A Staples store in Wareham, Massachusetts, will shut its doors October 10, part of a broader retreat that has cost the office-supply chain 13 locations in four months, with a discount clothing retailer already lined up to take the space.
The store at the Wareham Crossing shopping center will close this fall, and Ross Dress For Less will convert the 20,300-square-foot space into one of its first Massachusetts locations, with construction set to begin early next year, The Sun reported.
The swap captures a pattern playing out across the American retail landscape: legacy brick-and-mortar chains that once anchored strip malls and shopping centers are pulling back, and discount or off-price retailers are filling the gaps. Whether that trade benefits the communities left behind is another question.
Between October 2025 and January 2026, Staples cut 13 stores from its national footprint, dropping from 929 locations to 916. The company confirmed two additional closures this month and two more in March, a steady drip that suggests the contraction is far from over.
No official reason was given for the Wareham closure specifically. But the broader context is hard to miss. The rise of e-commerce, shifting consumer habits, and lingering aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis have hammered traditional retailers for more than a decade. The pandemic accelerated the damage.
Staples is hardly alone. The list of chains that shut down stores in 2025 reads like a roll call of American retail: Macy's, JCPenney, Kohl's, Nordstrom, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Big Lots, Dollar General, Family Dollar, GameStop, Best Buy, Forever 21, Foot Locker, and more. At the start of last year, industry analysts estimated roughly 15,000 store closures in 2025, more than double the 2024 figure and the highest total since the pandemic.
And 2026 is shaping up the same way. Macy's, Walgreens, Foot Locker, Carter's, REI, Kroger, GameStop, Saks Off 5th, and Yankee Candle have all announced additional closures for this year.
Ross currently has no presence in Massachusetts. The Wareham location would be part of a broader push into the state, with planned openings in Chicopee and West Springfield this fall and another in Danvers later this year.
The discount chain has been expanding aggressively while traditional retailers retreat. Ross opened 10 new stores last year across California, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, and New Mexico. In March, it added 19 more locations across 14 states.
That growth-while-others-shrink dynamic tells a clear story about where consumer spending is headed. When household budgets tighten, shoppers trade brand loyalty for bargains. Off-price retailers thrive in exactly the conditions that punish full-price chains.
For residents of Wareham, a town on the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, the practical effect is straightforward. The Staples where they bought printer ink, copy paper, and school supplies will close October 10. Sometime after construction wraps early next year, a Ross Dress For Less will open in the same 20,300-square-foot space.
Whether that is a fair trade depends on what you need. A discount clothing store is not an office-supply store. Small-business owners and parents stocking up for the school year will have to drive farther or order online, which, of course, is part of the reason Staples is closing in the first place.
The broader trend should concern anyone who cares about the health of American Main Streets and shopping centers. When legacy retailers close, they leave behind empty storefronts, lost jobs, and smaller local tax bases. Discount chains may fill the physical space, but they do not always replace the economic activity or the community role that the departing store served.
Retail closures at this scale are not just a business story. They are a quality-of-life story for the towns and neighborhoods that absorb the consequences, and a reminder that the people who feel it most are rarely the ones making the decisions.
