Gump’s is gone. Like a gaping void in San Francisco’s vibrant retail center, the flagship store, along with its massive, iconic Buddha sculpture that has greeted customers of Gump’s for 157 years, simply does not exist anymore. Gump’s: Established in 1861, liquidated in 2018. The luxury department store had searched for a buyer to save it, but with no takers, it succumbed to bankruptcy in August of 2018 instead.
The store, which was around during the California Gold Rush and was rebuilt after damage from the 1906 earthquake, closed for good on December 23, 2018. All is lost. In the past, while online and catalog sales were still humming, the website and Gump’s By Mail accumulated north of 75% of its sales. It’s an unusual case. The online competition was not a problem, but it was liquidated anyway after bankruptcy protection fell through. It was a unique store. Gump’s is gone, and it’s irreplaceable.
Whole Foods Market
Ever since 2017, Whole Foods Market has been owned by Amazon. The original Whole Foods Market was established in Austin, Texas, way back in 1980. If you think the 2017 merger has allowed the company some protection from the Retail Apocalypse, you’re probably right.
While Whole Foods accounts for only 3% of the total grocery store market, it’s got the e-commerce Godzilla on its side, which was proven to have protected it quite well. The most significant store closings, however, are of Whole Foods Market’s smaller, lower-priced brand called, 365. All 12 of the 365 stores were closed in 2019.
99¢ Only Stores
What's better than a store that sells various items for one dollar? A store that does the same for LESS than one dollar. One of the first competitors to then-thriving dollar-discount chains, upping the ante to just under a dollar, 99¢ Only Stores opened in 1982. In 2019 they faced elimination by such competition as Dollar Tree and Dollar General.
The competition also came from Walmart and, of course, Amazon. Thankfully, 99¢ Only Stores made it, but financial analysts only give the store a 50% chance of survival. To compete, the store is now offering more products and other perishable grocery items foods.
Stein Mart
Like TJ Maxx and Ross, Stein Mart is an off-price retailer that bargain hunters love to haunt. The chain of 290 stores carried brands at value prices and looked for ways to boost sales in order to add value to its bottom line. Surprisingly, in 2018 the store was able to raise sales in spite of the year-end holiday let-down totals.
At around $1 per share (or less), it was either a lucrative investment or a loss into liquidation. The final nail in that retail coffin was the global health crisis of 2020. In August of the same year, the chain store filed for bankruptcy, and all of its branches were closed by October.
Sears
Many moons ago, when across this great nation, retail shopping centers did not yet exist outside of large cities, Americans depended on the new-fangled Sears Catalogue. Sears invented the order-by-mail catalog version of Amazon one hundred and thirty-three years ago. It was in 1886 the company began driving rural general stores out of business. It seems the cycle has gone full circle. Sears is but one in the growing list of retailers struggling to exist.
In fact, as a department store retail chain, it has been clinging to its existence the longest. Blaming Amazon for the Retail Apocalypse beats the alternative reason—the “R” word—a Recession. In October 2018, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $11.3 billion in liabilities and $6.9 billion in assets. At least 200 stores closed. The company also ceased selling its flagship Whirlpool appliances, a product the store carried since 1916.