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).
The recent failures of a trio of midsize banks has once again raised questions about whether senior executives in the U.S. are being rewarded more for short-term gains — like rising stock prices — than for ensuring their companies' long-term health.
3M has fired prominent company executive Michael Vale due to “inappropriate personal conduct and violation of company policy,” the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics announced on Monday.
Cheddar News attended the upfront presentation by NBC Universal and broke down how this year's event was different from previous years due to the ongoing writers' strike.
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist with Interactive Brokers, joined Cheddar News to discuss Monday's light trading session ahead of debt ceiling discussions on Tuesday. Sosnick also weighed in on what the Federal Reserve could have in its sight.
General Motors (GM) has submitted a safety recall notification to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 994,763 sports utility vehicles with defective airbag inflators.
