Is Bed, Bath, & Beyond Gone Too?

While on the subject of the changing retail scene, we'll mention Bed, Bath, & Beyond. The home store is one of five owned by a parent company which announced this week it will be closing at least 40 of its outlets by the end of 2019. These stores will not all be Bed, Bath, & Beyond locations, and no exact number or locations were given. The press release did say that if leases cannot be renegotiated, the number of closures will rise sharply.

Many of the recent announcements of chain closures have concluded with the prediction that 25% of current brick and mortar outlets will be closed by 2025. That's not including those which may downsize as Old Navy and others have done. 

The first time we heard of a pop-up shop, we were intrigued. Now we believe these may be the retail wave of the future. And let's not forget food trucks. No, that wasn't a joke. Roaming food vendors should do exceedingly well in this area. Local municipalities need to make our area more welcoming for these small business endeavors. 

North Florence? Why have your Art Crawl just once a year? If the downtown area has First Fridays nine months of the year, can't you have a blow-out three or four times annually?

And Florence Mall? Well, the Jaycees' annual haunted house has to be somewhere...

Rush Hour Easter Shopping at Florence Mall This Week