Will Coronavirus Be The Real Retail Apocolypse?
After all non-essential stores in the UK were ordered to temporarily close by Prime Minister Boris Johnson a new report from the Centre of Retail Research (CRR) has predicted that over 20,000 of them will never reopen due to the damage caused by the Coronavirus pandemic on retail and consumer spending. If 20,000 do close that would be a 28% increase in store closures when compared to 2019 and would be a massive blow to retail jobs and embattled landlords. Despite an increase in temporary employment created by supermarkets working to meet consumer demand, the report, Coronavirus: Lost Lives, Lost Stores and Lost Jobs, forecasts over 235,000 retail jobs will be lost in 2020 through this level of store closures – a 64% increase in retail job losses on 2019. Read more at Forbes.
