APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Once flourishing retail chains are now empty buildings.
Payless announced it will close all 2,100 of its stores in the US. The retailer is one of dozens that have filed for bankruptcy, including Shopko.
“As we can see and we have seen it’s moving online,” said Dan Brosman, the Director of UW Oshkosh Alta Center for Entrepreneurship and innovation. “How can I get my product moving in front of more people?”
The announcement of stores like Payless and Shopko closing are just examples of a larger trend. Just last year, many traditional retailers closed hundreds of locations. Others, like Toys R Us and Bon Ton, closed their doors for good. But BonTon came back, solely as an online retailer.
“Stores moving online or being forced to move online, because that’s just where shopping trends and consumer demands are,” said Brosman. “Retailers such as Amazon create such simplicity and convenience for shoppers and it’s become very competitive.”
A 2016 PEW Report shows that 64 percent of Americans prefer buying from physical stores to buying online. Sixty five percent also say they compare the price they can get in stores with the price they can get online and choose whichever option is cheapest.
“They have less physical costs to maintain a building, they are easier to access for a consumer,” he said of online retailers.
We asked Brosman if physical locations are a thing of the past.
“You might be able to sell physical inventory within your store, but you might want to establish some sort of an online presence or even use these marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy or Ebay,” he said. “Store owners have to adapt and understand these demands.”
He says, while many businesses are dying due to online marketplaces, the successful ones, like Walmart and Target have learned to use their online presence to their advantage.
“They adapted early on. I think that they recognized where consumer shopping trends were moving and they were able to adapt, to compete against major stores such as Amazon,” said Brosman. “It was difficult for Shopko to do as a general kind of convenience store because they were late to adapt.”
A majority of Payless stores will stay open until May. Many Shopko stores will close for good by the end of this month.
