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).
Tom Wheelwright, certified public accountant and CEO of Wealthability, joined Cheddar News to explain what the benefits are for married couples to either separately or jointly file taxes.
Cheddar News breaks down what to look for on The Day Ahead. Economic data, including Jan. home prices and consumer confidence, are slated to be released while the Senate Banking Committee has a hearing scheduled in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Earnings from Walgreens, Lululemon and Micron are also expected.
Disney's first round of layoffs starts this week and will eventually to the loss of about 7,000 jobs after three rounds, according to a memo sent by CEO Bob Iger.
President Joe Biden’s choice to run the Federal Aviation Administration has withdrawn his nomination, a setback for the administration that comes after Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington appeared to lack enough support in the closely divided Senate.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action against Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, one of the last remaining major crypto exchanges. The suit charges that the platform
