"For a long time, companies have talked about the squeeze in the middle of retail, but then you see the closure of a Payless. There’s just so much choice now that it’s not so much always the middle."

-John Mercer, a senior analyst at Coresight Research, an advisory firm, in an interview with The New York Times for a recent story noting that halfway through April, American retailers already have announced plans to shut 5,994 stores, which exceeds the 5,854 store closings announced in all of 2018, according to data from Coresight Research.