2026 retail closures

March 05, 2026

300 Wendy’s. 900 CVS. Closures are stacking up for 2026.

900 CVS stores are closing down in 2026.

Welcome back to On The Ground, your CRE newsletter powered by DealGround.

Retail doesn’t collapse. It rotates.

Sometimes the signals are subtle before they get loud.

Every few years the same headlines crop up. Closures. Restructuring. Apocalypse talk. Then you drive the main corridors and see the morning rush, lunch traffic, and packed grocery lots on Sunday.

Operators are cutting the stores that never worked. Or the ones that stopped working.

We recently broke down what we’re seeing with Carl’s Jr. Store count drifting lower. Closures stacking quietly in certain markets. For a brand that once blanketed the West Coast with 2,500 to 3,000 square foot drive-thru buildings, that matters.

That’s not an isolated story.

Now 2026 is stacking up:

  • CVS is trimming roughly 900 stores over its multi-year plan

  • Kroger is cutting underperforming supermarkets

  • Macy’s is shrinking its anchor footprint again

  • Saks Off 5th is restructuring dozens of locations

  • Wendy’s is closing roughly 5 to 6 percent of U.S. restaurants, around 300 units

  • Pizza Hut shutting ~250 legacy dine-in locations

  • Burger King is cleaning up franchise portfolios

  • Subway continues its long contraction

  • Carl’s Jr. quietly closing units in select markets

That’s a lot of space coming back to market.

Here’s what matters:

Weak sites sit. Strong sites get calls.

When a good corner goes dark, tenants circle fast. When it’s a soft location, you start talking concessions.

Closures aren’t the story. Location quality is.

At DealGround, we track where this is happening and who owns the property so you can move quickly when an opportunity opens.

Retail churn is normal. Be the first to spot the opportunity. 

Read the full breakdown here: 👉 Read the full article on DealGround

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Happy hunting. LFG!

The DealGround Team