The Big Story
The most important number in this report never made a headline. Of the 599 WARN notices filed with state labor departments during the second quarter, 309 — more than half — had no matching press-covered closure or layoff event anywhere in our dataset. Companies told their state governments they were closing facilities or cutting workforces, and no news outlet wrote it down. The visible closure economy that makes national coverage is, by this measure, the smaller half of the story.
The visible half was defined by chains winding down rather than trimming. Rite Aid posted 73 closure records — the quarter's largest total — as its store base continued to shrink. America's Car-Mart logged 41 closed dealerships in a single April announcement, one company exiting dozens of markets at once. Saks Fifth Avenue (27 records) worked through its bankruptcy-driven store list, and casual dining took sustained damage: Bahama Breeze (19), Popeyes (15), and On The Border's chain-wide bankruptcy, which put roughly 2,800 jobs in scope across its restaurant base.
Volume was remarkably steady — 778 events in April, 680 in May, 712 in June — suggesting a closure economy running at a persistent baseline rather than spiking on any single corporate event. California (148), Pennsylvania (130), and Florida (127) led the state table.
Sector Breakdown
- Retail — 1,040 events, nearly half the quarter. Rite Aid's wind-down, Car-Mart's dealership exit, the Saks banners, and Eddie Bauer's store closures (12) on top of a broad independent base.
- Restaurant & Food Service — 507 events. The casual-dining retreat: On The Border, Bahama Breeze, Popeyes, plus a steady drumbeat of independent closures.
- Industrial / Manufacturing — 191 events, including the quarter's biggest single job impacts: the Del Monte cannery in Modesto, CA (1,800 jobs, WARN-filed) and First Brands' Cleveland operations (1,550 jobs).
- Logistics / Warehouse — 107 events, led by JBS USA's Philadelphia closure (1,700 jobs).
- Grocery & Convenience — 82 events.
- Office & Services — 68 events and Healthcare — 48 events, including Bayonne Medical Center's 967-job reduction in New Jersey.
Notable Events
- At Home — Coppell, TX. The home-décor chain's Chapter 11 filing put approximately 7,170 jobs in scope — the quarter's largest single figure.
- On The Border — chain-wide. Bankruptcy and rolling closures across its restaurant base, roughly 2,800 jobs, with WARN filings in multiple states.
- Del Monte Cannery — Modesto, CA. WARN-filed closure affecting 1,800 jobs, part of the parent company's bankruptcy.
- JBS USA — Philadelphia, PA. Plant closure affecting 1,700 jobs.
- First Brands — Cleveland, OH. WARN-filed closure affecting 1,550 jobs amid the auto-parts group's bankruptcy.
- Nike — Beaverton, OR. WARN-filed corporate layoff of 1,400.
- Bayonne Medical Center — Bayonne, NJ. WARN-filed workforce reduction of 967.
- Spirit Airlines — Orlando, FL. Station closure affecting 800 positions.
Methodology
Store Closure Watch aggregates public closure signals continuously — news coverage, state WARN notices, court dockets, and company announcements — runs automated extraction with an independent verification pass, and cross-references records against state WARN filings. Figures in this report count events by the date the event occurred or was announced (not the date we collected them); 4,984 records in the full dataset carry no stated event date and are excluded from quarterly buckets rather than guessed. WARN collection for April 21 – July 3, 2026 was interrupted and subsequently backfilled via a 180-day recapture, which this report reflects. Liquidation-detail statistics are not included in this edition pending a methodology revision. Public reports show chain names and city/metro only; street addresses, coordinates, source links, and the weekly predictive Watchlist are available to subscribers. Details: how the data pipeline works.
Cite as: Store Closure Watch, "State of US Store Closures — 2026 Q2," storeclosurewatch.com. Figures as of July 2026 following deduplication and quality review.