102 of the 154 Walmart stores closing were the mini-Walmart Express outlets. Smaller stores, less product selection, higher prices. What could go wrong?! Target also opened mini-Targets, like the one in Chicago's Streeterville area near Magnificent Mile. Same problem. Limited selection, higher prices. Usually you waste your time looking for what you want, then end up going to a bigger Target to get it!

http://time.com/money/4182681/walmarts-express-stores-close/

https://consumerist.com/2016/10/04/target-rethinking-everything-for-new-mini-stores-aimed-at-millennials/

Going down still

• Macy’s will be closing about 100 stores.
• Another 150 Sears and Kmart stores are shutting down
• The Limited is immediately closing all stores nationwide.
• Sports Authority closed all 460 location, out of business
• PacSun, Aeropostale and American Apparel filed for bancrupcy

More complete list

• Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States.
• K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months.
• J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015.
• Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees.
• The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America.
• Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America.
• Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years.
• Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously.

They've been purposely applying breaks to the economy the last 6 years. There is IMMENSE financial potential here. Don't believe the hype.

Well, such idealist position can be partially true in some absolute personal dictatorship and upon shorter range of time and smaller scope.

In capitalists fake democracy you have capital who dictates (this is called bourgeoisie dictatorship in science) politics. So, your statement is same as blaming horses for actions of coachman.

Walmart is notorious overexpander. They flood the market with too many stores. Walmart closing stores will allow other companies to come in a fill the void. IMO the US is primed for success as soon as the politicians get out of the way. They've been purposely applying breaks to the economy the last 6 years. There is IMMENSE financial potential here. Don't believe the hype.

Macy's is closing 40 stores and cutting nearly 5,000 jobs nationwide after poor holiday sales.

McDonalds To Close 700 Locations After Major Profit Losses

McDonald’s is experiencing a plummeting drop in profits due to stiff competition from healthier fast-food joints, more mindful consumers, and 'an overcomplicated menu,' according to Fortune.

http://ewao.com/a/1-mcdonalds-to-close-700-locations-after-major-profit-losses

Major U.S. Retailers Are Closing More Than 6,000 Stores

So why is this happening?

Without a doubt, Internet retailing is taking a huge toll on brick and mortar stores, and this is a trend that is not going to end any time soon.

But as Thad Beversdorf has pointed out, we have also seen a stunning decline in true discretionary consumer spending over the past six months…

What we find is that over the past 6 months we had a tremendous drop in true discretionary consumer spending. Within the overall downtrend we do see a bit of a rally in February but quite ominously that rally failed and the bottom absolutely fell out. Again the importance is it confirms the fundamental theory that consumer spending is showing the initial signs of a severe pull back. A worrying signal to be certain as we would expect this pull back to begin impacting other areas of consumer spending. The reason is that American consumers typically do not voluntarily pull back like that on spending but do so because they have run out of credit. And if credit is running thin it will surely be felt in all spending.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-02/major-us-retailers-are-closing-more-6000-stores

A lot of closings seem related to chains that sucked, that are becoming irrelevant due to other competition, and sometime closing a location w low profit to open another one somewhere else. I like walgreens, but why do I have 5 (five) of them within 3 miles from my house?? There is simply too many retail places in some areas.

Went in best buy last week, and the employees seemed like a bunch of flunkies. Radio shack always had marked-up prices.. I worked at K-Mart as a teenager and it was hell on earth; there's no mystery as to why Wal Mart beat it senseless.

You can look at same thing from different perspective. If Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon show increased sales and profits this money came to them from someone. As data show no increase of median income, and inflation on healthcare, food, education and such are quite big - someone must suffer. Most of the time it is most weak and badly managed. But many times it is also hard working small retailers.

Why don't we announce seconds first, then minutes, then hour for time, if we follow the same logic? Anyone can make a point about anything by selecting facts that support the idea.

Yep. So, read, analyze and use your own head. Do not behave like 90% of population - monkeys with artificially inflated income.

Its amazing how the US is and has being an emerse target of how things are not going good here on PV which I don't dispute but you can't hear about Russia or that part of the world or other countries which I know don't fair better or even worse.

You can turn your TV, find another site on or read newspaper for this :-)

Plus, anyone is interested in US. May be because of this: