Photo: Getty Images
It can be pretty exciting for a company to hold the title of being the biggest in their field, but it also comes with a cost. There is a lot of difficulty in having hundreds of stores and keeping them all profitable. It's something loads of retailers have been grappling with, which is why so many have had to shutter underperforming stores recently. Sears, Walgreens, CVS, GameStop, TGI Fridays, Walmart, Pizza Hut, Best Buy, Applebee's and plenty of others have done it and it's something Foot Locker is doing too.
Even though Foot Locker, the nation's largest footwear chain, closed down dozens of locations last year, they will continue to close stores for the next 23 months, eventually shuttering 400 locations that are underperforming. Along with 275 Foot Locker stores, the closures will include 125 Champs Sports, which the company also owns.
Last year, during a call to analysts, company executives called the strategy a "reset" that comes after their total sales dropped. While the closures mean Foot Locker's global store count will decrease by 10%, leaving them with 2,400 locations worldwide, they still have plans to grow. Senior Vice President of Store Development Anthony Aversa stated, "We will increase our square footage by 10% to over 14.5 million square feet as we open up larger, more experiential expressions of our brands with a wider product assortment. New formats will surpass 400 locations."
Those aren't the company's only plans. They will also be introducing more "experiential" store concepts that they hope are attractive to younger shoppers. Among the new strategies is one that focuses on categories of different types of sneaker shoppers. Those groups, which were each created by Foot Locker, include "athletes," who are seeking high-performance sneakers, "sneaker mavens," who represent themselves through their shoes, "fashion-forward expressionists," who want their sneakers to make them look and feel cool, plus other groups of shoppers who want quality and comfort in their shoes, and deal hunters.
As for which Foot Locker and Champs Sports locations will be closing in the coming months, that hasn't yet been announced, but the closures will be split between stores at smaller regional malls and larger but lower-performing malls.