47,000 U.S. Stores Closed in About a Week Over Coronavirus

By Jordyn Holman, Kim Bhasin and Christopher Cannon

March 24, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT

In a little over a week, American retail ground to a near-total halt.

More than 47,000 chain stores across the U.S. temporarily shut their doors in 10 days as retailers took extreme measures to help slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic that has rattled all sectors of the global economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 90 nationwide retailers, ranging from Macy’s Inc. to GameStop Corp. to Michael Kors have temporarily gone dark.

Most have pledged to remain closed to the public for at least two weeks, but they may stay closed for much longer. In the same period, small retail businesses throughout the U.S. also hit pause on their physical locations but are not included in this list.

It was an unprecedented moment for shopping in America, a country that contains more retail selling space than any other.

“In the space of a week, the retail landscape has changed from being fairly normalized to being absolutely disrupted beyond what we’ve ever seen before outside of the Second World War,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said.

Apple Inc. began the mass shutdowns, with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook tweeting on Saturday, March 14, that the company would temporarily close all its stores outside of greater China, which included 271 in the U.S. The next day, Nike Inc. Urban Outfitters Inc. and Lands’ End Inc. said they were closing all their U.S. locations—nearly 1,000 shops.

The store shuttering pace quickened over the remainder of the week, with new sets announced every few hours. Then shopping centers closed by the hundreds, with developers like Simon Property Group Inc. and Westfield, owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, locking up their entire U.S. mall networks. By Monday, March 23, at least 47,000 chain stores were shut.

Most told customers that goods would be available online, but even store websites weren’t immune. Victoria’s Secret, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls decided to cease operations in their distribution centers and shut down their e-commerce businesses.

Yet when the virus is contained, shopping in America may never be the same. People could still lean towards social distancing and be fearful of crowds, said Simeon Siegel, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

“Even when companies are given the all-clear, we don’t yet know when consumers are going to embrace that,” he said.

47,000 U.S. Stores Closed in About a Week Over Coronavirus

A Timeline of Retail Closures