If you thought 2024 was a brutal year for retailers, get ready for 2025.
Though we’re less than halfway through a new year, 2025 is expected to be one of the worst on record for retailers by the sheer number of expected closures.
Related: Home Depot local rival closing permanently after 120 years
A report by Coresight estimates that the number of store closures will increase in 2025 by up to 335%.
That amounts to a total of 15,000 total closures.
The reason for many of these closures can be broken into three major categories:
Liquidations: all stores shuttering Chapter 11 bankruptcies: retailers restructuring, closing most or many storesTotal remakes: large retailers doing complete pivots on strategy and footprint
We’ve already seen some pretty big-name retailers suddenly fold, leaving customers in a lurch.
Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy in March 2025, closing all of its more than 300 stores across the U.S.
Craft store Joann Fabrics also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January; all of its stores are closing, too.
And pharmacy chain Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2025.
Walgreens is closing more stores.
Image source: Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Pharmacies are struggling in 2025
Rite Aid has been facing challenges for a while.
The now-bankrupt drugstore was a household name in the New York area. At its height, it had about 4,600 stores across the U.S., though its fall from grace was equally monumental.
Now, the drugstore has just 1,200 stores that it’s currently winding down.
Its May 2025 bankruptcy represents its second filing in two years. It also filed for bankruptcy in October 2023.
More closings:
Popular Mexican chain closing all restaurants, no bankruptcyIconic mall chain shuttering more stores foreverMajor gym closing multiple locations after franchisee bankruptcyAfter Chapter 11 bankruptcy, beloved retailer closes all stores
But Rite Aid is hardly the only pharmacy struggling in the U.S.
CVS is in the midst of closing over 250 stores. And Walgreens is in the process of going private.
The issues that plagued Rite Aid are common among all the big chains.
It’s not that Americans are on fewer prescriptions. Instead, they’re getting their drugs from more convenient places. They might get prescriptions delivered or pick them up during a routine grocery run.
And pharmacies are extremely vulnerable to theft, since they carry a lot of other non-prescription inventory like snacks, personal care products, and over-the-counter medicine.
This cuts into profits and forces them to lock things up, which in turn wards off honest customers who are unmotivated to call for help when they need to make a purchase.
Top drugstore closing more stores
This is part of the reason Walgreens is going private.
As it prepares for the transition, the Illinois-based drugstore is closing down stores that are either unprofitable or no longer viewed as critical to the company’s mission.
Walgreens announced it will shutter up to 1,200 stores over the next three years in an effort to turn around business.
Related: Popular convenience store brand shutting down
And now, it will close down just under 30 locations during the month of May.
The closures will take place across the country in 13 states, clustered mostly around the east coast.
The stores expected to close are:
California164 W. Jackson St., Hayward, California14100 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos, CaliforniaColorado:7665 W. Jewell Ave., Lakewood, ColoradoConnecticut:922 Silver Lane, East Hartford, Connecticut157 Main St., East Haven, Connecticut1350 Stanley St., New Britain, Connecticut173 Danbury Road, New Milford, ConnecticutFlorida:5340 Soutel Drive, Jacksonville, FloridaGeorgia:2065 S. Hairston Road, Decatur, Georgia2500 Old Norcross Road, Lawrenceville, Georgia4305 Mercer University Drive, Macon, Georgia5320 Memorial Drive, Stone Mountain, GeorgiaIndiana:5095 E. Thompson Road, Indianapolis, IndianaMaryland:6 S. Maryln Ave., Essex, MarylandMassachusetts:624 Waverly St., Framingham, Massachusetts32 Main St., Lakeville, Massachusetts229 Andover St., Peabody, Massachusetts59 Boston St., Salem, MassachusettsNew Jersey:504 Kings Highway N. Cherry Hill, New JerseyNew York:5008 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, New York (Duane Reade Store)1 Fitzgerald Drive, Middletown, New YorkNorth Carolina:9005 Richlands Highway, Richlands, North Carolina830 Spring Lane, Sanford, North CarolinaPennsylvania:3300 Dekalb Pike, Norristown, Pennsylvania690 Second Street Pike, Southampton, Pennsylvania 10 E. Street Road, West Chester, Pennsylvania2727 W. Cheltenham Ave., Wyncote, PennsylvaniaTexas:1060 W. Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas, Texas
