Good afternoon,
At first glance, it’s felt like a cruel summer for northern Arizona’s retail sector, with a string of announcements about store and restaurant closings. Often they were places that had been staples of the community for years: Big Lots, Kachina Kitchen, Peter Piper Pizza, Grimaldi’s.
While those businesses will certainly be missed, their closings don’t tell the whole story of the retail landscape in our region.
When a retail business closes, it often creates opportunities for new businesses to emerge, a life cycle that’s a part of how this sector evolves.
Throughout northern Arizona, we’ve had far more retail business launches than closures this year.