Word.ws English Dictionary

retail apocalypse

retail apocalypse noun: the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010.

Noun

retail apocalypse (usually uncountable, plural retail apocalypses)

  1. (US, usually, urban studies) The closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010.
    • Toys “R” Us is hardly the only retail operation to learn this lesson the hard way. The so-called retail apocalypse felled roughly 7,000 stores and eliminated more than 50,000 jobs in 2017.2018 June 13, Bryce Covert, “The Demise of Toys 'R' Us Is a Warning”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN
    • The threat of a retail apocalypse coming for your business depends on the specific retail category and your current operations.2023 March 12, Jake Rheude, “Retail Apocalypse: What Is It and Should You Follow the Trend?”, in Loss Prevention Magazine

Forms of retail apocalypse

pluralretail apocalypses

Origin of retail apocalypse

First appeared in print in an essay titled It's Not My Department! in the early 1990s by author Peter Glen.

Questions about retail apocalypse

What does retail apocalypse mean?
Retail apocalypse means the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010.
What part of speech is retail apocalypse?
Retail apocalypse is a noun.
What is the plural of retail apocalypse?
The plural of retail apocalypse is retail apocalypses.

Words near retail apocalypse in the dictionary

  1. retagger
  2. retaggers
  3. retagging
  4. retags
  5. retail
  6. retail apocalypse
  7. retail apocalypses
  8. retail bank
  9. retail banking
  10. retail banks
  11. retail credit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retail apocalypse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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