The American multinational dedicated to the sale of footwear and sportswear, Foot Locker announced this week the closure of 400 stores in various regional shopping centers, This decision joins the other retail chains that this year have reported the closure of some of their stores.
These closures by Foot Locker will deal a heavy blow to US regional malls that have struggled in in recent years with the great growth of online purchases and the constant deterioration of some establishments.
The retailer had already announced earlier this month that it expected to close some 200 stores in type C and D shopping centers and another 200 in class A and B with low yields.
For CoSta’s national director of US retail research, Brandon Svec, “we’re seeing the slow, continued death of underperforming malls in areas that are no longer major shopping corridors,” he said.
Now the big challenge for shopping centers will be to find tenants to replace the 400 stores that Foot Locker will leave “It’s going to be very difficult for these mall owners to attract national brands,” the analyst said.
For example; this year the vacancy rate was 10.8% for class B and C shopping centers, a truly historic figure, while those of type A have 6.6% of vacancies, says real estate data firm CoStar Group.
In recent years, stores like Victoria’s Secret, Gap (GPS) or department stores like JCPenney, Sears and Macy’s They have also closed hundreds of their stores in shopping centers, to further establish themselves in e-commerce.
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Source: La Opinion
