Over the past five years, many municipalities have witnessed what analysts dramatically call the “retail apocalypse:” the accelerating closure of brick-and-mortar stores as the U.S. economy shifts more and more toward e-commerce.
Big-box retailers — chain stores with a large physical footprint — have been hit hard. According to an April report by the international investment bank and financial services company UBS Group AG, between 40,000 and 50,000 retail stores will close in the U.S. by 2026. E-commerce will grow about 4% per year to make up 25% of total retail sales. Just less than half of the closures will be big-box stores, the report predicts.
Boulder County is no outlier. The list of anchor stores that closed in recent years in the area is extensive. In Boulder, the Alfalfa’s grocery store downtown and many of the tenants in the Diagonal Plaza shopping center in north Boulder. In Longmont, the Twin Peaks Mall….
