Retailers Closing Stores in 2018
Moody's lead retail analyst Charlie O'Shea didn't sugarcoat his outlook last year regarding retail store closings in 2018. He plainly said, "I think the early part of next year will be pretty bad ... I think it will be tough."
He wasn't wrong.
Following approximately 7,000 total store closures in 2017, a Business Insider analysis projects another 3,600 closings this year. Marketing and data analysis firm Cushman & Wakefield thinks it will be much worse than that, anticipating more than 12,000 store closings this year as more merchants decide to bow out.
The store closings won't just come from obscure companies that lack enough scale to remain viable. Some of the victims are highly recognizable names that used to be the pillars of the shopping world. Privately held Toys R Us, the former king of toys, announced that it) is still pulling the plug on some of its locations.
