It is Greater Boston’s frontier of urban planning: How do you adapt dated, low-rise shops and office buildings for a brave, new, post-COVID world while creating a greener future with more housing?
The raging coronavirus pandemic kept crowds thin at malls and stores across the country on Black Friday, but a surge in online shopping offered a beacon of hope for struggling retailers after months of slumping sales and businesses toppling into bankruptcy.
The San Francisco-based retailer, which was for decades a fixture at shopping malls around the country, said Thursday that it will be closing one-third of its store base.
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the trend of shopping-mall owners rethinking how to reposition their properties amid the rise of e-commerce and consumers wary of venturing into enclosed retail shops and restaurants.
Only half of Massachusetts small business owners whose operations are still closed said they are confident they will ever reopen, indicating lingering uncertainty months after forced shutdowns began to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to a new poll.
The exact terms of Massachusetts’ reopening still to be determined, but Americans elsewhere are getting their first taste of what pandemic shopping looks like at their local mall.
Macy’s says it will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chain closed its stores in response to collapsing sales during the pandemic.
Pier 1 Imports Inc., the once-trendy supplier of home goods like papasan chairs and throw pillows, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday after years of sliding sales.
In an age of retail turmoil, developers no longer have the luxury of setting aside ground-floor space and waiting for tenants to line up. Architect Deniz Ferendeci is part of a team that provides landlords with comprehensive design, market research and leasing services for their retail space.
Pier 1 Imports is closing nearly half its 942 stores as it struggles to draw consumers and compete online.
More Massachusetts retail plazas and malls will be losing longtime anchor stores by early next year as Sears Holdings Corp. closes 96 more Kmart and Sears locations across the country.
Major women’s fashion retailer Dressbarn, founded in Connecticut more than 50 years ago, is closing.
While the urban core in Boston and its environs appears poised for continued growth amid an explosion of luxury condominium and apartment towers, it’s a different picture in the suburbs, where the loss of major anchor stores is hitting the hardest.
