In April, Subway, the fast food company with the most locations in the world, announced it would be shuttering roughly 500 of those stores in the United States. These closings are just the latest in a stream of announcements by major retailers.
In what many have dubbed the “retail apocalypse,” brick-and-mortar retailers across the United States have been forced to reduce their footprint in order to maintain profitability in recent years. In the most extreme cases, several well-known brands have had no choice but go out of business entirely. Since the beginning of 2017, major companies, including RadioShack, Payless ShoeSource, Toys “R” Us, and Bon-Ton, have filed for bankruptcy protection.
So far, trouble for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers shows no sign of abating. This year, over a dozen well-known companies are shuttering locations nationwide.
In a handful of cases, store closings are the result of corporate mergers and acquisitions. In some cases, companies appear to be merely culling their most unprofitable stores while adding new stores elsewhere. This is the case with Subway, which opening over 1,000 new locations. However, many retailers on this list are closing locations as a result of falling revenue largely brought on by the convenience and increasing popularity of online shopping.
24/7 Wall Street reviewed publicly available financial documents and corporate announcements to identify the retailers closing the most stores in 2018. Retailers closing the fewest locations — less than a few dozen — tend to be those companies attempting to improve profitability. Companies shuttering several hundred locations, on the other hand, are either being bought out or are declaring bankruptcy and liquidating assets.
21. J. C. Penney
- Closings: 7
- Total stores: 872
- Industry: Department stores
Few brick-and-mortar retailers are being hit as hard by the surge of e-commerce as department stores. This year, J. C. Penney is expecting to close seven of its store locations and one distribution center in Milwaukee. These seven location closings pale in comparison to last year, when the retailer shuttered 141 locations.
20. Macy’s
- Closings: 11
- Total stores: 852
- Industry: Department stores
Macy’s Inc. is the company behind a the iconic department store chain of the same name as well as Bluemercury beauty specialty stores. In August 2016, the company announced plans to shutter 100 underperforming locations in the coming years amid falling sales. While the retailer already closed the majority of those stores, the company anticipates 11 will close this year.
Hurt by e-commerce, Macy’s reported $24.8 billion in revenue in fiscal 2018, nearly $1 billion less than the previous year’s figure and over $2 billion less than fiscal 2016’s revenue total.
19. J. Crew
- Closings: 20
- Total stores: 532 (United States)
- Industry: Apparel
American retailer J. Crew announced in March it had closed 51 stores during its fiscal 2017 year, 40 of which in the final quarter of the year. In the same release, the company also announced plans to shutter an additional 20 stores during the 2018 fiscal year. The closures would bring the total number of J. Crew locations to 523, down from 571 as of the end of the first quarter of 2017.
18. Sears
- Closings: 39
- Total stores: 570 (United States)
- Industry: Department stores
Sears Holdings Corp. is the parent company of two troubled department store brands: Sears and Kmart. There were 570 Sears locations nationwide at the end of 2017, though that number will soon drop. The company announced in early January plans to close some 39 Sears department stores in the first half of 2018. The company did not say how many employees the closings would affect.
In the last three years, Sears Holdings revenue fell by about a third, from $25.1 billion in 2016 to $16.7 billion in 2018.
17. Abercrombie & Fitch
- Closings: 60
- Total stores: 679 (United States)
- Industry: Apparel
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is the parent company of both the Abercrombie and Hollister clothing brands. The company announced at the end of its fiscal 2017 it would be closing a total of 60 U.S. locations in fiscal 2018 as these locations’ leases expire. The closings come despite a 4% increase in the company’s domestic sales in fiscal 2017 compared to the previous year.
The store closures will be partially offset by 11 new U.S. locations as well as 10 new locations abroad the company plans to open in 2018.
16. Sam’s Club
- Closings: 63
- Total stores: 597
- Industry: Membership retailer
Walmart-owned warehouse club, Sam’s Club, in January announced plans to close 63 locations across the United States, an act that will lead to an estimated 11,000 workers to lose their jobs. The planned store closures amount to roughly 10% of all Sam’s Club locations nationwide. The company’s announcement came as it released plans to raise the starting hourly wage for its employees.
15. Kmart
- Closings: 64
- Total stores: 432 (United States)
- Industry: Department stores
Sears Holdings Corp. is the parent company of two troubled department store brands: Sears and Kmart. In the last three years, Sears Holdings revenue fell by nearly 44%, from $25.1 billion in 2016 to $16.7 billion in 2018.
The company announced in early January plans to close some 64 Kmart stores in the first half of 2018. The company did not say how many employees the closings would affect. As of February 2018, there were 432 Kmart locations nationwide.