PwC Survey: US Has Too Much Retail Space

PricewaterhouseCoopers (New York) released a report that stated that, as consumers continue to do more of their shopping online, more than 10 percent of the country’s retail space may need to be closed or otherwise altered to fit the reduced consumer demand. That is about 1 billion square feet of excess retail space.

This finding seems to fit with the recent slew of store closings that the industry has seen already this year, reports Women’s Wear Daily. The report states, “Expect more of these announcements as the pace of digital change continues to accelerate, necessitating reinvention with an urgency.”

The report included other findings, such as the online shopping habits of those surveyed, as well as ideas that brick-and-mortar retailers should consider to make their stores more valuable to (and, consequently, more frequented by) customers.