Ohio Retailers Closing Stores In 2018

In 2017, retailers in the United States announced plans to shutter close to 7,000 stores, a whopping 224 percent increase in announced store closures compared to 2016. The numbers were compiled by the think tank Fung Global Retail & Tech, which tracks store openings and closures in the United States.

According to the numbers compiled by Fung Global, there have been 6,885 announced store closures in 2017 and 3,443 announced store openings. In 2016, there were 2,122 announced store closures in 2016 and 2,294 announced store openings.

Looking ahead to 2018, major retailers from various industries have already announced plans to close stores in the U.S. starting as early as January 2018.

Patch has compiled a list of Ohio retailers that have announced plans to close locations in 2018 below:

Target

Target is closing 12 stores with the last date of operation for the shuttering stores slated to be Feb.3. The Minneapolis-Star Tribune reported that the company began notifying affected store employees in November of the upcoming closures.

Gap

In September, Gap announced it would be closing approximately 200 "underperforming" Gap and Banana Republic stores in the near future. The list of stores to be closed has not yet been released.

Sears

Sears Holdings announced in November that it would be closing another batch of stores 2018. As part of the closures, Sears said it informed associates at 45 Kmarts and 18 Sears that the stores would be closing in late January 2018. Four of the Kmart stores slated to close are in Pennsylvania. Three Pennsylvania Sears stores will close. You can see a full list of the stores closing here.

J. Crew

The speciality retailer plans to close 39 stores by the end of January 2018, CNN Money reported. That amounts to about 6 percent of its total stores and is double the number of stores it previously planned on closing.

Teavana

Starbucks announced in July that it will close its close to 400 Teavana stores by next year. Starbucks said the majority of the Teavana stores will close by Spring 2018.

Walgreens

Walgreens will close about 600 drugstores as it buys 1,932 stores from its competitor Rite Aid, the Associated Press reported. A company spokesman told the AP that the majority of closures will be Rite Aid and a vast majority of stores closing will be within a mile of another store in the Walgreens network. Walgreens did not say which locations would be closed but the closures will start next spring.

2017 Closings

The latest round of store closures follow a year where many brick and mortar shops threw in the towel. Here's a look at some of those closures this year in Ohio:

• 4 Macy's Stores Closing in Ohio
• 2 Cleveland Giant Eagles, 1 GetGo Gas Station Closing
• hhgregg Closing 4 Ohio Stores, 88 Stores Nationwide
• Payless ShoeSource Closing 12 Ohio Stores
• 3 More Ohio Kmarts To Close As Sears Continues to Bleed
• Crazy 8 Store At SouthPark Mall To Close
• Teavana Closing At Great Northern Mall, Chain Shuttering Nationwide
• Gymboree In Legacy Village Closing

By Feroze Dhanoa, Patch National Staff and Patch Editor Autumn Johnson

Photo via Shutterstock