More than 50% of the department stores anchoring America's malls are going to close permanently by the end of next year, a new report from Green Street Advisors.
The data concluded the department stores across the country need to shutter hundreds of locations to regain their past productivity. Green Street estimated that about 800 stores, making up about a fifth of mall anchor space, would need to be closed to return the market to 2006 levels of sales per square. There are still about 1,000 malls operating in the United States today.
U.S. retailers have announced 3,169 store closures and 3,535 store openings so far this year, according to data complied by Coresight Research. And UBS is estimating that about 80,000 retail stores, which is 9% of total stores, will shut across the country by 2026. The firm is forecasting about 21,000 closures from this sector by 2026, with many of the shuttered stores located in enclosed shopping malls.
And e-commence giant Amazon