Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap, brought to you by the American Beverage

Association. Today is Thursday, November 19th. U.S. jobless claims are up, app store fees are down

for small developers, and we're focused on the future of retail. We're now one week away from Thanksgiving, which means we are eight days away from Black Friday, that day of consumer gluttony that's highlighted by YouTube videos of midnight stampede for $10 flat screens.

This year, though, Black Friday might be about a lot more than just bargains. It might help determine if certain retailers can survive past 2020, or at least if their

physical stores are worth keeping around.

Already this year, more than 25 national U.S. retailers have filed for bankruptcy, with

a guitar center expected to join the list shortly.

Now, Macy's, the big department store, isn't among them, or even on the verge,

but today it did report a 20% decline in same store sales.

Other retailers are getting rightly worried about how new COVID shutdowns

could impact their foot traffic.

The bottom line, the future of retail, particularly

physical retail, is very unsettled. So in 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Fortune Magazine's

Phil Waba, who is one of the country's top retail reporters. But first, this. We're joined now by Phil Waba, a senior writer at Fortune magazine. For physical retailers,

particularly, what's its stake this year on Black Friday, maybe different than Black Friday's

past? Less is at stake this year because these brick-and-mortar retailers, just like Amazon,

have started their deals earlier. Nobody wants to

surge in shop or visits next week. We don't know what's going on with COVID. We don't know

if they can handle it. So the occasion itself is less important this year than in previous years.

It's been a tough year for retail bankruptcies, et cetera. Are there some, whether it be in person

or online, are there certain retailers who are looking

at this holiday season as make or break for them, truly make or break?

...