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).
Dan Ives, Managing Director of Equity Research at Wedbush Securities, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he provides his insight on what Elon Musk's presence means for Twitter, as well as how recent allegations against the Tesla CEO could impact both the social media platform and the EV giant.
Anthony Bartolacci, VP of Financial Institutions at Sensor Tower, joined Closing Bell to discuss the factors dragging down Snap and other social media and tech stocks.
David Stryzewski, CEO of Sound Planning Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that rate hikes are driving the market right now and outlines what must be in place for a stock rally.
Andrew Arons, Founder and Partner at Synergy Advisory Management Group, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down Tuesday's market action and provides his insight on Snap's historic slide after the comments made by CEO Evan Spiegel.
Peter Andersen, CIO at Andersen Capital Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down Monday's trading action and discusses whether this could be the start of a new rally or a blip in an otherwise disappointing stretch.
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
China's largest ride-hailing company will no longer be listed on the world's largest stock exchange. Didi shareholders voted on Monday to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, less than a year after launching a $4.4 billion IPO with the most significant U.S. share offering by a Chinese company since Alibaba debuted in 2014. Since going public in June of last year, around $70 billion has been wiped from Didi's market value and shares of the company have dropped nearly 90%. Now, Didi is expected to begin preparations to list in Hong Kong. Kevin T. Carter, founder and Chief Investment Officer of EMQQ Global, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Ahead of the Meta shareholder meeting, more than five hundred doctors have jointly sent a letter to investors to hold the Facebook parent accountable for the risks its platforms have posed to the public and mental health. Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan ER physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, joined Cheddar News to discuss how medical professionals are coming together to highlight the social media giant's spread of misinformation, especially during the pandemic. "We've seen the direct impacts of misinformation and disinformation that spreads like wildfire on the social media platforms," he said. "Our goal with this letter is to try to get the shareholders of Meta to convince leadership that they need to do a better job."
