Mass. retail group sees surge in members going out of business

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/24/retail-group-sees-surge-members-going-out-business/nufH9jmtbEFwYQZPzcq34K/story.html

Mass. retail group sees surge in members going out of business
By Jon Chesto Globe Staff March 24, 2016

Sales tax collections trended upward, and employers added thousands of new jobs each month, making the state economy look fairly strong in 2015.

But the Retailers Association of Massachusetts said it saw a 34-percent surge in members who dropped out of the organization because they went out of business.

The statistic was particularly noteworthy because the number of closure-related dropouts held steady from 2011 through 2014, in the 130 range annually, before rising to 174 last year, said Jon Hurst, the association’s president.

“We were taken aback by it,” said Hurst, whose statewide group has roughly 3,500 members, most of them mom-and-pop shops and other small businesses, including restaurants. “It’s a little scary. I’m kind of concerned that there’s a real profitability issue. Too many of them are going out of business, and new entrepreneurs aren’t coming in to replace them.”