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Of the victims of the retail upheaval, department stores have been among the hardest hit. Annual sales at U.S. department stores fell 20% from 2017 to 2018, and sales are on pace to drop even further this year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the past few years, Bon-Ton and Gordmans liquidated and Sears went bankrupt.
The pressure isn’t abating. Barneys earlier this month filed for bankruptcy, while J.C. Penneyis working with restructuring advisors to tackle its debt load. Shares of Nordstrom are down nearly 38% and Macy’s are down 35% so far this year. More than 1,000 department stores have shuttered over the past decade.
“We are in the middle of a department store shakeout,” said Michael Dart, a partner at A.T. Kearney and author of “Retail’s Seismic Shift.”
If you haven’t been in a department store lately — and you aren’t alone in avoiding them — you might not have noticed they are slowly dying. And the looming question is who will survive.
To a degree, the pressure these stores are all facing is the same: as the retail industry has transformed over the past few decades, department stores’ greatest strength, size and scale, have become their greatest weakness. Department stores are the retailers with the biggest footprints, which limits the ability to react.
Today’s shoppers like their shopping personalized: shoes for the working urban woman, pants for the stay-at-home mom. Department stores, though, are mass oriented — they stock colors and fashion most likely to appeal to a broad set. Their vast footprints across the United States mean it’s difficult to tailor products regionally.
F AMAZON!
It’s the downfall of brick and mortar stores!
Chris Letts ok. So sears had the ultimate catalog. They were the leaders in mail order. Sears refused to invest in the technology to put their sears catalog online . Their demise was simply their management.
Laura Lange yup ans buying Kmart bad idea, then selling lands end, craftsman tools.
Toy r us bankrupt, jc penny on way out too
I only go to the store for groceries. Beyond that I order almost everything else online.
I order most everything online even my groceries.
No cashiers ,only self checkout,long lines…..no customer service all to save money….shop at home
I used to love shopping at physical locations. But more and more, local options are closing and I can’t justify driving an hour for a store anymore. And when the physical stores do exist, their options are limited for size and color also. I’d love to shop in a store… but they make it too difficult anymore. It’s a cycle…
Amy Piacente-Desch i say this all the time! there are always so many more options online
Becoming???
Between hating online shopping and mass shooting scares I’m saving quite the little nest egg ????? thank goodness for tjmaxx ??
People are living longer. I think there ought to be a wider selection for the mature shopper