2017 Was The Year Of Retail’s Existential Reckoning

The stress had been building on American retailers for some time, but in 2017, it simply became too much to bear. Before the year was half finished, it was on track for more store closures in the US than the great recession in 2008. Richard Hayne, CEO of Urban Outfitters, went so far as to liken the situation to the pop of the housing bubble that started the recession. The research firm Fung Global Retail & Technology predicts there will be more than 9,400 stores shuttered by the time this year is done. Main streets and all but the high-end malls are looking dismal in what many have dubbed the “retail apocalypse.” Undeniably there was a culling among long-withering department stores, and any number of struggling brands with bloated store spaces and store counts across the country. Read more at Quartz.