Retail Facing ‘Painful' Number of Closures From COVID-19, Says NPD Veteran
A humongous wave of retail store closures will be the big “unfortunate outcome” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt Powell, NPD vice president-senior industry adviser, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Tuesday. The U.S. retail industry lost about 9,000…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“doors” in 2019, he said. It’s on pace this year to lose another 20,000-25,000, of which about 4,000 have been “announced,” he said. “I think we will continue to see over-leveraged retailers and brands in trouble.” Retailers that are “heavily reliant on malls” also are going to “struggle a bit,” because malls are also in danger, said Powell, a 46-year retail veteran. Estimates circulating in the retail industry predict a third of all U.S. malls will fail this year, he said. “We are up against a significant amount of closures. It’s going to be painful, but I think at the end of the day, it’s going to make us a much healthier industry as we come out of this."