Three important stores are closing soon. A fourth has already closed. All of these shops are vital to those who shop there, and many are wondering where to go next. One store, Party City, is where many shoppers buy balloons and other party decorations. Princeton Sports is popular for its sports equipment, and anyone who is into sewing knows to go to Joann Fabrics for their supplies. Dennis Uniforms closed in the fall, and they’re the only place to buy uniforms for many schools. Unfortunately, all three of these stores are closing down. Why? If they’re so popular, why are they closing?

A possible explanation for the sudden closure of these four popular stores is competition. If other businesses started that became more popular, the old shops would lose customers. This is possible, but Dennis Uniforms was basically immune to competition because any student at many nearby schools with uniforms would be forced to buy from them. Party City is extremely popular, too, so while it’s not immune to competition like Dennis Uniforms, it’s still a big enough business that it doesn’t have many competitors. While Joann Fabrics and Princeton Sports could be closing due to competition, they still have customers, so they would be less likely to go bankrupt for those reasons.

Another, more likely reason for why these four businesses are closing is that they were losing employees. If they can’t run their business because nobody is working for them, they would be forced to close. However, because of their popularity, they could always raise the wages that employees are paid, which would bring them more workers. This is still a possibility, but it’s not the most likely reason why four stores are suddenly closing.

The most likely reason is that the stores weren’t making enough money. If they didn’t sell their products for enough money, they would lose their profits, which would cause them to lose money until they went bankrupt. Dennis Uniforms could always raise their prices, but schools might switch uniform suppliers if this became a problem. The other three stores can’t raise their prices too much because of competition (customers might switch to cheaper vendors). This makes low prices and little profit a likely reason why four stores would suddenly close.