These physical stores where people used to go were starting to close. This phenomenon was because of the rising trend of the e-commerce industry. It was expected that in the year 2020, the e-commerce industry would have its big movement and because of that, physical companies had begun to close some stores – given below are the companies.

Closing
Payless
Payless ShoeSource is closing 2,500 of their stores which make them the company with the most number of branches closure. Some stores are lucky enough to be still open until May, while the others were not lucky enough which are mandated to close during the last week of March.

Payless
Gymboree
Gymboree Group Inc. has come to the decision of closing 800 stores located in Canada and the US. It’s their second time to file for bankruptcy. They’ve stopped selling by online transactions, but they still sell their products with big discounts. Once the liquidation finishes, the stores will shut down.

Gymboree
Charlotte Russe
Having 500 stores in the whole world, Charlotte Russe confirmed to close 94 of them and will close in March and the other remaining stores will have to close by the 30th of April. They already stopped online transactions, but they are still selling their last products with great discounts.

Charlotte Russe
Shopko
By the month of January, Shopko filed for bankruptcy and was hoping to get a buyer. Failing to find a buyer to save the company, they had to close 70% of their stores by June of the same year. Later on, they announced they would close all of the stores.

Shopko
Gap
Gap Inc. will shut down 230 of their stores after two years. They decided to renovate their sister company, Old Navy, because of its great performance in the industry. The remaining stores that are not about to close should continue all kinds of operations by the new brand name, “NewCo”.

Gap
H&M
Because of H&M’s trade not going constant in the United States, they are about to close 160 of their stores to improve their business. However, because of their success outside the United States and Europe, they are planning to open 355 new stores out of the said locations.

H&M
Starbucks
Starbucks announced that because of what they will do, there will be a huge effect in the industry where they belong. What is it they’re gonna do? They’re gonna close 150 stores that aren’t performing well and hitting quota. It’s their first time to have the biggest number of closures.

Starbucks
The Children’s Place
Despite focusing on online transactions to improve their business, the Children’s Place closed 191 stores before the year 2018 ended. Addition to those closures, they are closing 100 more stores by the year 2020 – making it close to 300 store closures.

The Children’s Place
Performance Bicycle
Last fall, the parent company of Performance Bicycle filed for bankruptcy. They were hoping for arrangements, but it only ended up to Performance Bicycle totally closing all of their stores. It was surely sad for the country to lose their biggest bike retailer on March 2 of the same year.

Performance Bicycle
Sears
Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart and its sister companies, informed the whole world that it will shut down 89 of its stores by the month of March. The United States will be surely affected by this, but Texas and Florida will be the most affected states because of the closures.

Sears
Lowe’s
By the end of 2018, Lowe’s announced its idea to close 50 stores by February 1, 2020 and they did. After the retirement of Lowe’s former CEO, Robert Niblock, 20 stores shut down in the United States and 31 did in Canada. This happened when Marvin Ellison took Niblock’s position.

Lowe’s
Vera Bradley
Vera Bradley is thinking of licensing – selling their merchandise through other retail companies. They have 110 stores in total and they decided to close 50 of them by 2021. On the positive side, consumers may still shop and go to their remaining 52 open stores as Vera Bradley’s factory outlets.

Vera Bradley
Abercrombie & Fitch
In 2018, Abercrombie & Fitch closed 29 branches. In addition to that, they’re closing 40 more stores located in the US by February. Out of all this news, the company’s spokesperson announced that they will continue to improve their remaining stores by renovating with 40 new stores and 85 new features.

Abercrombie & Fitch
Christopher & Banks
Christopher & Banks, a company retailing womenswear, are planning to shut down 30 to 40 stores in a couple of years. However, they’re just closing physical stores and continuing with their business, by online transactions, which is constantly growing this year and is looked up to grow more the upcoming years

Christopher & Banks
Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s Secret is a well-known lingerie and womenswear retailer. It has 1,143 physical stores nationwide. The company closed 30 of those stores in the year 2018 and is planning to close 53 more stores which was announced in February by the L Brand, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret.

Victoria’s Secret
Henri Bendel
During 2018, L Brands announced that all of Henri Bendel’s stores, even the well-known store in Fifth Avenue, NY, and their website would be shutdown. All of them did close by 2020 as L Brands said that they’ll focus on well-performing brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Henri Bendel
Chico’s
Chico’s, a womenswear retailer, has a parent company named Chico’s FAS which will have to close 250 stores, though the exact locations of those stores are not revealed, yet. But it is sure that stores of Soma, White House Black Market, and its own brand, are the ones to close.

Chico’s
e.l.f Cosmetics
A beauty brand store, e.l.f Cosmetics, closed 22 of their branches during the end of March. They closed the physical stores for the reason they seek to improve their online sales. Their beauty products can still be purchased through their website and different drug stores inside the country.

elf
Family Dollar
Dollar Tree is a discount retailer consumers loved. It is sad to know that it’ll force their loyal buyers to find another store knowing that 390 Family Dollar branches are totally closing. Thus, 200 remaining stores will undergo rebranding. Also, in various stores, they will fee consumers an additional $1.

