Clothing stores, including some international businesses that withdrew from the market after losing confidence in Lebanon’s ability to get out of its crisis anytime soon, have been shutting down one after another since early 2020. Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Christmas Eve that “the country needs six or seven years” to recover.

A study by Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics on the impact of the economic crisis on prices, including clothes and shoes from December 2018 to November 2021, indicated that inflation hit 2146%.

Mohammed Sham al-Din, a researcher at the Beirut-based Information International, told Al-Monitor, “The increase in the dollar exchange rate has led to the closure of many clothing and shoe stores across Lebanon. Not only international brands closed their doors, but also the small businesses in Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, which had initially been importing from China and Korea for more than 15 years because their imports cost less and are cheaper than the Italian, American, French and other goods.”

He noted that “more than 12,000 clothing and shoe stores have closed their doors in Lebanon, especially those that had to pay rent and salaries to employees. Some of them turned into ​online shops to reduce their expenses.” Din expected the situation to get worse, more shops to close and employees to be dismissed in 2022.