The Death Of Brick-And-Mortar Stores: Macy’s Is Just The Beginning – Black Friday Could Change Drastically
The fun of going to shopping malls, department stores, and stand-alone locations may soon be a thing of the past. Brick-and-mortar stores are in danger of dying out completely and it has been happening little by little over the past decade. Now, the giant known as Macy’s is closing around 15 percent of its existing stores and they aren’t the only ones. Online shopping may very well cause the eternal death of brick-and-mortar locations and change shopping entirely.
Not only will normal shopping be changed, but Black Friday could end up changing drastically.
As reported by CNN Money earlier this week, Macy’s will close 100 stores nationwide by early 2017. The locations of these stores are not exactly known yet, but it doesn’t really seem to matter. They are far from the only company that has seen their numbers go down due to the success of Amazon and other online retailers.
The problem doesn’t just exist with Macys, either. Over the past few years, a number of retailers have decided to close some of their nationwide stores and get overall costs down since customers aren’t visiting them as often.
Here are just a few of the other stores closing locations:
- Kohl’s – Closing 18 stores in 2016.
- JCPenney – Closing seven stores in 2016, but 74 have been closed in the last two years.
- RadioShack – Closing 1,600 stores after filing bankruptcy in 2015.
- Gap – In 2015, announced plans to close 175 stores in North America.
- Sears/Kmart – Closing 10 Sears locations in 2016 and 68 Kmart locations.
- Target – Announced in 2015 that they would close 13 stores in the United States.
- Walmart – Closing 269 stores in 2016.
- Sports Authority – Has closed all store locations after declaring bankruptcy.
While many people are shopping at these very retailers, but doing it online, it is still causing the stores to close down. If shoppers aren’t frequenting the actual brick-and-mortar locations, then there is no need for the employees and not enough money to keep them operational.
Closing the store locations will allow the companies to pipe more money into their online industry and that’s exactly what is happening. Some people may not find an issue with this, but for those that love Black Friday, it will bring serious changes.
Black Friday as shoppers know it may soon cease to exist.
Black Friday 2016 is still expected to be seen as quite normal with millions of shoppers heading out to grab the big deals amid traffic jams and exhausted employees. In the next few years, though, the stores may end up abandoned on the day after Thanksgiving…if they’re even still around.
Last year, the New York Times reported that Black Friday was already faltering due to changes in consumer behaviors. In 2016, more of those changes will become noticeable and online shopping is to blame.
Yahoo Finance knows that most big department stores and retailers are set to report their earnings this week, and most of them likely won’t be good. Macys announcing the closing of 100 stores may just get the ball rolling.
The closing of so many Macys stores is not a good sign for brick-and-mortar locations everywhere, and it also hurts Americans as jobs are now going to be lost.
Online retailers such as Amazon, Etsy, and Zappos are giving different options to shoppers. Online options from Target, Walmart, JCPenney, Best Buy, and even Macy’s are making people realize that leaving the house isn’t necessary. Black Friday will still be busy in 2016, but it’s quite possible that a few years from now, it may no longer exist as shoppers now know it.
[Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
