Stores across America are shutting down left and right as shoppers are unable to afford to spend money on non-essentials.
CNN Business reported on Friday that so far in 2024, major retailers have said they are closing down 6,189 stores. That number surpasses the 2023 total of 5,553, per Coresight Research, the article said.
“Chains are on track to close the highest number of stores in 2024 than any year since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic decimated the industry.”
The outlet continued:
Closures have picked up this year because the retail sector’s sugar high of 2021 and 2022 — when consumers were snapping up new couches, televisions and clothing — has ended. Companies have raised prices higher than many consumers can afford and interest rates have soared, making it more expensive to borrow money for big-ticket items or to get a mortgage or a car loan. Consumers have reached their breaking point and are pulling back on items they don’t absolutely need.
In addition, smaller chains are struggling to keep up with businesses such as Amazon, Walmart, Costco, and Home Depot that present shoppers with lower prices, per Fox 8. The outlet also noted that even so, Big Lots is planning to close over 350 stores.
“Additionally, years of overexpanding and failed strategies are coming back to bite some chains. Retailers big and small have expanded much more than they probably should have,” the article said.
In September, Breitbart News reported that middle class Americans suffering under inflation in President Joe Biden’s (D) economy had become too poor to shop at dollar stores.
Breitbart News’s John Carney explained:
The Biden-Harris administration, with its reckless fiscal expansions and ideological hubris, has forced consumers into a corner. It was inevitable that even the affluent would feel the blow; and now, with Dollar Tree’s stock plunging nearly 25 percent, the axe has finally bitten into the grain.
More recently, retail expert and former Target Vice Chairman Gerald Storch said, “It’s very clear that consumers are running out of money.”
“They’re increasingly stressed by inflation and the exhaustion of their pandemic-era savings. When you take a look over the last several years, what you see month after month, everyone talks about, the consumer’s still spending,” he said. “They might be, but they’re spending less than the growth of inflation.”
Former President Donald Trump (R), who is campaigning against Vice President Kamala Harris (D) for the presidency in the November election, is enjoying a large polling lead over her regarding the economy and inflation, Breitbart News reported on Friday.
