The line graph illustrates how many stores were closed down and launched in a particular country from 2011 to 2018. Overall, both categories experienced downward trends with fluctuations, though to varying degrees. Additionally, while the new shops outnumbered the closed ones initially, the former were eventually surpassed by the former.
Focusing on the first half of the period, around 8,500 shops were established in 2011, compared to almost 6,500 closed ones. In the following year, the respective figures more than halved to hit 4,000 and dropped slightly to 6,000. It was not until 2014 that the figures for both emerging and former shops reached parity at about 6,200.
Turning to the rest of the period in question, the count of stores that underwent closures plummeted to a chart low of approximately 700 in 2015 before recovering to just above 5,000 in a year only to remain static at the same level until 2018. As for the brand-new shops, their figures dipped to 4,000 in 2015, after which they stayed more or less unchanged in the next two years and declined markedly 3,000 in the final year.
