These 2 Graphs Explain The Retail ‘Apocalypse’

Long dismissed as “truthful hyperbole,” the mass extinction of many American brick-and-mortar stores is underway. Payless is closing hundreds of locations as it files for bankruptcy, once white-hot Michael Kors is struggling, and Bebe is sunsetting its physical business entirely to focus on online sales. Nationwide, shopping malls are closing at an alarming rate and providing AMC with an abundance of landscape shots for “The Walking Dead.” Malls are so barren, owners have received numerous proposals to convert them into affordable-housing complexes. The first such units rent in Rhode Island for $550 per month. Are you listening, San Francisco? While Amazon stock has netted a cool 350 percent return over the last five years, iconic American retailers in serious danger of fading into irrelevancy. The decline is rooted in a myriad of factors, but the existential threat to large retailers boils down to two, simple graphs. Read more at Entrepreneur.