Paying attention to the news recently, you will find that retail department stores are facing major setbacks. Sales are down and foot traffic through stores is low, especially during this past holiday season. This means that big retail based companies are having to make adjustments to their business plan and cut back on the prevalence of physical stores. The reason why? Online shopping.
Having the ability to shop online offers its own unique privileges and opportunities. Often it is simply out of a matter of convenience that we turn to online shopping. In small towns like the one I live in, the exact merchandise or size you are looking for is often not available in store because we are such a small market so we are often forced to go order online regardless of whether we check in store beforehand or not. Also for people who are just too busy to take time out to go searching through stores and racks of items for what they are looking for, online is just a faster alternative. These people could include parents with extremely involved children or college students who do not have the means to go off campus to stores.
However, sometimes you just want to go to a mall. You want to take your time looking at your options and seeing what the stores have to offer. Maybe it’s the inner shopaholic in me but it is a nice way to get out of the house and do something. Personally, I would rather see my clothing options in person rather than look at them online because they could look one way in a picture online and wind up being something different in person. Shopping at a store also gives you the option to try things on before you buy them and see if you like how whatever you’re looking for fits right. These are all things that you cannot do online and that can create frustration when you receive something you thought you would love but that ends up not fitting right or just not being what you expected.
So what does all of this mean for the future of physical retail stores? Right now it is not looking so great. At the beginning of this year, Macy’s announced that it would be closing 68 of its retail locations, including the one in my hometown, to focus on their online presence. Sears, which also owns Kmart, announced at the same time as Macy’s that they will be closing 42 Sears and 108 Kmart retail locations by April of this year. More recently, J. C. Penney announced that they will be closing 140 retail locations and American Apparel announced that they will be closing all 110 of their retail locations including their Los Angeles headquarters.
As of right now the future of malls in small-town America is looking bleak which could in the future spread to larger, more successful malls if trends stay the same. Can you imagine an America where malls do not exist? Going to the mall is more than just a shopping experience, it is a social experience. While shopping you are likely to run into people you know, and you are interacting with retail employees. Not only would we as consumers lose this experience, but think of the larger picture. Think of how many jobs that means are now lost. Of how many people now have to find work elsewhere and try to support their families. The death of small-town malls will hurt all aspects of life, and the upsetting part is that it is just a matter of time.
