Customers who tried Rite Aid at Gittings Marketplace in the final week of mid-June found themselves 90% off shuttered pharmacies, empty fridge cases, various greeting cards and beauty products, but few others.
The Party City Sign, across from the North Baltimore Drugstore on York Road, is above a building left behind by balloon and party supply retailers in February. A vast pocket, three miles away in Towson Place, remains in the previous Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart stores.
This is a recurring pattern in the Baltimore area and elsewhere, where “big boxes” and chain retailers have accelerated store closure amid intense competition, economic challenges and increasing consumer reliance on online shopping. Some retailers have filed for bankruptcy. Supported by private equity, many people have grown too much and have been in debt.
The looming trade tariffs and economic slowdown are useless, but “all retailers that are closed have something else that’s not entirely correct for them and they’ve been pushed to the edge,” said Neil Sanders, managing director of Global Data, a retail analysis and consulting firm. “Some retailers who failed weren’t innovating or thinking much about their customers.”
Some of the problematic brands include Party City, Big Lot, Macy’s, Coles and Joan Fabrics. CoreSight Research expects store closures to be about 15,000 times this year after last year’s spikes. Still, the analyst agrees that the in-store experience is not over.
“We seem to be in the retail apocalypse, but looking at the numbers, the vacancies in retail real estate are very low,” said James Cook, JLL’s Research Director at Researcher. “The dynamics are changing around the right applications for physical retail. It’s not like physical retail is gone.”
The confused store “has no patience”
CoreSight CEO Deborah Weinswig said the recent closure and “increasing preference for consumers to shop online for online shopping,” according to the release of forecasts for retail and technology advisory firms earlier this year. “Not only do they want the best prices, they also have no patience in stores that are constantly confused, lacking stock and providing poor customer service.”
Retailers are working on questions about what consumers want next, and how they expect demand to be met, both online and brick-and-mortar.
Leann Sabb, a 38-year-old resident of Nottingham, Baltimore County, said it’s becoming more difficult for her to find what she needs in the store. She began to rely on Target as a one-stop destination for clothing, food and other essentials. And she shop online.
“I think it’s easier than going out,” Sabu said. “You can deliver almost anything.”
Experiential concepts
The opening and expansion of the new store is underway with off-price brands such as Burlington and Nordstrom Rack. Big Box Chain Dick Sporting Goods are about to grow through new experiential concepts. Some previous retail spaces have been snapped by health and medical services or for recreational uses such as indoor pickleballs.
All in and out can be unsettling for older people such as Zina Finch (87), who has been shopping in the North Baltimore and Towson neighborhoods since their college days at Morgan State.
“I’ve seen this change, but when many places get closer, it’s a bit inconvenient,” she said. “You need to learn how to adjust. …It’s a difficult adjustment, especially if you’re used to going to a particular store.”
“Major investments”
Merchants try to come up with the most effective ways to portray shoppers, provide clear reasons to shop, and both money and time are valuable.
Dick CEO Lauren Hobart told analysts in March that retailers were planning “significant investments” both digitally and in stores and that they were planning “significant investments” in March. The new concept featuring climbing walls and batting cages helped to separate Dick’s customers from department stores and large merchants, analysts said.
Jen Maisch, a spokesman for Kimco, the center’s real estate broker, said Dick’s has signed up for former Bed Bath and one of his longtime vacant seats at Towson Place in Beyond. The Home Goods Store was closed in 2023 due to the chain’s bankruptcy, leaving former Walmart vacant.
“In the Walmart space, we are actively marketing and have a considerable amount of interest,” she said in an email.
“There aren’t many new constructions.”
According to Brad Buslik, principal at H&R Realty, the new available space is usually attracting interest from a mix of national, regional and local retailers looking to expand their business.
Real estate broker represents Anneslie shopping centre. There, more than 12,000 square feet of vacancy in Party City is sparking interest, Buslik said.
“It’s a really high ranking shopping centre, and in today’s market there wasn’t a lot of large format retail space available,” he said. “There’s a demand for the group to grow, and there’s no many new construction anywhere. When supply comes to the market, it’s interesting.”
The owners of the shopping centre are “motivated to make the right decisions for the shopping centre and the community,” he said.
Drugstore: “Service is not very good”
Recent retail closures include drug stores, with Walgreens closing 1,200 locations in three years, and CV continues to trim store counts. Chain drug stores are rushing to catch up with their competitors at numerous intersections without investing enough in consumers.
“The service isn’t very good, the pharmacy has been waiting for a long time, and a lot of people have gone elsewhere,” Sanders said. “They tend to charge premiums for the basics…and consumers don’t want that.”
The former dominant ritual aid, plagued by high debt and debt from the opioid crisis lawsuit, filed a second bankruptcy in May, saying it plans to sell all its assets. So far, as part of hundreds of closures, they have announced the closure of 15 Maryland stores, mostly in the Baltimore area, and have begun transferring customer prescriptions to other pharmacies.
The economic challenges of drugstores 60 years ago are “strengthened by the rapidly evolving retail and healthcare landscape we operate,” said Matt Schroeder, CEO of Rite Aid in a May 5 announcement.
Some drugstore sites may be the hardest to fill standalone sites, especially in rural areas, Cook said.
That’s because that type of space is expected to be in less demand than some of the remaining vacant seats in shopping centres with popular merchants and specialized chains. For example, beds, baths, and beyond stores are usually part of a prime shopping centre in the desired location and can be easily converted to one or two tenants.
But drug stores are “large than most expanding tenants are looking for now,” Cook said. And “Most of the smaller tenants that are expanding will become fast casual or quick service restaurants, and those spaces are not configured for food.”
The majority still want to shop in person. Does AI help?
Online shopping has contributed to store closures, but still accounts for a relatively small portion of total retail sales. It’s about 14%. In a JLL survey last year, 67% of shoppers from 10 countries said they prefer shopping in person rather than online shopping.
However, to stay competitive, retailers need to embrace consumer choices and technologies such as artificial intelligence, the JLL report on the future of retailers said. The report predicts that technology that allows “smart” fridges to track food inventory and generate shopping lists will ultimately lead to AI use for tasks such as placing store orders and delivering unmanned drones.
Shopping centres should also consider such technologies, the report suggests.
“Interactive signs may appear to be wearing work from the designer’s latest collection to interested passersby, according to potential future scenarios.”
Consumers said they are resilient despite concerns about tariffs and price increases and price rises.
“Expenses aren’t an issue,” he said. “Expense corruption is not evenly divided. Consumers are very awakened about where to shop. Some retailers are really struggling to cut their spending.
Any news tips? Contact Lorraine Mirabella@baltsun.com or (410) 332-6672
Original issue: July 1, 2025, 12:20pm EDT
