Luxury home decor retail chain closing majority of stores forever

There's something that the weather, zodiac signs, and shoppers all have in common. 

They're incredibly hard to predict. 

Related: Home Depot store closing indefinitely after scary incident

And while you might be able to find some clues to the first two in your local newspaper, predicting shopping behavior is an entirely different task.

In fact, it's something most retailers have dedicated lots of time, money, and resources to figuring out. Some of the larger ones even have entire corporate teams dedicated to predicting, pleasing, and driving customer habits.

That's one of the reasons many big-box stores guide you through what seems like a labyrinth of different departments and displays before you get to what you're looking for.

They've studied where most customers are more likely to pick up an additional purchase, and often strategically hide the most essential items toward the back or middle of a store. This way, you have to wind through tempting dollar displays, candy aisles, book or game centers, or other places before you get to your desired item.

If only it were this easy.

Retailers try to adapt fast

Customer behavior has changed drastically over the last several years.

Try as they might, no retailer has figured out exactly how to guide shopping habits or coerce customers to buy things when they need to boost their profit.

Gone are the days when catchy marketing, bright signage, and limited-time promotions were enough to woo customers and get them into stores.

More closings:

• Popular local Dairy Queen rival suddenly closing, no bankruptcy
• Another big Mexican chain closing down restaurant, no bankruptcy
• UPS suddenly closing more stores amid chaotic new change, layoffs
• Popular fast-food burger chain closes all restaurants in key area

Now, it's a herculean task just to convince many of us to get off our couches and make the trip into a brick-and-mortar store.

Since Covid, many more of us prefer to make our purchases online.

That's not just the case for essentials, like paper products and personal care items. It's also true for things that were previously thought to be solid brick-and-mortar merchandise options, like furniture, formalwear, and even vehicles. 

Luxury home goods retailer closing stores 

This change in shopping patterns has taken a toll on many physical retailers who relied on high foot traffic to keep the lights on. 

And now, Parachute, a high-end bedding and home retailer known primarily for its direct-to-consumer shopping model, is closing down 19 stores. 

These 19 closures represent a big dent in Parachute's total store fleet. Prior to the closures, it had 26 stores. The closures represent nearly a 75% reduction in its total store count. 

Related: Walmart makes drastic change amid alarming customer trend

After the closures, Parachute will have just seven stores remaining. 

Its CEO, Mehdi Oufkir, said the stores were too big and commented that the "overreach" detracted from brand strength.

But it's not all bad for Parachute. 

The bedding store has announced a partnership with Target  (TGT) , which will feature about 200 home linens ranging in price from just over $10 to $200. 

Going forward, Parachute will focus more on e-commerce operations and large, established retailers. It also has a partnership with department store Nordstrom.