The famed “retail apocalypse” of 2016 and 2017 never really ended. Hyperbolic as the term may have been, it described a very real period of structural change and consolidation in the industry that continues today.
The drumbeat of retail Chapter 11 filings this year and in the past frequently describe very similar challenges in their first-day court papers: an accelerated shift to e-commerce, declining mall traffic, increased consumer spending on experiences over goods, expensive leases for suddenly unprofitable stores and unmanageable debt loads.