Family Dollar
J.C. Penney
Despite being a well-known center for the sale of bulk commodities, JCPenney experienced a decreasing trend of their sales in the past few months which led them to closing a total of 27 physical stores, divided into 9 furniture stores and 18 department stores, by the year 2020.

J.C. Penney
Z Gallerie
Z Gallerie is a high-end furniture corporation. In the past months, they filed for bankruptcy and up to this moment, they are still waiting for a buyer to rescue their company from debt. While waiting for that hero, they decided to close 17 stores, 20% of all of their stores.

Z Gallerie
Destination Maternity
Destination Maternity Corporation targets to lessen their financial expenses and improve their sales, including e-commerce. Said in a report by USA Today, an action to this goal is to close 42 to 67 physical stores and open smaller stores, instead, that aims to result in higher productivity.

Destination Maternity
Beauty Brands
Disregarding the fact that they have already done different ways of cost-cutting such as decreasing the population of staff, they still experienced bankruptcy by the month of January and filed for it. They came true to their plan back in 2018 to close 25 stores due to increasing operating cost.

Beauty Brands
Things Remembered
Things Remembered recently filed for bankruptcy and successfully found a buyer, Enesco LLC. But that only saved 176 stores that sell personalized carved merchandise. That news means that Things Remembered still has to shut down more than 250 store locations for they originally had 450 physical stores.

Things Remembered
Ascena Retail
Womenswear retailers like Ann Taylor and Loft have a company handling them. Bad news is even if all of the brands’ income are put together, Ascena had decreasing sales through the years. That’s why it has to close 667 stores and 400 of them have to be closed by July.

Ascena Retail
Southeastern Grocers
Supermarkets such as Harveys, Bi-Lo, and Winn-Dixie are handled by Southeastern Grocers. After experiencing bankruptcy and slightly surviving it, instead of closing 22 store locations, Southeastern Grocers still has to stop 94 physical stores’ operations.

Southeastern Grocers
Lord & Taylor
Lord and Taylor will still close 10 more stores by the year 2020 after closing a store located in Fifth Avenue, New York last year. After serving consumers well for more than 100 years, store closures are unfortunate. Anyway, the locations of those 10 stores are yet to be announced.

Lord & Taylor
Foot Locker
Having a good performance by the end of last year, Foot Locker decided to increase the amount of their income, chose to close 167 of its stores. This decision is said to give the shoe retailing company a way to focus more in its remaining branches and improve their sales.

Foot Locker
Macy’s
Macy’s revealed its plan to stop a few of their physical stores’ operations. These closures are expected to affect Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and Wyoming because one store is said to be shut down per state. Macy’s already started fulfilling its plan by shutting 8 stores down early this year.

Macy’s
J. Crew
After losing their Chief Executive Officer, J. Crew announced their plan to close 30 stores. They began to become true to their words and by the start of January, they brought 6 stores into a closure. The locations of the stores to be closed next is not yet revealed, though.

J. Crew
Kohl’s
Kohl’s decided to close four physical stores which happened to be inside or anywhere near the malls. The reason for this movement’s to prevent what negatively happened in other retailers located in malls and because stores were inconsistent. Kohl’s will make up for the loss by opening smaller physical stores.

Kohl’s
J. Crew
After J. Crew’s physical stores were closed, people had a hard time just like Michelle Obama. The former first lady of the United States’ favorite clothing brand had just stopped its operations, it was just so unfortunate. Also, Millard “Mickey” Drexle, the Chief Executive Officer, had to leave the corporation.

J. Crew
99 Cents Only
Known for products with discounted prices, 99 Cents Only had net loss after having rivalries with Dollar tree and such. As its business began to sink, it was sold to Ares Management and to other managements, until it got to CEO Jack Sinclair. Despite being saved, sales kept on decreasing.

99 Cents Only
GNC
GNC faced a huge net loss despite selling health products which we think people mostly need. Because of debt, GNC sold 40% of their share to a Chinese pharmacy company which they had partnered with. They kept selling GNC products in China and e-commerce sites and really got good sales.

GNC
Fred’s Pharmacy
In contrast to what Fred’s envisioned, it failed to increase their number of stores from 600 to 1,000. The drop in their gross never made that happen. By2018, Fred’s CFO had to leave the company, pass the position to the former media executive. The pharmacy was sold for $40M.

Fred’s Pharmacy
Stein Mart
Stein Mart, a discount store inspired from Jacksonville, is advised to get financial help from advisors. Why? Because they are not performing really well these past months. Despite their increasing sales, they got a $23.4 net loss, a huge one.

Stein Mart
Office Depot
Office Depot decided to take a big leap for its business. They started to offer some services after realizing that the 7% sales loss was because of only giving retail attention. Now, Office Depot offers “BizBox”, a business subscription program and other services which brought the company huge sales.

Office Depot
Vitamin Shoppe
Vitamin Shoppe already improved their e-commerce sites and started to offer subscription services, but they still received an 8.5% sales drop in 2017. It was caused by tough competitors and decreasing mall popularity. Hoping to gain more sales, Vitamin Shoppe now offers marketing events and delivery services.

