More than 90 million square feet of retail space has been shuttered this year, and with the retailer Bon-Ton announcing this week it would close 200 of its stores, 2018 is on track to break last year's record for lost stores.
"This is just another example of one of those big box retailers who weren't nimble enough and really listening to the changing times," said Melissa Gonzalez, founder and CEO of Lionesque Group.
In the first four months of 2018, retail giants like Toys "R" Us, Sears, and Sam's Club have closed all or some of their locations. Moody's distressed-level watch list predicted that others, such as Guitar Center, J. Crew, and David's Bridal could be next.
There have already been more store closures in 2018 than there were in all of 2016. And as each brick-and-mortar shop shutters, it creates potential customers for online retailers like Amazon.
"They have data at their fingertips, they're really at the pulse of understanding what consumers want," said Gonzalez in an interview Friday on Cheddar. "They can serve up the items that you know we want, and present things online before we even know we want them, and they can target us in ways department stores aren't able to do."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/2018-the-year-of-retail-closures).
Job-hunting is difficult and even more so when you've been out of the workforce for a while. Cheddar News' docuseries premieres Thursday night and will look at a job hunter who is working with a career coach to obtain her dream position.
Magnate Rupert Murdoch's surprise announcement Thursday that he's stepping down as leader of his two companies leaves his son Lachlan firmly in line of succession at Fox and the rest of the media empire.
The iconic Budweiser Clydesdales will no longer have their tails shortened using a common, yet controversial, procedure that has drawn the ire of animal activists, parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev announced Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday for the second time in its past three meetings, a sign that it’s moderating its fight against inflation as price pressures have eased. But Fed officials also signaled that they expect to raise rates once more this year.
