Fashion giant Zara quietly closes 60 stores in latest blow to brick-and-mortar retail
Despite a banner sales year, Zara is quietly shutting stores at a rapid rate.
The fast-fashion giant — famous for its catwalk-to-closet speed, $60 blazers worn by celebrities, and queues that snake out of its Manhattan flagships — has cut 60 stores worldwide in the past 12 months.
Inditex, its Spanish parent company, wouldn't say which locations got the chop, leaving shoppers guessing how many of Zara's roughly 100 US stores were on the list.
The closures weren't limited to Zara.
Inditex also shut 27 Zara Home stores, 12 Pull&Bear shops and 23 Massimo Dutti locations — wiping out 132 storefronts across its empire. Fourteen new shops opened, but nowhere near enough to offset the cuts.
Zara, a bellwether for the fast-fashion industry, looks like it couldn't buck the store-closure trend sweeping through the US.
Coresight Research says US retailers are on track to shut 15,000 stores this year, nearly double last year’s total.
And the closures came despite a banner year. Inditex beat Wall Street expectations and reported a 10.6 percent jump in sales in November alone.
Zara, a bellwether for the fast-fashion industry, has partnered with A-list celebrities like British model Kate Moss in recent ad campaigns
The company raked in around $11.5 billion between August and November.
Inditex says the store adjustments are part of a $1billion global effort to upgrade its online fulfilment and in-store agility.
The company also said on its earnings call that it is hoping to open more stores in the US in 2026.
'The end result of our unique approach is the integration of the physical with the online experience in a seamless manner that permits us, across multiple formats,' Óscar García Maceiras, the company's CEO, said.
A rough year for American stores
So far this year, dozens of household clothing retail chains have shuttered locations, pared back their real estate, or filed for bankruptcy.
Most of their challenges come online. Upstarts like Shein and Temu have been cutting into legacy retail profits for years.
And, a record number of Americans are shopping online at Amazon and Walmart's websites.
Zara, known for its mid-tier prices and quick-turn fashions, shuttered 60 stores in the past year
The company shuttered the stores while handily beating earnings expectations. It says part of its strategy is modernizing stores and focusing on internet sales
Zara's move to quickly shutter stores follows thousands of other retailers who have permamently closed up shop
A toxic mix of inflation and consumer negativity has also accelerated store-closing trends.
Saks Global launched plans to close nine Saks Off Fifth shops by early January as the company wades through mounting debt concerns.
Only 79 stores remain.
Torrid — once favored by stars like Rebel Wilson and long seen as a leader in plus-size fashion — announced plans this year to shutter 180 stores.
Claire's, the 1,500-store chain known for ear piercings and tween jewelry, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August for the second time in the company's history.
It initially planned to wind down hundreds of stores, but has since emerged from bankruptcy after being taken private.
Even giants like JCPenney are shrinking: the 123-year-old retailer put seven mall locations on the chopping block this year.
