China and US agree to extend trade tariff truce, says Li
By Senad Karaahmetovic
UBS analysts expect to witness accelerated store rationalization in the United States in the next few years, a trend that is expected to benefit larger, well-capitalized players.
“Store consolidation experienced a reversal of the long-standing trend in ’21 when ~11k net stores were added across the US. Now, the trend of store closures has resumed,” the analysts said in a client note.
They remind investors that Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY), Foot Locker (NYSE:FL), Tuesday Morning and others closed their stores recently. Overall, they expect to see over 50,000 store closures in the U.S. over the next 5 years.
According to UBS, there are ~940,000 stores in the U.S. (excluding gas and food services).
“As this happens, we believe this trend will benefit the large, well-capitalized retailers HD, LOW, WMT, TGT, COST) and those with unique differentiations (FND, ASO, EYE) who stand to capture a disproportionate amount of market share,” analysts said in a note.