A POPULAR fashion brand has followed the lead of Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, making a swift exit from a once-popular mall.
At Zara shuts down the store for good, shoppers saw six other retailers shut off the lights at the mall.
Getty GettyStore owner putting up a closed sign in the window. Sign says: sorry were closed[/caption]The retail landscape is currently experiencing a significant number of store closures, with the trend hitting shopping malls hard.
Many malls are facing declining foot traffic and experiencing high vacancy rates thanks to the rise of e-commerce as well as economic factors such as inflation, rising interest rates, and the high cost of living.
The San Francisco Centre, a 1.5 million square-foot shopping mall in California, has fallen victim to these pressures, seeing an uptick in store closures over the past two years.
Seven retailers have departed from the largely barren downtown mall in recent weeks, with the largest store to close being Zara.
The popular fashion retailer emptied out its two-story space on June 20, a mall employee told a local outlet.
Zara’s windows were covered by the morning of June 23, and a broom could be seen via lying on a large empty floor via an open door.
The store in the San Francisco Centre took up over 27,500 square feet, per a real-estate database, making Zara a relative flagship at the shopping center following the closures of the massive Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s department stores.
As Zara exits the once-booming mall, the retailer is planning to opening a location larger than 40,000 square feet at 400 Post Street in 2026, the company announced in April.
The new spot will replace a smaller Zara store at 250 Post Street and take up a historic building overlooking one corner of Union Square.
ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
Zara isn’t the only retailer that exited the San Francisco Centre in late June.
Store employees packing inventory at Oak and Fort clothing and AG Jeans confirmed to the local outlet that both shops were shutting down.
The Milk Tee shop in the shopping mall also turned off its lights last month, with shoppers spotting a sign that announced a “Storewide Closing” sale.
Nectar, a sneakers and streetwear retailer, as well as Chalo, a travel products and gifts store, also were widely empty of any inventory.
The San Francisco Centre also saw Steve Madden – a shoe, handbag and accessory store – close for good in late June.
US braces for '45,000 store closures'
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
In 2023, chains such as Foot Locker announced plans to close up to 400 outlets by 2026.
While, other well-known retailers like Tuesday Morning and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
The shutdowns come amid a wider industry trend of closures, with shops being axed left and right.
Roughly 15,000 stores are expected to close this year, more than doubling the 7,325 in 2024, according to data from Coresight Research.
The closures were expected to surpass store openings across the US this year, which were predicted at roughly 5,800.
The estimated 15,000 retail closures in 2025 is the highest number of shutdowns seen since the pandemic in 2020, when the research firm tracked almost 10,000 closures.
Major players in the industry, such as Big Lots, Macy’s, and Walgreens, announced a massive wave of closures spanning thousands of stores at the start of 2025.
As the year has progressed, a number of other retail giants have crumbled under economic pressures and closed stores, including:
Rite Aid Dollar Tree CVS Kohl’s Dollar General JCPenney Saks Fifth Avenue Nordstrom Foot Locker Joanne 7-Eleven Express Forever 21Macroeconomic pressures such as inflation and shifting consumer preferences have likewise taken a hit on the restaurant industry, pushing closures left and right.
For example, a beloved restaurant announced it would look to “sell off” all its locations after shuttering 15 spots a month ago.
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