The Retail Apocalypse Is Here and It’s Killing Thousands of Stores

They were once the juggernauts of America’s consumer economy. But with the advent of online shopping, coupled with a middle class that has less purchasing power, these stores are tanking, and they’re going to take thousands of jobs with them.

Business Insider reports that multiple retail companies are going to shutter 3,500 stores within the next few months. Payless is getting hit the hardest. The shoe retailer is filing for bankruptcy next week, and they may be closing as many as 1,000 stores. Sears is shutting down 10% of its stores, JCPenney is shutting down 14% of its locations, and Radio Shack may close as many as 552 stores.

While some of these companies are planning to give up on all of their physical stores and move into a strictly online business model, others aren’t going to be so lucky. Many of these companies may disappear entirely in the near future. Sears for instance, recently admitted that it has “substantial doubt” about its future.

The company, which employs 140,000 people, hasn’t turned a profit since 2011. So far, increasing the company’s online presence hasn’t been enough to keep the company afloat. They recently had to sell their Craftsman brand just to keep their employee pensions funded. When a company has to get rid of one of their best-selling products just to keep the lights on, you know that company is in a downward spiral that is nearly impossible to reverse.

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