By BEN SHIMKUS, US CONSUMER REPORTER
For millions of Americans who still love browsing aisles and trying on clothes in person, 2025 has been a bleak year.
New data shared with the Daily Mail shows 8,234 US stores have permanently closed so far this year — a staggering figure that marks a fresh blow to brick-and-mortar retail.
That’s 12 percent more than last year’s total of 7,325 closures, according to Coresight Research, and the highest number ever recorded.
The surge comes as retailers struggle against Amazon and other online giants, and as cautious shoppers spend less after years of high prices and mounting worries about layoffs and a recession.
This year’s wave of closures — spanning drugstore chains, clothing retailers, and craft stores — is the largest ever recorded, Coresight found.
The tally came in below Coresight’s earlier forecast of 15,000 closures, but the damage remains severe.
Several companies shut down their entire US footprints after sliding into bankruptcy.
Rite Aid, Joann’s, and Party City — once-dominant chains that all filed for bankruptcy — led this year’s closure list after rapidly winding down operations nationwide. https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/26957480/embed
2025 set the record for most retail chain closures, studies shared with the Daily Mail found
Those collapses helped inflate the headline number. But Coresight noted that fewer retailers overall are heading to bankruptcy court compared to last year.
In total, 30 filed for bankruptcy in 2025, down from 51 in 2024. Analysts say this indicates that stronger operators are surviving, while weaker chains are simply being cleared out of the market.
Other struggling chains, including CVS, Claire’s, and Torrid, also ranked among the top 20 for store closures — though each has kept several locations open as they scale back their footprints.
Some closures had long been planned.
GameStop, which has refocused on cryptocurrency trading rather than video game sales, and Foot Locker, which was acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods in November, both moved ahead with previously announced store reductions.
Even as closures mounted, retailers opened 5,252 new stores nationwide this year. Dollar General led all chains in ribbon-cuttings, opening 611 new locations across the US.
Dollar Tree followed with 442 openings, while Circle K (342), Aldi (225), and 7-Eleven (198) rounded out the top five.
Still, shoppers expecting this year’s store closure trend to end will be…