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Supply Chain by the Numbers

Jan. 22, 2026

Supply Chain by the Numbers for Jan. 22, 2026

More Retail Apocalypse. Rapidley Falling Trade Deficit. Inflation Not Going Away. Warehouse Demand Up, Prologis Says


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8234
That is how many US retail stores were closed in 2025, according to data released this week by Coresight Research. That is 12% more than the 7325 shuttered in 2024 and an all-time record, says Coresight. The closures were led by bankrupt Rite-Aid, which closed nearly 1300 drug stores. Neil Saunders, a retail expert, told the Daily Mail he doesn't see this trend slowing down in 2026. “Against the backdrop of rising costs, a lot of retailers are looking to become more efficient” Saunders told Daily Mail, and that means closing low profitability stores.

228 Million

That is how much square feet of space warehouse developer Prologis leased in 2025, its highest total since 2021, according to the company in its Q4 earnings report released this week. Warehouse operators have grappled over the past three years with slow leasing activity coming off a period of frenzied leasing and new development during the pandemic. Real-estate industry experts say a slowdown in new construction over the past few years has more recently helped constrain supply. The average warehouse vacancy rate across the US remained flat at an 11-year high of 7.1% in the fourth quarter, the second period in the past three years that availability didn’t expand, according to commercial real-estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.



2.7%

That was the rate of inflation in December versus 2024, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics late last week. That was the same rise that was seen in November, and a figure that exceeds the 2.0% growth in the CPI targeted by the Federal Reserve. “We’ve seen this movie before — inflation isn’t reheating, but it remains above target,” wrote Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “There’s still only modest pass-through from tariffs, but housing affordability isn’t thawing.”



$474 Billion
That was the level of exports of apparel and other goods that came out of Vietnam in 2025, according to data this week from the government. That’s up a big $70 billion dollars versus 2024, as the Southeast Asian nation emerged as perhaps the leading winner in the tariff wars. That despite facing tariffs of 20% for exports to the US. However, question marks continue to swirl as to whether Vietnam is truly benefitting from this apparent export success. Some say, it merely reflects a big rise in indirect Chinese exports, either via illegally transhipped goods to evade higher US tariffs

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