Whatever Has Happened to Retail?
An insight to the downfall of retail stores in 2020 and the rise of online shopping. What can we expect in the next few years?
When I was a kid I used to hate shopping. My mum would drag me around all the stores with her because I was too young to be home alone, and she would take FOREVER in a store (she still does). Fast forward to my adult years and now I love shopping. I love the excitement of getting into my car to go shopping and I love wasting precious time browsing the stores.
But where are the stores now? My high street has too much tumbleweed and too many ‘For Let’ signs now that three of our biggest retail stores have been shut down. A lot of the smaller, independent retail stores have followed suit and are indeed shut. Walking round my town centre now is a very sad, depressing and gloomy trip full of empty stores and just restaurants remaining.
We can blame 2020 for a lot of stores having to close due to the pandemic. Just like anything, how can you afford rent with no income? Sarah Butler from The Guardian records that a total of 11,120 chain stores closed between January — June 2020 compared to 3,509 in 2019.
Many companies have been gradually closing stores since 2019 and a few lucky companies have even managed to…
