rogerd - 3:23 pm on Jan 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

CNNMoney.com - Why big retailers are shuttering stores [money.cnn.com]

OfficeMax is closing 110 of its 950 US stores, Toys-R-Us is closing 75 outlets... the list goes on. The successful home improvement chain, Home Depot, has said they'll focus on growing sales in current stores rather than opening many new outlets. Only the Wal-Mart juggernaut continues to grow, with 270 new stores planned for '06.

Online sales, along with energy prices and retail overcapacity, are cited as a factor in the trend toward brick & mortar closings. (It's fair to say that some of the examples cited in the articles have been troubled for years, and suffer from a variety of ills.)

E-commerce sales are pegged at $143.2 billion in 2005, up 22 percent over 2004. It's hard to believe that this will have no brick & mortar impact over time. Already, stores are doing multichannel marketing. Half the solicitations I get from office supply firms like Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples push online ordering. It's easy to see how they could close a money-losing store and just redouble their efforts to encourage web orders.