A large number of physical stores in the United States may close after the Christmas shopping season. Yahoo Finance Network reported on the 27th that according to the statistics of Toronto-based Avison Young Commercial Real Estate Company, there are currently about 1,100 shopping malls in the United States, of which about 300 are difficult to operate.
Some analysts believe that only 278 of these shopping malls can survive in the post-epidemic era under the combined impact of the coronavirus epidemic and online shopping.
Overall, the decline of physical retail has become a trend, and the coronavirus epidemic has amplified the difficulties of physical stores and become the “last straw to crush physical stores”, the report said. Many shopping malls have been in trouble for a long time.
A large commercial real estate agency called CBL filed for bankruptcy in early November, which failed to even hold on to the Easter shopping season this year. Some important retail tenants in the shopping centers operated by CBL filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
There are also data showing that the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on physical shopping centers in the United States will last for several years.
According to the analysis of Central Plaza Investment Management Company, headquartered in Pennsylvania, 20% to 25% of retail space in the United States will be vacant and unable to attract merchants in the next few years, and half of the physical shopping malls in the United States will disappear in the long run.
The analysis believes that the physical stores that survive such a “elimination tide” will be more in line with the new retail industry. What they have in common is to grab customers from e-commerce through special services.
