Major Retailers Have 3,200-Plus Closures Planned So Far This Summer

Another day, another retail closure announcement, with roughly 4,000 store closures announced or about to be announced just since the beginning of June.

Ascena Retail Group is on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with plans to close about 1,200 locations, Bloomberg reports. Ascena owns a number of fashion retail brands, including Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Catherines and Justice.

Sur La Table likewise filed for Chapter 11 this month. The kitchen goods retailer says it will close 51 locations, and sell 70 more to an investor.

Upmarket clothier Brooks Brothers also filed for bankruptcy in July, planning to close 51 locations in North America as well, CNBC reported. The preppy retailer blamed the coronavirus pandemic for its woes.

After the Independence Day weekend, Bed Bath & Beyond said that it planned to close about 200 locations over the next two years, mostly of its namesake brand. That is in addition to the 60 store closures among all of its brands, World Market, Harmon Face Values and buybuy Baby, that the company announced in October 2019.

The July closures are merely the latest in a cascade of announcements just since the beginning of summer, as the pandemic continues to pummel the economy and state reopening efforts are hampered by the persistence of the coronavirus.

Last month, G-III Apparel Group said that it is planning to close all of its G.H. Bass stores and all of its Wilsons Leather stores immediately, with 89 locations and 110 locations, respectively.

Also in June, Chuck E. Cheese filed for bankruptcy and announced 34 store closures, and vitamin and supplement retail GNC filed for bankruptcy, and the company said it expects to close as many as 1,200 stores, 248 of them in the near future.

Signet Jeweler, which owns the brands Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared and others, said in June that it will immediately close 150 U.S. stores, plus another 80 in the UK.

Guess said last month that it will close roughly 100 locations in the U.S. and China over the next 18 months, and Microsoft said that it will close all 83 of its retail locations. The tech giant plans to convert some flagship locations, including ones in New York and Redmond, Washington, into "Microsoft Experience Centers."

JCPenney filed for bankruptcy in May, and in June the company published a list of 136 stores getting the ax in the near future. Soon after that, the retailer added 13 stores to the closure list.