These GA Retailers Went Out Of Business In 2023

GEORGIA — Several national discount, department store and specialty chains closed locations in Georgia in 2023 as they grappled with inflationary pressures, filed for bankruptcy or adjusted their business models to reflect changes in consumer shopping habits.

Others, including pharmacy giants CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, closed stores as demand for COVID-19-related services declined. And Target blamed the closure of a handful of metropolitan stores on a spike in organized retail crime.

Here’s a look at how some of the announcements affected Georgia:

Bed Bath & Beyond came back from the dead in digital form after Overstock.com acquired $21.5 million in intellectual property assets from the beleaguered chain. Still, the chain planned to shutter 896 stores as part of its bankruptcy filing, according to NBC News. The closures included 360 flagship stores, 120 Buy Buy Baby stores, and 416 Bed Bath & Beyond, Harmon and Buy Buy Baby stores that were set to close.

In August, the new owners of Buy Buy Baby, announced plans to reopen 11 stores in the Northeast, and the new owner of the health and beauty chain Harmon said it would reopen at least five stores, CNBC reported.

In Georgia, the chain tapped its Snellville location at Scenic Highway and its Suwanee location at Peachtree Parkway for closure in September 2022 before announcing in April a bankruptcy. Bed, Bath & Beyond had 17 Georgia stores and four Buy Buy Baby stores.

Foot Locker said it would shutter 545 stores, including 125 of its Champs Sports locations by 2026, as part of a “reset” that includes opening about 300 “new concept” stores, according to Business Insider.

In February, Dallas-based discount home goods retailer Tuesday Morning announced plans to shutter half its stores amid bankruptcy, but then said in April it would close all of its stores. In all, 487 stores were affected.

In Georgia, Tuesday Morning closed stores in the following cities: Dalton, Savannah, Milton, Snellville, Tucker, Athens, Buford, Marietta, Warner Robins, Atlanta, Roswell and Dawsonville.

Banana Republic and its parent company, Gap, said about 350 stores would close in 2023 and that it would end the year with about 866 stores.

Party City filed for bankruptcy in January, announced in February it would shutter 22 store closures, and added another nine to the list in April.

Channel 2 Action News reported at the time that Party City closed stores in Rome and Cartersville.

Walmart, which has been closing a handful of underperforming stores each year, said it was shuttering 23 stores across a dozen states, according to a Business Insider report.

The news outlet reported Walmart was set to close two stores in Atlanta, including one on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that has been tapped to reopen as a neighborhood market in 2024.

Best Buy said it would close between 20 and 30 big box stores in 2023, while opening eight smaller concept and 10 outlet stores. The company did not say what specific stores would close, but typically closes between 15 and 20 a year, Business Insider reported.

Target blamed organized retail crime in a September announcement of nine store closures in the New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, areas. Previously, Target closed four stores with declining foot traffic — one each in Philadelphia and its hometown of Minneapolis and two in Washington, D.C.

Lidl, the German discount grocery chain, closed 11 of its 170 U.S. stores in six states, citing underperformance. Lidl opened stores in Washington, D.C., and Greensboro, North Carolina, and planned to open another in Brooklyn, New York.

In reevaluating its physical store strategy, Amazon said in March it would shutter nine of its Go locations — two in New York, three in Seattle, and four in San Francisco, according to Business Insider.

Seven Big Lots stores — three stores in California and four in Colorado — were scheduled for closure in 2023 as the discount chain shifts its emphasis to small towns from urban areas, Business Insider reported.

Four Macy’s stores closed in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Maryland as part of the company’s three-year plan to close 125 stores.

JCPenney planned to close stores in Oswego, New York; Elkhart, Indiana; and Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in 2023, MSN reported. Since 2020, the department store chain has closed more than 150 stores. With the closure, 663 stores remain.

More CVS stores closed as the company adjusts its business plan to reflect changing populations and buying patterns. CVS is in the second year of the three-year plan to close 900 stores by the end of 2024.

Struggling under slumping sales and heavy debt from opioid-related litigation, the Rite Aid drugstore chain said in October it was accelerating the closure of some underperforming drugstores while it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In all, 154 locations were affected. A month later, Rite Aid said it was closing 31 more stores. In all, 185 locations were affected.

Walgreens plans to close 150 stores by the end of August 2024, the Deerfield, Illinois-based drugstore chain said in June, citing slowing demand for COVID-19-related services among other factors. Walgreens did not say which among its 9,000 stores nationwide would close.