Missouri is Seeing a Catastrophic Drop in Number of Retail Stores

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that time changes things. New technology can cause lifestyle habits to morph and that's been especially true of retail establishments. Missouri is among the states that have seen an almost catastrophic drop in the number of brick and mortar retail stores.

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Upgraded Points just dropped a new study a few days ago documenting the cities in America that have seen the biggest drop in retail stores. It's not a small sample size either. Their data goes back a decade to show which cities saw the biggest transition away from brick and mortar stores. Missouri is in trouble and it's especially bad news for St. Louis which had a more than 15% drop.

In the St. Louis, Missouri area alone, there was a drop in a decade of over 1,200 retail stores. Amazing.

The study was using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns to draw the conclusions about what parts of the country are hot for retail stores and which ones are not. They say "retail locations in the West, Midwest, and prominent technology hubs were generally hit harder". I understand when you live in Seattle or San Jose and have technology companies dominating the culture why you'd see a more difficult path to keeping retail successful. It's interesting that the Midwest and states like Missouri in particular are being hit hard.

It's another statement that does not need a rocket scientist education to say that the Amazons of the world and other online retailers will not be making it any easier on the mom and pop shops that continue to have to pay electric bills and rent.