- via Suzanne Kapner at the WSJ
- Through April 6, there have been 2,880 retail closing announcements this year, more than double the number from the same period in 2016, according to Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN). At that pace, retailers will close over 8.6K locations in 2017 - more than during the 2008 recession.
- As for bankruptcies, at least 10 retailers have sought it this year - this vs. just nine for all of 2016.
- It's been decades in the making, as a consumer spending boom and the availability of easy money led to a rush to open new stores. "Thousands of new doors opened and rents soared," says Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) CEO Richard Hayne. “This created a bubble, and like housing, that bubble has now burst.”
- The land grab, of course, came alongside the rise of the Internet, and online shopping is now doing to clothing and electronics retailers, what it first did to booksellers.
- It's not the first time retail has been turned upside down. In the last cycle, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target killed mom-and-pop stores, and Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) and Toys "R" Us disrupted smaller chains. Can it adapt again?
- ETFs: XLP, XLY, VDC, XRT, VCR, RTH, RETL, FXG, FXD, RHS, FDIS, FSTA, RCD, PMR, CNDF, CNSF, FTXD, JHMC, JHMS
- Now read: The Bear Is On The Prowl
Original article