disappointing sales numbers recently. Sadly, the problems that our retailers are experiencing are only going to intensify as U.S. economic activity continues to slow down.
According to CBS News, U.S. retailers have announced the closing of more than 3,000 locations in 2024.
The closing of 3,200 stores sounds really bad, but it is important to note that the quote above is from a CBS News story that was published on May 13th.
Since that time, there have been a lot more store closing announcements.
For example, last week we learned that Big Lots plans to close nearly 300 stores.
Meanwhile, a home goods retailer that has been in business since 1890 is preparing to permanently shut down over 170 stores.
Burdorf Interiors has been in business for even longer, but now they have also reached the end of the road.
Just think about that. They opened their doors just after the end of the Civil War, and now it is all over.
Drug store chains have been hit particularly hard by our ongoing retail apocalypse.
Rite Aid was once a retail powerhouse that was expanding like crazy, but now they plan to close 780 stores.
Of course Dollar Tree has Rite Aid beat.
During the course of the next few years, Dollar Tree plans to close almost 1,000 stores.
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.
Analysts at UBS are projecting that approximately 45,000 stores will be permanently shut down in the U.S. during the years in front of us.
Can you imagine what this is going to look like?
Our landscape is going to be peppered with thousands upon thousands of derelict buildings that have been boarded up to keep criminals out.
Of course some of our core urban areas already have lots and lots of empty commercial spaces that used to be thriving retail locations.
One of the primary reasons why retailers are shutting down so many locations in core urban areas is because shoplifting in this country has risen to unprecedented levels.
According to a recent survey that was conducted by LendingTree, close to a fourth of the entire population admits that they have shoplifted.
At this point, shoplifting has become one of our primary national pastimes.
And it is increasingly becoming a “team sport” in many parts of the nation.
On Friday night, a team of approximately 50 teens stormed a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles and completely ransacked it.
This particular incident barely made a blip in the news cycle. Why?
These days, giant mobs loot stores so frequently that this sort of thing isn’t even considered to be very newsworthy anymore.
