Dollar General Will Lead The Way In Store Openings In '22
Retail openings are expected to outnumber planned retail closures this year, according to Coresight Research, with 1,910 openings coming before the end of 2022, compared with 742 closures over the course of this year.
That continues a trend from 2021 when major retailers announced 5,083 store openings compared to 5,079 store closures, and it is an improvement over 2019, when a record 9,300 stores closed.
Dollar General will lead the way by far in store openings, Coresight reports, with more than 1,100 locations planned in 2022. Burlington Stores will open 110 new stores, while Signet Jewelers, Windsor Fashion, Aerie and Big Lots will each open between 50 and 100 new locations.
Tennessee-based Dollar General is already the largest U.S. retailer by number of stores, currently operating more than 18,000 locations in 46 states. In December, the retailer announced its first-ever international expansion, with plans to open as many as 10 stores in Mexico this year.
CVS Health plans to close more than 300 U.S. locations this year, more than any other chain. American Eagle, Michael Kors, Rite Aid and Signet Jewelers are all closing between 50 and 100 locations in 2022.
Altogether, the announced openings will total about 30M SF of retail nationwide. The store closures will total about 17.4M SF.
Amazon plans to open 13 physical stores in 2022, which would put its total at 120 locations, not counting its Whole Foods grocery stores. Other Amazon physical stores include Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, Amazon Books, Amazon 4-Star and Amazon Pop-Up.
Amazon’s brick-and-mortar store sales, including Whole Foods Market, were up by 16.6% to $4.7B in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with about $4B a year earlier. The retail giant's total sales for Q4 2021 came in at $137.4B, up 9.4% year-over-year.
