The Retailers You Probably Won’t See in 2019
Did you know there was something called The retail apocalypse? Yeah, it was a real thing that happened in 2010, when Amazon and Walmart stores became huge and caused many stores to close their doors. Many retailers made some changes with their products, prices and online presence, but we found out that these 10 stores probably won't make it to 2019! Many of them are in our area!
1. Sears Holdings/ Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores- I can remember every little detail when I was younger and my parents would take us to Sears to go shopping, you can get so much at Sears, but this retailer has been struggling for many years. With losing over 95% of its market value, mostly all stores will be gone by the end of the year.
2. Vitamin World/ Vitamin Shoppe & GNC- You know, the place where you can get almost every kind of vitamin and protein powder, however, their prices can get high and this is another store that suffers because of online websites. Plenty of sites offer supplements and things at a way cheaper price, that's where we get our stuff! There are rumors that GNC will buy them both and become one, but that is unknown at this point.
3. Barnes & Noble- Amazon is a big killer of this well known book store, wiping out 60% of it's markets over the past three years, and it's revenue just keeps on tumbling. So many people also use E-readers now instead of books, so that doesn't help either.
4. Office Depot- Staples actually tried to buy Office Depot back in 2015, but putting two failing companies together, didn't do any good and it was terminated in 2016. Their sales may actually ride this year, but not enough to keep their heads above water. With stores like Walmart offering school supplies at way better prices, it was bound to happen.
5. Foot Locker- I can't even tell you how excited I got when my Dad took me here to get new sneakers for basketball season! (Yes, I played basketball when I was younger! I stopped growing though and everyone else kept growing, so I decided to retire :) ) Anyways, you walk in and there's a wall of shoes that went all the way down the store. However, when you sell brands like Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, and then they open up their own stores, you take a hit. Plus, let's not forget many department stores, like Kohls that sell the same brands and you can use coupons!
6. Payless ShoeSource- Ughh one of the hardest for me to see go! I love Payless and shop there very often and I did not know that they filed for bankruptcy in April! This left them with much debt, not to mention less mall traffic, which is where many locations are. It's not totally dead yet, but definitely on it's way! So I have some time to stock up on shoes!
7. Charlotte Russe- Now Carmen from the Midday introduced me to this store and I will definitely be sad to see it go! A few of my wedding festivities outfits are from there! They, like Payless have a lot of debt and went through an out-of-court restructuring to avoid bankruptcy. They plan to restructure a lot, but it may not be enough to save them!
Much sadness to see these stores go! The Retail Apocalypse is real people! Stock up on your favorite items from your favorite stores now!