Fashion brand Forever 21 is the latest large-scale retailer to file for bankruptcy. Both luxury retailer Barneys New York and discount shoe store Payless ShoeSource have taken similar action in 2019.
Government data shows that while economy-wide measures have been improving since the Great Recession, the retail industry has stagnated, or in the case of brick and mortar stores, even worsened. Online retail, however, has consistently grown for the last two decades.
Here’s a look at datasets from three federal agencies that shed light on the current state of the retail industry.
