Retailers Seen Closing Thousands of Stores Even After Pandemic
Roughly one in every 11 stores will close in the next year, according to an analysis by UBS.
April 5, 2021 | Bloomberg Report | Wealth Management
(Bloomberg)—U.S. retailers could shutter tens of thousands of stores even after the pandemic subsides, as shoppers continue to turn toward e-commerce, according to a new report.
Roughly one in every 11 stores will close in the next five years, with office-supply, sporting-goods and clothing retailers among the hardest hit, according to the base case in a UBS analysis Monday. In the most dire scenario, more than twice as many stores — about 150,000 in total — could close over that span.
“An enduring legacy of the pandemic is that online penetration rose sharply,” the UBS analysts, led by Michael Lasser, wrote in the report. “We expect that it will continue to increase.”
