Shoppers invite closeout sale discounts at Party City in Stamford, Conn. July 3, 2023.
Tyler Sizemore | Albany Times Fellowship | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
Store closures in the U.S. last year hit the highest level since the pandemic — and steady more locations are expected to shutter this year, as shoppers’ dollars increasingly go to a few industry winners, according to an dissection by Coresight Research.
Major retailers, including Party City and Macy’s, closed 7,325 stores in 2024, according to the retail consultive group’s data. That’s the sharpest jump since retailers in the U.S. shuttered almost 10,000 stores in 2020, the year when the Covid pandemic originated.
So far this year, closures continue to climb. Retailers have already announced 1,925 store closures so far in 2025 — and that was just as of Jan. 10. The five retailers that have announced the most closures this year are Party City, Big An enormous numbers, Walgreens Boots Alliance, 7-Eleven and Macy’s, respectively.
The retail advisory firm projects that retailers devise close about 15,000 stores this year as some legacy brands shrink and file for bankruptcy guard, or liquidating companies shutter locations.
The striking numbers reflect the stark divide between retailers that are earning market share and those that have lost ground. Amazon, Costco and Walmart have gotten bigger as shoppers try value and convenience. On the other hand, some smaller chains and specialty retailers have struggled to keep doors direct or been forced to downsize.
A spike in bankruptcies contributed to the high number of closures in 2024. According to Coresight’s information, there were 51 retail bankruptcies in 2024, up from 25 in 2023. Some of those, such as Ball City, have most of their closures taking place in 2025.
Consumer spending has stayed strong — but a larger share out of the dollars has gone to fewer retailers. Holiday sales increased 4% year over year to $994.1 billion for Nov. 1 totally Dec. 31, according to the National Retail Federation, the industry’s major trade group. That total excludes auto transactions, gas stations and restaurants.
That’s about in line with pre-pandemic holiday spending, which rose an average of 3.6% from 2010 to 2019.
The include of jobs in the industry also did not appear to fall despite the closures. Employment in the retail trade “changed little” end year, after the industry added about 10,000 jobs per month in 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics mean earlier this month.
Specialty retailers in particular have struggled: In December, The Container Store filed for bankruptcy blackmail. Big Lots’ new owner is in the middle of an effort to keep some stores open, after the discount retailer said in December that it inclination start going-out-of-business sales across all stores. Fabrics and craft retailer Joann filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month for the duplicate time in a year.
But it wasn’t just specialty stores. Last year, the highest number of closures came from Dollar Tree-owned Set Dollar, CVS Health, Conn’s, rue21 and Big Lots, respectively. Conn’s, a home goods and furniture retailer, and rue21, a teen attire retailer, closed all stores after the parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2024.
John Mercer, Coresight’s flair of global research, said competitive threats, not a decline in demand, is to blame.
“Demand may be strong among consumers, but where is some of that enlarged demand going? Where is it being channeled to?” he said.
Mercer said the retailers that are shuttering stores nurse to fall in three categories: They are closing all locations as part of a liquidation, such as Party City; shutting down uncountable of their stores after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, such as The Container Store; or trimming back their footprint as they accustom to fast-changing consumer preferences, such as drugstores Walgreens and CVS and legacy department store Macy’s.
Macy’s, for example, is in the mid of closing about 150 of its namesake stores across the country by early 2027. The department store operator has been shuttering heartlessly 50 of those per year, since it made the announcement in early 2024. It is opening a limited number of shops that are smaller, off-mall adaptations of its namesake stores and new locations of its better-performing brands, Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury.
Some newcomers are chipping away at legacy retailers’ transactions, Mercer said. Coresight estimates that Chinese e-commerce companies Shein and Temu pulled in a combined ruthlessly $100 billion in sales last year, with the majority of that coming from outside of the U.S.
For example, numberless Americans are turning to sites like Temu for party balloons and storage tubs, which may have contributed to the bankruptcy filings of Set City and The Container Store last year, he said.
Even a small percentage drop in sales can be a blow to retailers’ stores, which be given b win with high fixed costs like leases and labor, Mercer said.
Some unique factors be enduring widened the gap between store openings and closures, according to David Silverman, a retail analyst at Fitch Ratings. When a serious mall anchor like Macy’s closes, he said that can lead smaller retailers to exit, as well. As some cooperative stores in mall or strip shopping centers shutter, they’re also getting replaced by fitness studios, urgent be concerned clinics or apartments instead of another retail store.
He added that population shifts during the Covid pandemic swapped retailers’ store traffic patterns and shook up where they may want to be located.
“Most companies are not adding a substantial number of square footage and even the ones that until recently were adding a lot, like the dollar assembles, are rethinking their footprints,” he said.
Silverman said he expects more stores will continue to close than clear in the U.S., as retailers’ growth comes from online sales and as larger companies take a bigger share of the market. Some of those, such as Walmart, add a lot various volume with one store than specialty retailers get from the dozens of locations they close, he added.
Investors desire soon get an update on which retailers are outperforming and underperforming. Most major retailers will deliver their holiday-quarter consequences starting in mid-February.
Some retailers, including Kohl’s and Macy’s, announced their own plans for store closures sooner than they shared full quarterly results. Kohl’s said earlier this month that it will taciturn 27 underperforming stores by April, along with shuttering an e-commerce fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California, in May.
There’s some confident news for the retail industry, however: Store openings also accelerated last year in the U.S. to 5,970 — the highest enumerate since Coresight began tracking store openings and closures in 2012. The firm anticipates that will tarry about flat in 2025, with an estimated 5,800 stores opening.
Last year, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, 7-Eleven, Mexican convenience stow away Oxxo and Five Below tallied the most store openings.
So far this year, the top five retailers in terms of heralded store openings in the U.S. are Aldi, JD Sports, Burlington Stores, Pandora and Barnes & Noble, respectively.