The Scenario for Retailers During and After This Pandemic Grim and Even Grimmer

On April 24, 2020 CoStar News had projections by Abby Corbett, their senior economist. In a moderate downside forecast, 50 million square feet of retail space will shut down and it will take seven quarters to return. A less-optimistic forecast sees 128 million square feet of retail in the U.S going dark, taking four years to recover. The severe forecast is nasty, with 360 million square feet of retail going empty, and the downturn to persist for four years before beginning its recovery. Yuck!!!

I heard an interview yesterday with Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, where he was concerned that without additional billions or trillions in Federal support hundreds of thousands of restaurants would not survive this pandemic, and of the 30 million small businesses in the United States, 10 million of these might go broke.