Vitamin Shoppe
Neiman Marcus
People advised the company to pull a proposal called “Digital First” which develops consumer engagement or to cut costs, remove 200 employees because Neiman Marcus faced a 5% sales drop bringing its income during 2017. Gossip was spread that Hudson’s Bay was supposed to save the stores, but did not.

Neiman Marcus
Bebe
Bebe ‘s sales started to drop since the year 2007. It was the year Neda Mashouf, its creative director, split and had a divorce with her husband who founded the brand during 1979, Manny Mashouf. Bebe closed its stores and spent $65M to pay attention and improve online selling.

Bebe
Pier 1 Imports
Bebe ‘s sales started to drop since the year 2007. It was the year Neda Mashouf, its creative director, split and had a divorce with her husband who founded the brand during 1979, Manny Mashouf. Bebe closed its stores and spent $65M to pay attention and improve online selling.

Pier 1
Lands’ End
Lands’ End is a well-known home furnishing, clothing, and luggage company, well they were not that popular before. The sales of the company were still consistent despite facing various difficult situations because of the mistakes Federica Marchionni, Lands’ End former Chief Executive Officer, did just like being linked to Sears.

Lands’ End
Guitar Center
The instrument supplier brand despite having problems like having to pay debt as big as $900B in just a year, has been strong, consistent even if facing sales drop like 36% from 2005 to 2016 as said by its Executive Vice President. I guess people are already done with guitars.

Guitar Center
Nine West
Nine West decided to stop retailing shoes and focus more on clothing and jewelries. After having to pay debt of $1.5 billion, they filed for bankruptcy. The solution they’ve thought of was to sell shares and different parts of their company, closure of stores, and shutting Easy Spirit down.

Nine West
David’s Bridal
David’s Bridal has been experiencing a terrible decrease in their profit, present income has always been lower than the previous. Aside from having a $270M debt, couples are just being more practical these days and choose inexpensive wedding arrangements. Clearly, those two are the reasons why the company’s declining.

David’s Bridal
Bon-Ton
After serving people for 50 years, Bon-Ton signed up for bankruptcy. This led to liquidation and their company being sold. But luckily, they had a big comeback during 2018 and had a blast on their online selling, getting high sales. That success lasted until other competitors came.

Bon-Ton
Tops Market
Tops Market signed for bankruptcy and we all know where this goes to. This situation is rooted from people’s inconsistent demands, needs, and interests. Lucky for consumers located in Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont because they can still experience Tops Market’s service because the remaining stores are in these states.

Tops
Cole Haan
Cole Haan obviously made the wrong choice solely creating shoes for athletics. It is a company owned by Nike. When they were bought by Apax Partners, they chose to go their own way which really brought them down. Ever since, they did not have great sales.

Cole Haan
Claire’s
Claire’s used to be the crowd’s favorite in the United States, especially by the girls. It is a company that sells beautiful accessories. Surprisingly, by the year 2018, the company signed for bankruptcy. Now, remaining open stores were sold and 130 stores already stopped operating.

Claire’s
FullBeauty Brands Holdings Corp
FullBeauty Brands Holding Corp have different labels nationwide which have always been considerate with people having trouble looking for large sizes: Woman Within, fullbeauty.com, KingSize, and other. Hopes are high to get great sales again even though competitors got in the way.

FullBeauty
Eddie Bauer
It is expected for Eddie Bauer to partner up with Pacific Sunwear now that it’s back from different problems like bankruptcy which they faced in 2009. They also faced the predicament where they had a low credit rating from S&P Global, plus the difficulty keeping up with competitors before.

Eddie Bauer
Bluestem Brands
Reasons weren’t given nor revealed, but Bluestem Brands is said to be in a critical point now in the industry. For your information, Bluestem Brands offers appliances, apparel, electronics, beauty, and health products to the nation. They also have 13 online selling websites, like Fair, Draper’s & Damon’s, and Gettingon.com.

Bluestem
PetSmart Inc.
PetSmart Inc., other than having 1,50 stores located in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United States, is also known for paying the most to own an online selling website. Despite their debt amounting to $8M which they used to improve ecommerce sales, they bought a website priced $3.35B.

PetSmart
BKH Acquisition Corp.
Say thanks to BKH Acquisition Corp. for it brought over 100 branches of Burger King to Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, it’s quite facing a predicament lately for being listed on the “Distressed Company Alert”. This tagging is due to mishandled debt and credit in addition to the economy of the country.

BKH Acquisition Corp.
Mattress Firm
A well-known company who never fails to give people comfort, Mattress Firm, has 3,500 stores nationwide and now, has the need to give 700 of those stores up, shut them down, then sell them. This movement is due to the company’s mishandled financial accounts which further led to bankruptcy.

Mattress Firm
National Stores
Conway and Fallas is operated by a company, National Stores. Currently, they signed for bankruptcy which is the common reason stores have to shut down. This bankruptcy’s rooted from too many labels National Stores was handling. That’s why they shut 74 stores down located in the US and Puerto Rico.

National Stores