The Tide Of Closing Stores Intensifies. Many Industries Face Severe Challenges. The Real Economy Needs To Be Transformed Urgently

This year, the domestic business environment has continued to be turbulent, and the trend of closing stores in various industries has intensified. According to enterprise financial reports and Tianyan data, in the first half of the year, 42 listed shoe and clothing companies closed 16 stores every day on average, and the catering industry closed 1.05 million stores in the first half of the year, which was close to the total number of last year, reflecting the severe pressure faced by the real economy.

From August to September, the trend of store closing has not eased, but has become increasingly fierce. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 40 typical brands closed their stores in the past two months, of which the catering industry has become the hardest hit area, accounting for more than half. A number of once popular catering brands sadly exited on the eve of the "National Day Golden Week".

As an important part of the national economy, the catering industry has maintained a rapid growth trend in recent years, but the situation in 2024 is quite different. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to August 2024, the catering revenue across the country will decline significantly, and the life span of online celebrity catering brands will be further shortened. In the past, the "line up kings" of catering left in confusion, and many businesses such as Chinese dinner, western dinner, hot pot, leisure catering, exotic catering, etc. were not spared.

Under the downward pressure of the economy, consumers' purchasing power has declined, affecting the catering industry and high-end retail industry. Nearly 10 retail brands have closed their stores, mainly including supermarkets, women's wear, luxury goods and tea, and half of the brands are high-grade or above. These brands once won the favor of consumers with their high-quality and high value-added products and services, but now they are facing the dilemma of declining sales and overstock of inventory.

At the same time, fitness, training and other industries have also reappeared the "running tide". Among them, sports, education and training are "high incidence places", accounting for more than 70% of the sports and entertainment brands closed in this statistics. These industries were once regarded as sunrise industries, attracting a large number of capital inflows, but in recent years, they have repeatedly exploded, and consumer rights protection incidents have occurred frequently.

Faced with such a severe market environment, all industries are actively seeking the way of transformation. Some brands strive to enhance their competitiveness through online and offline integration, optimizing product structure, improving service quality, etc. At the same time, the government and all sectors of society are also increasing their support for the real economy to promote industrial upgrading and innovative development.

However, the road of transformation is not smooth. For many brands, how to maintain advantages in the fierce market competition, how to adapt to changes in consumer demand, how to reduce operating costs and other issues remain to be solved. In the future, as the market environment continues to change and consumer demand continues to upgrade, various industries will still face many challenges and opportunities.