The crisis is forcing retailers to close stores on a massive scale

The prolonged retail apocalypse, multiplied by the coronavirus pandemic, will result in massive retail store closures across the United States.

To date, major retailers (some of them experiencing severe financial difficulties and without the Coronavirus) have already confirmed at least 3,600 store closures in the near future. These include such well-known stores as Victoria's Secret, Tuesday Morning, Nordstrom, Sears and Forever 21.

According to Business Insider's analysis, more than 9,300 stores were announced to close in 2019, surpassing the previous record of approximately 8,000 stores in 2017. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp drop in consumer activity, the number of closed stores may set a new record, reaching 12,000.

Back in January, the Pier 1 company announced that it planned to close 450 stores, which is about half of the total number, as well as to reduce more than half of its employees and close several distribution centers. This was planned in order to stay afloat tritely, after several years of falling sales.

GameStop stated that it expects to close at least 320 stores in the coming months.

Victoria's Secret has also announced its intention to close 251 stores in the United States and Canada. Of those, 238 are in the United States.

Gap Inc. wasn't doing as well as it was. Now the retailer is forced to close its stores en masse. It has been announced that in the near future at least 230 of them will be closed.

Retailer Tuesday Morning, which filed for bankruptcy in May, plans to close at least 230 of its 700 retail outlets.

The list continues to grow. It includes Forever 21 (178 stores), Macy's (125 stores), Sears (51 stores), Bath & Body Works (50 stores), Kmart (45 stores), Neiman Marcus (20 stores), Nordstrom (19 stores), JCPenney (6 stores), Walmart (3 stores). This is not a complete list yet.

Of course, not all of these stores have closed due to the pandemic. For some of them, it was a natural process, like when the store opened in an unsuccessful location. But the coronavirus caused a real collapse, revealing a whole host of weaknesses and speeding up the fall of retailers who had already been doing badly for quite some time.

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