The US economy has been creating a lot of part-time jobs recently,
but given all these store closing announcements, I wonder how long that can continue.
brick and mortar retail continues to decline.
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I am surprised Best Buy is still around. Going into Best Buy today is a sad experience. They now have third party vendors in their stores who sell everything from appliances to sofas.
Best Buy is exiting selling physical media which is just one less reason to visit.
I have gone pretty much all digital as have a lot of people I know, which sadly is helping to speed up the demise of many brick and mortar stores.
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That’s true but the overall trend is retail (including e-commerce).
A lot of “so-called” wholesalers (Ali Baba, Sam’s Club etc.) now let you by
- one pair of pants
- one pineapple
- one cellphone etc.
- one speaker
- one air fryer
So a trend in whatever the gov’t counts as retail may or may not reflect an overall economic trend.
That said, retail spending (both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar) is down 3.4% Y-o-Y in inflation-adjusted terms.
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Sad fact of life but when I can buy the same item online and get it delivered same day there is not a lot of incentive to go to a physical location.
Plus my books, video games, movies and music are all digital these days. Only physical books I still buy are graphic novels.
Had to come down off those post covid boom times.
We’re finally slowing down. Had to happen.
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That makes sense.
so long as it stops here that is what happened.
(Same chart from above with a trendline added)
Hope so.
Without a recession, seems likely the trend line will hold.
Sam’s Club and Costco are both expanding, (adding stores)
so this MIGHT be just a switch from retail to wholesale.
and
I came across at least one guy who said “insurance and medical care etc. count as consumer purchases so the consumer is still strong they are just spending on services, not buying goods.” (or words to that effect.)
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Macys won’t last it’s a shop lifting playground. We will be a society that you are only allowed to buy online cause we can’t behave in stores.
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Macy’s won’t last because it never adjusted to online retail.
The shop lifting is just the last straw. If it wasn’t that it would be something else but yes it’s painful that it is that
The shoplifting there is bad though in particular as well as Dillards and some of those other big mall stores get hit hard.
People don’t shop like they used to. Heck, I’m old and I don’t shop like I used to. My daughter certainly doesn’t shop like it’s still the 20th century.
Capitalism says retail stores will adapt or die. Its not good or bad, it’s just the way of the world.
I enjoy the front row seat to the evolution. I also love the freedom from having to waste time driving to and wandering around stores trying to find what I want.
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I don’t “like” Amazon, but they’re probably gonna continue to get most of my impulse buys. If they could sell food as cheap as Walmart, they’d get even more. lol
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Exactly right. There will always be brick and mortar stores of some description but the bustling high street of 20 years ago with a variety of big box and independent stores is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Every mall I have visited in recent years is quite a sad affair. Even our upscale mall aimed at the high net worth individuals and familes is past its prime.
That’s what the brick and mortars can’t adjust to is wild out of control shoplifting especially in Blue states and cities where they prosecute very few shoplifters.
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I go to Best Buy to see and touch a product… then I go to Amazon to buy it.
Sometimes Best Buy is cheaper and/or easier if I can’t wait a day or two.
shoplifting doesnt help an already struggling business but even with no shoplifting btick and mortar stores are struggling. It’s bigger than politics, its people changing how they shop.
As more products become digital there will be an ever decreasing demand for physical. Take out physical DVDs, CDs and video games from Best Buy and that is a massive amount of real estate empty.
CA has a lower threshold for felony shoplifting than Texas.
