China News Service Client, Beijing, May 9 (Reporter Zhang Ni) Recently, well-known American apparel brand J.Crew and luxury retailer Nieman Marcus have successively applied for bankruptcy protection, which has aroused public concern.

　　According to official data released by the United States, retail sales in the United States fell by 8.7% in March, with apparel retail sales falling by more than 50%. Skechi, Crocs, GAP and other well-known brands have recently exposed dismal performance.

　　Now that the spread of the domestic epidemic is still in the United States, will the large-scale "shop closure" really come?

Information figure: A J.Crew store posted a notice of temporary closure.

J.Crew's application for bankruptcy protection was favored by the former first lady of the United States

　　J. Crew has been one of the mainstream brands in the American fashion industry in recent decades. In 1989, the brand opened its first store in Manhattan and expanded to other parts of the United States and overseas.

　　Because of decent design and affordable prices, J. Crew was once regarded as a "flat replacement" by Ralph Lauren. And the brand was once well-known for being favored by celebrities such as former first lady Michelle Obama of the United States and Princess Kate of the United Kingdom, and the product was once sold out of stock.

　　But in recent years, the company has been burdened with heavy debt and suffered a decline in sales, and a new coronary pneumonia epidemic has made the situation "even worse."

　　According to the Bloomberg Business Week report, J. Crew closed 500 stores in March. Due to the massive loss of revenue, the company cut tens of thousands of employees and decided not to pay the rent in April.

　　On May 4, local time, J. Crew applied for bankruptcy protection. This has also become the first national retailer to file for bankruptcy protection since the outbreak of the United States. According to the filed bankruptcy application documents, J. Crew estimates that the loss caused by the closure of the store affected by the epidemic is about $ 900 million.

　　However, this action does not mean that J.Crew will close its business.

　　After applying for bankruptcy protection, the company ’s debt of US $ 1.65 billion will be converted into equity, and it is planned to close some stores in exchange for the lender ’s funds of about US $ 400 million, and will slowly transform and start again.

　　The same is true of Madewell, another brand within the group. In the face of the group's upcoming chapter, the official also issued a statement earlier that the online sales business will operate as usual. Once the anti-epidemic blockade is lifted, its retail stores will also resume operations .

Data Map: Customers shop at a Costco supermarket in Foster City, San Francisco Bay Area, USA. China News Service reporter Liu Guanguan

The retail industry as a whole has been hit hard

　　Under the epidemic, it wasn't just the J.Crews who were unhappy.

　　Shortly after J. Crew applied for bankruptcy protection, the 113-year-old American luxury retailer Nieman Marcus also applied for bankruptcy protection.

　　In addition, the sales performance of some well-known brands in the first quarter was also quite bad.

　　Prior to this, the US sports brand Skecher officially released the first quarter of 2020 financial report: the first quarter sales were 1.24 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7%. Net profit was US $ 49.1 million, compared with US $ 108.8 million in the same period last year, a year-on-year decrease of 54.8%. In the first quarter of fiscal 2020, Crocs' sales and earnings also declined.

　　GAP, whose sales have been declining in recent years, can't handle it either.

　　According to a document submitted by the GAP Group to the US Securities Regulatory Commission at the end of April, the company ’s account has evaporated $ 1 billion since February. To improve cash flow, the GAP Group decided to take approximately 80,000 shop assistants on vacation, cut executive compensation, and negotiated with the property not to pay the rent of stores temporarily closed in April.

　　According to Bloomberg News reported on April 15, the US retail sales set a record decline in March, due to the epidemic that forced thousands of stores in the country to close.

　　The apparel industry's losses under this epidemic appear to be even more severe. According to US media reports, affected by the epidemic, the overall income of the US apparel industry fell by about 52%.

　　According to data released by the US Department of Commerce on April 15, affected by the new crown epidemic, which dampened consumer demand, US retail sales fell by 8.7% month-on-month to US $ 483.1 billion in March, the largest month-on-month decline since data records began in 1992.

　　Specifically, the sales of US auto dealers and gas stations decreased by 27.1% and 17.2% month-on-month respectively; apparel retail sales fell by 50.5%; department store sales fell by 19.7%; and catering retail sales fell by 26.5%.

　　However, due to more people living at home and buying a lot of cleaning products such as hand sanitizers, some retail categories rose month-on-month, including grocery sales growth of 26.9%, health care and personal products retail sales growth of 4.3%.

Data Map: On April 12, local time, all shops in Fisherman ’s Wharf, San Francisco, USA have been closed. China News Service reporter Liu Guanguan

Will American companies usher in a "closing store tide" in 2020?

　　For many traditional retailers, the epidemic has brought a disastrous blow.

　　Because salary cannot be guaranteed, consumer confidence is frustrated, and consumer enthusiasm is greatly suppressed. At the same time, various states in the United States promulgated a "home order" and closed various stores such as shopping malls, resulting in a record decline in retail sales.

　　Analysts believe that in April, US retail sales data may be worse than in March. US retail sales are expected to rebound after the outbreak, but it is difficult to return to the level before the outbreak in the short term.

　　On the other hand, the epidemic is still raging in the US states.

　　According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there are currently more than 1.25 million cases and more than 75,000 deaths in the United States.

　　Although the spread of the epidemic is still grim, in the increasingly frequent "restart" sounds, the states of the United States have taken different paces to restore the economy.

　　At the same time, companies are struggling to "self-help."

　　According to US media reports, the GAP Group plans to reopen 800 stores in North America this month, including Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and other brand stores, but the fitting rooms and public toilets will be closed.

　　The CEO said in an interview with the media that the biggest challenge for stores to resume business is that different regions have different requirements for stores to resume business, so there is no way to formulate uniform regulations between stores. As a retailer, it is very necessary to cooperate with the government.

　　At the same time, in the face of embarrassment, GAP is trying to expand its product line to cover more people and attract more consumption.

　　"In the United States, the" closing store tide "in 2020 will only be more tragic than in 2019." "Bloomberg Business Weekly" wrote an analysis recently.

　　The article emphasizes that during the post-epidemic period, while ensuring safety, the retail industry also needs to adjust product lines to strengthen innovation, diversify product structure, invest overseas, cut down on cumbersome businesses, and streamline stores. It also needs to pay attention to data and use innovative methods to attract passenger flow. (Finish)