The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a serious toll on the retail world, with major brands shutting down stores due to the economic downturn. Even as the world begins to recover and life is slowly getting back to normal, some companies are deciding to pull the plug on some of their shops. This growing list now includes Footaction, which will be closing all of its locations in the coming years.
During an earnings call on May 21, parent company Foot Locker, Inc. announced that it would be closing the majority of its 231 Footaction stores over the next two years as leases on the spaces expire. The move comes despite the company posting an impressive 82 percent increase in profits year-over-year, Yahoo Finance reports.
“We are currently in the process of assessing the Footaction fleet to determine the best decision for each location,” Dick Johnson, Foot Locker's chairman and CEO, said during the earnings call. “Approximately one-third of the top performance Footaction locations will be made into new Foot Locker stores establishing a bolder women’s and kids presence, as well as new Champ Sports and Kids Foot Locker stores." He added that the company “believes this strategic decision will enable it to better serve its consumers in a post-COVID marketplace.”
Footaction was acquired by Foot Locker out of bankruptcy proceedings in 2004, serving as a lifestyle-oriented counterpart to the parent brand that targeted 15-to-30-year-old males, Retail Wire reports. During the call, Johnson said that the decision to wind down the 45-year-old brand wasn't an easy one and thanked the "Footaction team for their tireless efforts over the years."
Unfortunately, Footaction is just the latest brand to suffer closures. Read on to see which other stores have recently shuttered or announced plans to downsize.
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1 | Amazon Go Grocery
Shutterstock / VDB PhotosSupermarkets may have seen a huge surge in business over COVID, but that doesn't mean some chains aren't safe from shuttering. This includes Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon's larger cashier-free, checkout-line-free grocery chain, which is closing some locations and rebranding others, GeekWire reported on May 17.
Even though Amazon has already shuttered at least one of its Amazon Go Grocery stores, it has not yet laid out additional closures. Instead, Amazon has announced plans to rebrand its Amazon Go Grocery stores under the company's Amazon Fresh label, starting with its Amazon Go Grocery store in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. In doing so, the Jeff Bezos-owned mega-retailer hopes to "simplify the experience for our customers," spokesperson Carly Golden told The Seattle Times.
2 | The Disney Store
BCFC / ShutterstockIt turns out even some of the most recognizable brands in the world have struggled with COVID-related retail realities. On April 26, Retail Insider reported that the Disney Store would be closing almost all of its retail shops in the coming months.
While the company still hasn't announced a final number of how many stores it would be closing, the planned closures come just over a month after Disney announced it would be shuttering 60 of the 300 shops it operates worldwide. Notably, the forthcoming round of closures would see all 18 locations in Canada shutter by the end of summer. The Disney Store's two-floor flagship location in Manhattan's Times Square is expected to be one of the few remaining locations in North America once the changes have been announced.
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3 | Current/Elliott, Joie, and Equipment
Shutterstock/Helen89On Monday, April 5, The Collected Group—the parent company of clothing brands Current/Elliott, Joie, and Equipment—filed for bankruptcy, citing significant losses associated with the pandemic. But while announcing the shuttering of all its brick-and-mortar stores across brands the three brands, it also said that it would continue selling goods through its 305 U.S. and 272 overseas wholesale channels, including department stores, digital retailers, and fashion rental services such as Bloomingdale's, Harvey Nichols, Neiman Marcus, Net-a-Porter, Nordstrom, Rent the Runway, Revolve, and Saks Fifth Avenue.
4 | DSW
ShutterstockOn Tuesday, March 16, DSW CEO Roger Rawlins confirmed that the popular shoe retailer would be closing 65 of the 501 retail locations that it operates across 44 states. The decision was made after the business had seen a 34 percent dip in sales amid the pandemic, Columbus Business First reports. "Until [customers] come back to us for the social occasion, this is the game that we've gotta play," explained Rawlins.
