Edited on Jun 23, 2026.
It's been more than 470 years since this phrase credited to French theologian John Calvin first appeared. "Here today, gone tomorrow." The phrase has held up across centuries because it captures something fundamental about the impermanence of human affairs. In the U.S. retail sector heading into the close of 2020, it captures something more specific. Stores that opened in the spring are closing in the fall. Brands that were celebrated case studies in 2019 are filing for bankruptcy in 2020. Pop-up retail that was supposed to be temporary is becoming permanent. Department-store layouts that were supposed to be permanent are being rebuilt in weeks.
This is the working read on the pace of change in U.S. retail as the year closes, what's actually being reshaped, and what brand and communications teams need to absorb heading into 2021.
The retail bankruptcies are stacking up
The 2020 list of major U.S. retail bankruptcies is one of the longest in modern history. J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, Lord and Taylor, Ascena Retail (parent of Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant), Stein Mart, Pier 1 Imports, GNC, Sur La Table, Tailored Brands (parent of Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank), and a long list of smaller chains have all filed for bankruptcy protection or liquidated.
Some of these brands will reorganize and emerge. Others are gone. The cumulative effect on the U.S. retail landscape is the largest single-year contraction in modern memory.
For brand and communications teams, the bankruptcy wave produces a sustained category of crisis communications work — store closure announcements, customer-communications protocols, employee-communications work, vendor-relations management, and the broader brand-narrative work that determines whether a bankruptcy is the end of the story or the beginning of a recovery.
The store closures are accelerating
Beyond formal bankruptcy, the broader pace of store closures has accelerated through 2020. Macy's, Gap, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic, and a long list of brands that are not in bankruptcy have announced large multi-year store-closure programs. The pandemic accelerated decisions that were already being made — the rationalization of footprints that were oversized for the post-2010 retail environment.
The communications work around closure announcements has had to adapt. Pre-pandemic store closure communications were typically framed in terms of operational optimization. Pandemic-era closures are being framed in terms of consumer-behavior shifts, accelerated e-commerce adoption, and the longer-term restructuring of the retail category. The framing is partly accurate, partly a communications convenience. Both elements are real.
The e-commerce shift is permanent
Online shopping's share of U.S. retail sales has grown more in 2020 than it grew in the entire 2010s. The acceleration has been most visible in grocery, where online grocery delivery has gone from a niche category to a mainstream consumer behavior in less than a year.
The structural question heading into 2021 is how much of the e-commerce shift is permanent and how much is pandemic-specific. The honest answer is that significant portions of the shift will persist. Consumers who used online grocery for the first time in 2020 will continue to use it. The infrastructure investments retailers have made in fulfillment, last-mile delivery, and curbside pickup will not be unwound.
The brand and communications implications are substantial. Brands that invested in digital and direct-to-consumer capability heading into 2020 are accumulating compound advantage. Brands that delayed are running multi-quarter catch-up programs at the same time as their competitors are extending their lead.
The pop-up has become semi-permanent
Pop-up retail — temporary store concepts that were supposed to operate for weeks or months — has become a more durable category in 2020 as commercial real estate has loosened up and retailers have looked for ways to maintain physical presence without long-term lease commitments.
The shift produces communications opportunities for the brands operating thoughtful pop-up programs. Aritzia, Glossier, Outdoor Voices, and a wave of digitally-native brands have been using pop-ups as both retail and brand-event activations. The press coverage is sustained. The model is increasingly recognized as a category in its own right rather than as a tactical experiment.
The fast-fix has become permanent infrastructure
Plexiglas barriers. Floor decals. One-way aisles. Sanitizer stations at every entrance. Curbside pickup zones. These were supposed to be temporary fixes for the pandemic. Many of them are becoming permanent infrastructure.
The brands and retailers that built the temporary infrastructure thoughtfully — with attention to brand voice, customer experience, and design consistency — are accumulating goodwill that the brands that improvised are not. The detail matters.
What this means for brand and PR teams
Four operating considerations heading into 2021.
Crisis communications capacity is now a structural function. The pandemic-era pace of store closures, bankruptcies, and operational changes is going to continue. Brand teams need crisis-communications playbooks ready for sustained use, not as exceptional events.
The framing of operational changes matters. Brands that frame closures and operational shifts in terms of strategy and consumer evolution land better than brands that frame them as defensive moves. The framing is partly communications work and partly genuine strategic thinking.
Owned-channel investment is non-negotiable. The brands that have built strong email lists, customer apps, loyalty programs, and direct-to-consumer infrastructure are weathering the cycle better than the brands that depended on physical foot traffic and paid media to reach their customers.
Brand voice consistency is the asset. In an environment where everything is changing fast, the brands that maintain consistent voice across operational disruptions accumulate trust. Brands that produce inconsistent communications during the disruption lose ground that is hard to recover.
The longer arc
The pace of change in U.S. retail is not slowing down. The 2020 cycle produced a year's worth of structural change in a few months. The 2021 cycle will produce more.
Some categories will see continued contraction. Department stores. Mid-tier mall apparel. Anchor-tenant footprint at older malls. The structural decline that started in 2010 is being accelerated, not arrested.
Other categories will see expansion. Off-price retail. Discount grocery. Membership-based warehouse formats. Specialty retail with strong digital presence. Direct-to-consumer brands moving into selective physical retail.
The communications implications across both categories are substantial. The brands that build communications capability now — crisis-ready, voice-consistent, owned-channel-strong, direct-to-consumer-capable — will be ahead of the brands that try to build the capability while the disruption is happening.
The bottom line
"Here today, gone tomorrow" applies to U.S. retail in 2020 in a way it has not applied for decades. The pace of change is real. The structural shifts are happening faster than at any time in recent memory. The brands and communications teams that have been building the underlying capabilities are pulling away from the brands and teams that have been treating each disruption as an exceptional event. The next twelve to twenty-four months will determine which brands accumulated the compound advantage and which brands lost ground that will take years to recover. The honest read is that the cycle is far from over, and the discipline of operating thoughtfully through sustained disruption is the asset every brand should be investing in now.
