Hate to say it but yours truly guessed this would happen a few years ago, thanks to the net and to Amazon, as people, including myself, are lazy and ... if you can get said product cheaper and delivered to you without issue, the need to drive and get said product becomes moot. Additionally, the slow-motion impact of tariffs is beginning to show as per Zerohedge, a site that knows a bit about issues such as this.
Bankrupted Payless ShoeSource closed its remaining stores last week, accounts for 37% of the closing this year.
Coresight estimates closures could hit at least 12,000 stores by the end of 4Q19. The firm already tracked 5,864 closings in 2018, which included all Toys R Us, Kmart and Sears.
The retail apocalypse reared its ugly head in 2017 when a record 8,139 store closures were reported.
In a separate reported, noted by USA Today, UBS said 25% tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese products could jeopardize $40 billion of retail sales and puts 12,000 stores at risk of closing.
"The market does not realize how much brick & mortar retail is incrementally struggling and how new 25% tariffs could force widespread store closures," UBS analyst Jay Sole wrote in the May report. "We think the potential 25% tariffs on Chinese imports could accelerate pressure on these company's profit margins to the point where major store closures become a real possibility."
It'll take several months for the new round of tariffs to filter through the economy, raise retail prices, force consumers to shop online or not at all, and then lead to a new wave of closings in 1H20. As for the economy, growth rates are indeed declining as an industrial slowdown is spread to other sectors.
The implosion begins.
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