According to Retail Insider, 18 Disney stores across Canada will be permanently closed due to the increase of online shopping as a result of the pandemic over the course of the last year.
“[...] Canadian Disney stores will all shutter by the end of the summer, with one source noting that a date of August 1st had been set for at least one store location in Ontario.”
According to the report, store staff have yet to be notified of the closures, seeing as final decisions are still being made. It also states that this news is somewhat of a call to action to help support its employees.
“Discussions with landlords are said to be ongoing according to another source noting that the landlord is hoping to have one of the storefronts leased to a new tenant by July.”
We are seeing this trend increase as many people are turning to online stores and avoiding in-store shopping all together. This of course has only increased since the beginning of the pandemic and has put many businesses in tricky situations, as stated in a 2020 Forbes article:
“Non-essential retailers have been either shut down or reliant solely on eCommerce to bring in any sales – unless they have strong omnichannel capabilities that enable them to do things like ship from store or curbside pickup.”
What are your thoughts? Are we nearing the end of in-store shopping?
