Rue21 Kennewick. Bloomberg says chain facing serious issues (Google Street View)
Rue21 Kennewick. Bloomberg says chain facing serious issues (Google Street View)
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According to Bloomberg financial experts, it trends continue, Amazon will pretty much rule the retail world.  In a new article released Friday, more potential brick and mortar retail store closings could be looming. Will they affect the Tri-Cities?

Not since the recession of 2008, says Bloomberg, have we seen retail and mall stores closing at such a rapid rate. At the current pace, store closures across the US could top  6,200, slightly higher than 2008.

One of the chief culprits is e-commerce, or online purchasing. And the king of that world is Amazon. Bloomberg says in 2016, according to EMarketer, Amazon accounted for 53% of ALL e-commerce growth, compared with 47% from ALL other forms of online business--combined!

In the Tri-Cities, we've seen national bankruptcies affect us, most notably with Sports Authority. Most major retail brands here, and in the mall, perform strongly. But if more national chains go under, we will likely see their stores go away here too.

Now, Bloomberg reports Rue21, the young trendy clothing and lifestyle store, is considering closing nearly 1,000 stores, and there are rumors of bankruptcy. Kennewick has a Rue21 store, on Canal Drive.  Nothing official from the store, but Bloomberg says it's possibly on the horizon.

Why are so many brick-and-mortar stores suffering?  There are a wide variety of reasons, but e-commerce is still exploding and more and more people are just clicking and picking on computers, tablets and smartphones to find what they want.

 

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