Retailers Closed More Stores Than They Opened And Grew 26 Million Feet

Through July 2026, U.S. retailers announced 3,255 store openings totaling roughly 63 million square feet against 3,399 closures totaling 36.9 million square feet, according to Coresight Research. Net store count: minus 144. Net space: plus 26.1 million square feet.

The average opening spans 19,350 square feet against an average closure of 10,860 — new stores are roughly 78% larger than the ones going dark. The store-count gap has narrowed sharply from a net loss of 1,778 locations over the same period in 2025.

Apparel, footwear and accessories drove 1,103 closures, 32.4% of the total. Large-format growth was led by IKEA, Publix, Bass Pro Shops, Meijer and Rural King; the year's biggest contractions came from American Signature, Walgreens and Saks Fifth Avenue.

A net loss of 144 locations reads like contraction and is reported that way. But a 63-million-square-foot opening pipeline against a 36.9-million-square-foot closing pipeline is a market absorbing space. Two retailers can produce that spread by trading a thousand 10,000-square-foot inline suites for five hundred 20,000-square-foot boxes.

That mix shift is the leasing problem, not the count. Inline suites of 8,000 to 12,000 square feet in apparel-heavy centers are what is coming back. Grocers, off-price, outdoor recreation and warehouse-club formats are what is expanding. Those tenants do not backfill each other's boxes without capital, demising work and frequently a pylon and parking-ratio conversation.

Implications. Underwrite a center by tenant category and unit size, not by occupancy percentage. A 95%-leased apparel-weighted center and a 95%-leased grocery-anchored center are not the same asset. The move from minus 1,778 stores to minus 144 in twelve months also argues the 2024–2025 rationalization wave has largely run.