Coronavirus Takes Brutal Toll: 7 Retailers Shutting Down Stores

Rising concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak have derailed the economic activities worldwide. Companies are bearing the brunt of supply-chain bottlenecks due to travel restrictions imposed to contain the further spread of the deadly virus. The outbreak has caused people in most cities to stay indoors, resulting in lower store traffic.

At a juncture where COVID-19 has shaken the global market, every possible measure is being undertaken to retain investors’ confidence. In a bold move, the Federal Reserve announced a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program and slashed the benchmark interest rate to a range of 0-0.25%, down from a range of 1-1.25% to safeguard the economy.

In response to the pandemic, retailers are either shutting their stores or trimming work hours. Several companies have cautioned about their upcoming revenues and earnings results as well.

Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) is the latest among other companies to provide an update on the coronavirus outbreak. The company is closing its brick and mortar retail stores in North America. It expects these stores to remain closed till Mar 27, 2020. Apart from this, the company has closed stores in various markets outside the North America. It has enhanced sanitization process in all locations and implemented work from home for employees among other precautionary moves.

Other companies that recently closed stores due to coronavirus outburst are lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) , Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:URBN) , NIKE (NYSE:NKE) , Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) , Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE:UAA) and Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) .

lululemn announced that it is closing all stores in North America and Europe till Mar 27, 2020. Also, NIKE is shutting all company-owned stores in various countries like United States, New Zealand, Western Europe, Canada and Australia till Mar 27, 2020. Further, Urban Outfitters informed investors that it is closing all its stores globally till at least Mar 28, 2020. Moreover, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch announced that it is temporarily shutting all stores of its various brands in markets outside of the APAC region. Management stated that stores in North America and EMEA region are to remain shut till Mar 28, 2020.

Effective today, all of Under Armour’s stores in North America will be closed till Mar 28, 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier, Ralph Lauren had announced closure of nearly two thirds of its stores in mainland China as of Feb 13, 2020.

Today's Best Stocks from Zacks

Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%.

This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 – 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year.

See their latest picks free >>