CINCINNATI — Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that between 2011 and 2021 the U.S. lost 60,000 retail stores. Now, owners are becoming innovative and coming up with ways to keep their businesses alive.

What You Need To Know

  • Stores across the U.S. have closed their doors since the pandemic  

  •  Some of those stores have decided to pivot to online sales 

  • Originalitees in Cincinnati closed its storefront in Feb. 2023 after sales died after the pandemic 

Originalitees in Cincinnati is one of those businesses. After running her online store for more than a decade, Khisha Asubuhi opened her storefront in 2020. But in February of this year she closed her doors. She said not enough people were shopping at the store after the pandemic. 

Since then, she has been back online, focusing on advertising and meeting the needs of her customers.

“To me it's just so much better,” said Asubuhi. “Then we've always done pop ups. So, you know, just making sure we stay in front of our customers, and we are where they are.”

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland lost between 11% to 13% of their retail stores from 2011 to 2021.

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