Walmart and Macy's have recently announced store closures and lay-offs. Walmart is closing 269 stores including its Express, Neighborhood Market, and Supercenters. Macy's is closing 40 stores in the beginning of this year.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets believe this is part of a larger trend in
"Macy's announced store closings could have a number of implications on the overall retail landscape," the analysts write. "We believe Macy's decision will catalyze other specialty retailers and department stores to take a harder look at their boxes in these underperforming centers."
Walmart's decision to close stores highlights "how much the retail landscape has changed," according to analysts at Conlumino, a New York-based research firm.
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Kim Bhasin / Business Insider
The closures create a domino effect for malls.
Once mall anchors like Macy's and Sears close, it can be difficult for owners to find a tenant to replace them, said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail-consulting and investment-banking firm.
More than two dozen malls have shut down in the last four years, and another 60 malls are on the brink of death, The New York Times reported earlier this year, citing Green Street Advisors, a real-estate analytics firm.
"Teen retailers ... are all a disaster, and these middle-level malls are killing them," Davidowitz said.