Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
We visited a lot of messy stores in 2018.
- 2018 was a rough year for some retailers, and the state of their stores reflected that.
- Sears, JCPenney, and the now-defunct Toys R Us are among the retailers that struggled the most. They also had some pretty disorganized stores.
- These were the messiest stores we visited in 2018.
2018 was a rough year for some retailers.
Toys R Us closed for good in the United States, Sears filed for bankruptcy, and countless other stores saw their sales numbers continue to decline.
There are a number of reasons that so many stores had a difficult year. Toys R Us was forced to liquidate because it was unable to sustain its debt load after a leveraged buyout in 2005. According to a filing with the bankruptcy court, Toys R Us had still been making $400 million payments on its debt every year.
Department stores, in particular, have been struggling because of declining foot traffic to malls and a disappearing middle class. Sears, JCPenney, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's have all closed stores in the past year, and in October, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Sears has been closing stores and selling off assets following years of crippling sales declines.
The rise of e-commerce has also played a role in the downfall of some retailers that are struggling to keep up with the likes of Amazon. And while many stores have been working on improving their strategies to compete, it hasn't always been enough. Even on Black Friday, traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year, stores were relatively empty.
All of these factors have been causing brick-and-mortar stores to struggle. During our visits to stores this year, we found that some had empty shelves and no shoppers, some were so crowded with inventory that they were hard to navigate, and others were a complete mess.
Of the dozens of stores we visited in 2018, these were in the worst shape:
