Mubasher: US retailers plan to shut down a collective of more than 8,000 stores this year, as the astounding rate of closures that hit the retail industry over the past couple of years seemed to carried through to the year, Business Insider said.

Retail chains shut down a record of 102 million square feet of store space in 2017, and later they exceeded that number last year by closing another 155 million square feet, the business news website cited data by the commercial real-estate company CoStar Group.

“This year we are predicting more of the same in the retail space,” CoStar’s top consultant Drew Myers was quoted by Business Insider.

Among the most prominent retailers planning to scale back their stores, was shoe giant Payless which plans to close all of its 2,500 stores in what could the biggest retrial liquidation in history, after filing for bankruptcy last February.

Similarly, children's clothing retailer Gymboree planned the second biggest number of store closures at around 805 stores, after filing for bankruptcy in January.

Previously, Gymboree filed for bankruptcy in June 2017, and shut down nearly 400 stores.

Sears Holdings, the owner of namesake and Kmart stores, also plans to shut down 91, after emerging for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October.

Other retailers included Charlotte Russe, which started already ending operations at 94 stores last February, after applying for bankruptcy protection, and later announced that it would liquidate the remaining 416 stores.

In addition, Gap would shut down 230 stores over the next two years, after reporting a drop of 7% in its same-store sales during the first quarter.