The Retail Thrivers, Survivors, and Divers of the corona-conomy
The Sorting Hat has spoken... We knew the Retail-pocalypse was accelerating during the corona-conomy. Now, we've got more stats to confirm just how much — and results are more varied than you'd expect. Some retailers have thrived, some have survived, and many have taken a big old dive. Let's start with the Divers:
- L Brand sales plunged 37% — now the Victoria's Secret owner is closing 250 Vicky stores.
- Macy's sales took a 45% nosedive — the big-box retailer expects a $1B loss. Its buddy Kohl’s suffered a similar fate with a 41% sales drop.
- TJ Maxx, which was winning with its "affordable splurge" biz just a few months ago, saw sales drop 52% (and suffered an $877M loss).
- And Neiman Marcus, J.Crew, JCPenney, and Pier 1 have all hopped on the bankruptcy train.
Onto the essential Thrivers... E-savvy — and most importantly, essential — retailers like Walmart, Costco, Amazon (and even Lowe’s) have enjoyed skyrocketing sales and decreased competition from shuttered non-essential retailers.
There's no "one-size-fits-all"... But non-essential big-box department stores are feeling the most pain — especially those that weren't exactly thriving before (looking at you, Macy's and JCPenney). Retail apparel sales for the year are down a whopping 52%. Non-essential retailers like Lulu had WFH-friendly products and e-savvy biz models to prop them up — the unlucky rest didn't.