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).
Pilots at American Airlines have voted to authorize a strike, and Southwest Airlines pilots are preparing to join them, as unions put more pressure on the airlines to approve new contracts with hefty pay raises.
Cheddar News takes a look at The Day Ahead as the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting kicks off on Tuesday while earnings season continues with some big-name companies such as Ford, Pfizer, Starbucks and Uber on tap to report quarterly results. The JOLTS report is also due to be released ahead of April job numbers.
Dan Geltrude, managing partner of Geltrude & Co., joined Cheddar News to discuss why it's vital for a college student to begin budget preparations early for college tuition. "It's developing good financial habits," he said. "I'm a strong proponent that in high school, there should be some teaching, some course ... about personal finance."
