More Than 6,000 Stores to Close in the US: Your Complete List Retailers Impacted by COVID-19

Although the U.S. economy has continued to add jobs, the coronavirus pandemic's impact on retail is not going away. Retailers are expected to close over 6,000 stores this year, following record closures in 2019. Even before the coronavirus pandemic began, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield estimated 12,000 major chain stores would close this year, reports Business Insider. Last year's record was 9,300 store closures, beating the record 8,000 closures in 2017.

The Department of Labor's July jobs report found 1.8 million nonfarm payroll jobs were added during the month, a drop from 4.8 million added in June, and 2.7 million in May, as businesses began reopening as lockdown orders in late March and April began expiring. However, the Labor Department said only 258,000 jobs were added, and the industry has 913,000 fewer jobs than it did in February. Overall, the economy is still trying to come back from losing 20.8 million jobs in April. The unemployment rate is now 10.2%.

Despite the reopenings, it could be too little too late for an industry already struggling even before the pandemic. For example, Pier 1 Imports has been struggling for years, announcing it would close 450 stores this year in January. GameStop announced in March that 333 stores were closed in fiscal 2019 and they expect to close a similar number of stores in 2020. Papyrus, which focuses on stationary, filed for bankruptcy in January and plans to close all stores in the U.S. and Canada. Gap announced its plans to close 230 Gap stores over the next two years back in February 2019. Scroll on for a list of other retail chains closing stores throughout 2020 and the number of brick-and-mortar stores bidding farewell.