Marshall’s in City Center—open on Nicollet Mall since 1995—announced it would close. It joins the recent announcement that Nordstrom Rack in IDS Center was closing.
University of Minnesota Marketing Professor George John said COVID restrictions and work-from-home culture changes—bringing fewer people downtown—likely only hastened the long, slow death of department stores downtown.
“For a variety of reasons, including these long-term trends, exacerbated by these sort of short-term events, you’ve seen downtowns in lots of cities struggle-not just in Minneapolis,” John said Friday.
He points to in-person shopping declining overall as a continuing struggle for retailers everywhere.
“Every retailer, no matter where they’re located—out in the ‘burbs, in downtown, near downtown—they’re all struggling to find ways to get their customers back into their stores,” he said.
John also worries that, much like in shopping malls, when larger stores like Marshall’s close, it makes it even more difficult for smaller businesses nearby to stay open.
“You get the ripple effect of one story closing” said John. “Therefore you lose the traffic that would have spilled over from that shop to nearby stores.”
