Best Buy Reports Large Scale Store Shutdowns As Businesses Brace For Retail Bankruptcies

Retailers have been facing a series of challenges over the past few years. That’s why many of them are opting to close down stores and cut jobs in order to reduce costs and stay afloat in this tough environment. This year, you may have to say goodbye to your local Best Buy. The retail giant announced mass store closings starting this week. The decision will result in thousands of layoffs, and the same trend is being followed by other major companies that are now preparing for a flood of bankruptcies in 2023 -- with many at risk of going out of business entirely.
This may be a sad week for loyal Best Buy customers. Earlier this month, the company announced that it will close 17 stores starting on April 17. The locations were identified "through a stringent lease review process," CEO Corie Barry said. But shoppers can expect many more closures in the coming months, Barry warned. The executive anticipates "continued volatility" in 2023 as the company gets ready for "another down year" for the consumer electronics industry as a whole.
At least 30 large format stores are also on the chopping block, Barry revealed that the company’s plans include reducing 7% of its store Count, which ultimately means that over 70 locations will be shuttered. The CEO said that Best Buy will also remodel many of its big boxes, dedicating less of those stores to sales floors and more to backroom space where it can fulfill pickup of digital orders.
Moreover, the company’s headcount declined by about 20% over the last three years. As of February, Best Buy had more than 90,000 employees. That’s a drop from the nearly 125,000 workers that it had in early 2020, according to company financial filings. In other words, 35,000 jobs have already been slashed and many more are about to occur as storefronts go dark.
Several businesses, including some of the biggest retailers in America, are doing whatever they can to cut costs and avoid bankruptcy. They are watching shoppers move away from discretionary merchandise and spend more on essentials and services as inflation rages on. Notably, last month, retail sales fell again, signaling more trouble for the sector. Specifically, retail sales dropped-1.2% month-on-month after declining at a similar rate in the previous month. The figure was worse than expected and confirms a deterioration in consumption in the first quarter of the year.
From department stores to direct-to-consumer brands, companies are cutting staff and shuttering stores in preparation for the perfect storm that is coming. Sadly, this means that millions of hard-working people are going to lose their jobs at a time the country is marching toward a recession. We will not only be impacted by all of these closings, but also by the economic and financial toll these store shutdowns will have on our workforce, our industry, and our nation. 
The retail apocalypse is a much more complex issue than people think. Consumers are on the edge right now, while businesses and workers alike are getting closer and closer to a financial cliff that threatens to change America’s economic landscape for good. Retailers better prepare for the wave of bankruptcies that is emerging on the horizon -- because if they don’t, they may disappear before people even realize it.