Retail's Great Reckoning: Why Stores are Closing Faster than Ever

The retail landscape is undergoing a seismic shift that demands our attention. With a projected 15,000 store closures across the United States in 2025, double last year's figure, we're witnessing what can only be described as a retail reckoning. Major players like Macy's, Walgreens, and Rite Aid are scaling back, while European legacy brands such as Claire's and Hamley's face similar challenges abroad.

But this isn't simply a story about retail's demise. What we're experiencing is a necessary culling of physical retail spaces that have failed to evolve with consumer expectations. The root causes extend far beyond e-commerce competition: rising operational costs, cautious consumer spending, bloated store networks, and crucially, a failure to modernize the in-store experience for today's shoppers who demand convenience, personalization, and compelling reasons to visit physical locations.

The retailers who will survive and thrive are fundamentally reimagining their physical presence. They're transforming stores into multifunctional spaces that serve as fulfillment hubs for online orders, community gathering places, and experience centers that digital channels can't replicate. They're creating seamless connections between online and offline worlds, investing in both technology-enabled experiences and frontline talent, and constantly justifying every square foot of their real estate portfolio. The message is clear: physical retail isn't dead, but outdated store models certainly are. For retail executives, the question isn't whether to change, but how quickly you can transform to meet the demands of this new retail reality. Are you ready to reimagine what your stores mean to customers?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Retail Crisis
• 0:50 Behind the Retail Bloodbath
• 1:19 How Successful Retailers Adapt
• 2:50 Final Thoughts on Retail Future

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Well, hello everyone, I'm Scott Benedict, you know. I think we should probably talk about one of the topics that's really been grabbing headlines. And,000 stores shut down across the US in 2025. That's double the number from last year. And it's not just trouble change here. Names like Macy's, walgreens, rite Aid or Big Lots. They're all trending back. But across the pond, legacy brands like Claire's and Hamley's are sharing locations in Europe as well.

Speaker 1: 0:50

So what's behind this retail bloodbath? Well, it's not just e-commerce. It's a mix of rising costs, slower discretionary spending, overbuilt store footprints and, in many cases, a failure to modernize the store experience. Consumers today expect convenience, personalization and a reason to come in, a reason to shop, and, let's be honest, many of these stores haven't delivered that outcome in recent years. But here's the kicker it isn't just a collapse, it's a culling, if you will. A reduction in the size of the store herd out there.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Retailers who survive and thrive, in my view, are the ones who are rethinking what a physical store means. They're turning stores into fulfillment hubs for online orders, for community spaces and for experience centers. They're connecting online and offline in ways that are seamless for shoppers and operate efficiently behind the scenes. The retailers who survive and thrive.

Speaker 1: 1:59

In a moment like this, really provide a wake-up call to the rest of the industry, because if your stores are just transactional spaces, I view or I believe that you're vulnerable. If you're not investing in tech-enabled experiences and in your frontline talent, I believe you're behind. If you're not constantly re-justifying your square footage, your CFO will do it for you, and not always in a pleasant way, and so I believe the opportunity now is to be intentional about where, how and why you show up for customers in your physical locations, because a physical store isn't dead, but old, tired, outdated store models are, and that's a bit of a different story. What are you going to do about it? Well, I think that's a question that every retail leadership team should be asking. That's all for today. Thanks for listening. I'm Scott Benedict.