As 2009 came to a close, we surveyed the wreckage of the financial markets' collapse and the worst economic recession the USA suffered since the Great Depression. It was only the beginning of the carnage that would spread across retail, a malaise that in many ways continues today.
Certainly the financial underpinnings of the market hurt the industry, but the rise of e-commerce to assume an essential role in how consumers shop would forever change the retail landscape. Below are six of the most notable retail failures that occurred over the past decade.
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1. Blockbuster (2010)
Because of the ubiquity of streaming video, it seems hard to believe that 10 years ago, it was possible to walk into a Blockbuster store and rent a movie on DVD. But the video rental chain was by that point creaking along to its demise as Netflix flourished.
Blockbuster was bought out of bankruptcy by DISH Network, but two years later, it closed the remaining company-owned stores. The only Blockbuster that still exists is in Bend, Oregon.
2. Borders (2011)
Like Blockbuster, Borders was crumbling fast. It had grown to become the second-largest national bookstore chain behind Barnes & Noble, but the debut of the Amazon.com Kindle e-reader in 2007 and the launch of Apple's iPad three years later were the beginning of the end.
Borders was slow to respond to the e-book phenomenon and gave priority to brick-and-mortar stores instead of an effective e-commerce site. Barnes & Noble came out with the Nook in response to the Kindle, but it struggled to fend off Amazon and was taken private this past August.
3. RadioShack (2015)
The demise of the original electronics superstore was a painful, slow-motion decline. Its turnaround plans were thwarted by its own lenders, which feared they wouldn't be repaid if the retailer shrunk its store footprint as much as it needed to. Instead, they forced it into bankruptcy, although Sprint initially purchased about 1,700 stores before converting them into its own wireless stores.
4. Sports Authority (2016)
Once one of the largest sporting goods chains, Sports Authority was saddled with debt from its private-equity owners, which prevented it from responding appropriately to the changing retail landscape. The threat from Amazon in particular was too great a burden for a retailer too encumbered to make the necessary changes to its operations.
Its intellectual property was acquired by Dick's Sporting Goods, which has gone on to its own reimagining by catering to team sports and by carrying private-label brands.
5. Toys R Us (2017)
The bankruptcy of Toys R Us sent shock waves through the retail industry, since even at the end of its life, it accounted for nearly 14% of the entire toy market. Its filing sent toymakers such as Hasbro and Mattel reeling from the loss of an outlet that provided about 10% of sales.
But it also had the effect of leading other retailers to clear out shelf space to make room for more toys. Amazon even published a catalog to highlight where consumers could buy toys. It wasn't the toy-pocalypse many had feared, and Toys R Us is trying to rebound with a new retail presence.
6. Sears (2018)
Sears is another bankrupt retailer, but it's not really gone from the marketplace (at least not yet). Though many of its stores have been sold, CEO Eddie Lampert continues to operate the retailer in a much smaller capacity.
Despite living on like some zombie retailer (much as it has since Lampert joined Sears with Kmart), the business has been on a long, slow decline into oblivion. The end remains on the horizon for the once venerable retailer, but it still survives.
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Duprey has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Apple, Hasbro and Netflix. The Motley Fool is short shares of Hasbro. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
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