The retail apocalypse has been well documented for readers over the years as tens of thousands of brick and mortar stores nationwide have shuttered their doors.
The problem today is that millions of jobs lost during the pandemic are never coming back – in a consumer-based economy this sets up for even more store closures.
UBS analyst Michael Lasser told clients this week that a whopping 80,000 retail stores are estimated to close in the next five years as the virus pandemic has deeply scarred the economy and resulted in a permanent shift in how consumers shop, that is, online.