A few years back, the determinants in retail success have basically been location, store design, and curb appeal, with most of them completely relegating to the background any insight to the changing customer behavior. The retail apocalypse has, however, necessitated the new face of retail. According to the Statista, The fact that the ongoing rise of e-commerce in the United States is hurting brick-and-mortar stores is undisputed. Two corporations that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018, are retail giant Sears and Mattress Firm. Despite reducing assets and selling real estate over the years, Sears was unable to pay off $134M worth of debt. Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, said it plans to keep profitable stores running. By the end of 2018, the company is looking to shutter at least 188 stores. The latest list of store closures includes 45 Kmart locations and 18 Sears boxes. Mattress Firm, on the other hand, said it would shutter 200 underperforming locations right away, and look to potentially close 700 stores altogether over the next few months. In conjunction with its prepackaged restructuring plan, it received commitments for about $250M to help support ongoing operations during the…
