Store Closure Watch recorded 524 closure and distress records across 43 states and Washington, DC in the week ending October 3, 2026, up 20 percent from the 438 published for the week before. Two chains account for about one record in five: Leslie's, the pool-supply retailer that filed for Chapter 11 on Wednesday, September 30, and Starbucks, whose cafe closures from late September kept surfacing in local coverage. Restaurants and food service led every other sector for a second week.
By the numbers
Leslie's files Chapter 11 and closes stores as Chip City shuts every shop: 524 closure and distress records this week
Store Closure Watch recorded 524 closure and distress records across 43 states and Washington, DC in the week ending October 3, 2026, up 20 percent from the 438 published for the week before. Two chains account for about one record in five: Leslie's, the pool-supply retailer that filed for Chapter 11 on Wednesday, September 30, and Starbucks, whose cafe closures from late September kept surfacing in local coverage. Restaurants and food service led every other sector for a second week.
The big story: Leslie's
Leslie's, the Phoenix-based pool and spa supply chain, filed for Chapter 11 protection in Houston on September 30. Coverage of the filing put the store program at 11 stores closed on September 30 and about 76 more to close over the following two weeks, and reporting on the court papers identified 18 Texas leases in the round, eight of them in the Houston area. The Dallas Morning News counted more than 75 stores across the company's footprint. Local lists followed in California, Arizona and Texas.
This week's records include 47 Leslie's records in Arizona, California, Connecticut and Texas. That is a count of records in a store-closing program, not a count of confirmed last days: most Leslie's rows carry no closing date because the sources do not state one, and a date is printed only when a source does.
The second story: Chip City closes everything
Chip City, the New York cookie chain that has operated since 2017, told employees on Thursday, October 1 that every shop would close at the end of that day, and confirmed it publicly on Friday, October 2. Local coverage in Massachusetts put the chain at 39 shops open as of July 2026, with four in Massachusetts: two in Boston, one in Cambridge and one in Watertown. This week's records include 25 Chip City records across six states: Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia.
Starbucks, week two
Starbucks' round of cafe closures, announced September 24, continued to land in local news as individual stores were reported closed. This week's records add 49 Starbucks records in 15 states. Our Starbucks brief keeps the running list of cafes named so far, now 190: https://storeclosurewatch.com/briefs/starbucks-store-closures-2026-09/
Washington's card rooms
Maverick Washington LLC, which has operated under Chapter 11 protection since July 2025, notified Washington's Employment Security Department that it will close eight card rooms on November 30. The company put the total at 850 workers across the eight sites. The state notices list 133 workers at Great American Casino in Everett, Washington, 131 at Chips Casino and 106 at Macau Casino, both in Lakewood, Washington, and 101 at Casino Caribbean in Yakima, Washington. The company had already announced in early September that two Tukwila, Washington card rooms would close with layoffs starting November 1.
Sector breakdown
Restaurant & Food Service led with 231 of the week's 524 records, with Retail at 192. On the early-warning series, which counts new events by week, restaurants logged 206 against a trailing eight-week average of 149 and Retail 154 against 116. Leslie's, Starbucks and Chip City supply most of the gap. Grocery & Convenience ran above its usual pace at 17 against 10, led by Kings Food Markets in New Jersey and the Winn-Dixie stores the company is closing or selling. Logistics/Warehouse ran close to trend at 15 against 13, and Industrial/Manufacturing came in below it at 24 against 28.
By the numbers
- 524 records in 43 states and Washington, DC, up from 438
- 415 closures, 73 bankruptcies, 23 layoff notices, 13 restructurings
- 40 records carry a WARN filing
- Top states: California 56, Texas 51, New York 42, Florida 33, New Jersey 25, Massachusetts 20
- 313 distinct businesses; 242 records confirmed, 200 effective, 82 announced
- Two relocations (T.J. Maxx in Charlotte, North Carolina and Pinky's Revenge in Taylors, South Carolina) are in this week's records but not in the counts above
Notable individual events
- MasterBrand Cabinets, Kinston, North Carolina. State records show the cabinet maker plans to lay off 391 workers by November 27 as it permanently eliminates jobs at its Kinston facility.
- Kings Food Markets, Hillsdale and Readington, New Jersey. Acme Markets, which owns Kings, will close the Hillsdale store and the Whitehouse Station store in Readington no later than January 2, 2027; the state WARN notice covers 122 workers.
- Goodyear, Niagara Falls, New York and Pasadena, Texas. Goodyear will close its two remaining chemical plants to exit the chemical business. The Niagara Falls plant, which employs about 70 people, shuts down on October 31 after 80 years; the company put the job cuts at about 85 across both sites.
- IKEA plan-and-order points. IKEA is closing four of its small-format pickup locations: Georgetown in Washington, DC on October 18, Annapolis, Maryland on October 30, San Marcos, Texas on November 1 and Fairfax, Virginia on November 30.
- Novo Nordisk, Plainsboro, New Jersey. The drugmaker notified the state of 108 layoffs at its U.S. headquarters, effective by December 31. This is a workforce reduction, not a site closure, and is carried as a layoff event.
- DLVR, Culver City, California. The independent logistics company that delivered packages for Amazon customers will close permanently on December 4; its WARN notice covers 60 workers.
- McKinley Paper and Packaging, Cerritos, California. The packaging manufacturer will close its Cerritos facility on November 30, laying off 45 workers per a WARN notice processed September 30.
Methodology
Store Closure Watch compiles closure, bankruptcy, layoff and restructuring events from news coverage, state WARN notices, federal court dockets, SEC filings and retailers' own store lists, checks records against their sources, and reads every record it names. Counts are records of closure and distress events, not unique stores: a chain program such as Leslie's spans many records, and a company-level announcement and the stores named under it can each be a record. The count above is the edition of record for the week of October 3; corrections to individual records are made in later editions rather than to this page. A closure date is printed only when a source states it. Relocations, conversions and sales are kept in the records but excluded from the counts.
Correction, October 13, 2026: 5 records in this week's count came from FDIC filings we had read as bank branch closings. They were branch openings. We have relabeled them, and FDIC branch closings now come from the correct filing code. The counts above are as published.
Get the data
The full file for this week, with addresses, dates, WARN cross-references and court links, is available to subscribers every Monday. Samples for a state or metro are free on request.