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).
Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, joined Cheddar News to discuss inflation trends. “I think with strong confidence that peak inflation is behind us, the trend is definitely one towards continued improvement but we've got a long way to go,” he said.
Nick Bodkins, CEO & founder of beverage collection Boisson, joined Cheddar News to discuss how the industry of non-alcoholic is gaining popularity. “This category is growing but it doesn't have that scale yet.”
Wall Street closed higher Thursday after a report showed inflation slowed again last month, bolstering hopes the Federal Reserve may take it easier on the economy through smaller hikes to interest rates.
Bringing manufacturing back to the United States is a top priority for the Biden administration, but a new report from Citi indicates that companies might have other priorities when it comes to securing their supply chains.
