Well-known brands including Top Shop, Marcs, Pumpkin Patch, and David Lawrence have all been casualties of a retail slump that has swept through shopping strips throughout the country.
These names are among those that have entered administration since late 2016, and the share prices of stores such as JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman are also down sharply so far this year.
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The more pessimistic observers are calling it a "retail recession", and things could get even worse with the arrival of cut-throat competition from Amazon from next year.
However, it's not as if the broader economy is in recession. Indeed the budget was pitched as one for "better times ahead".
![Clothing stores have been forced to offer deep discounts to entice wary consumers to spend.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170719023206im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/z/i/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwgfeu.png/1496797409952.jpg)
Why then, are retailers finding it so tough?
The answer is that the pain of very low wage growth is spreading from household budgets to the shopping tills, especially those of stores selling non-essential goods.
Unlike in the past, the latest housing boom has also been less effective in convincing Australian consumers to open their wallets.
For all the talk of a retail recession, recent research from Commonwealth Bank economist Gareth Aird showed that it is a mixed picture, and some areas are still doing quite well.
Food, which accounts for about 40 per cent of all retail, is certainly not in recession. Spending at cafes and restaurants was up a very healthy 5 per cent in the past year.
The pain is being felt most among department stores, and shops selling clothing and households goods.
Forced to discount in order to get shoppers in the door, clothing stores have seen their sales rise by only 0.3 per cent in the past year, and household goods rose by just 0.7 per cent.
It's likely department stores and clothing stores are feeling a disproportionate share of the pain because they stock the first items that might be cut when budgets get squeezed.
And recent research from UBS economist Scott Haslem showed that disposable income is indeed getting squeezed for many households, once key costs are taken into account.
Haslem estimates that in the second half of this year, household cashflow - money to spend after paying tax, bills and the mortgage - will grow at its slowest pace in 14 years, or 1.7 per cent.
While soft wage growth is nothing particularly new, he points out that in recent years many of us were shielded from the blow by falling petrol prices and lower interest rates on home loans. But this is no longer happening, with banks nudging up interest rates, and energy bills increasing more quickly.
Another reason that households might be reluctant to spend is that those who have bought property recently are probably carrying large amounts of debt.
CBA's Aird reports that between 2005 and 2013, rising house prices tended to make people more optimistic, which also flowed into higher consumption. But this relationship has broken down in recent years, perhaps because the latest phase of the property boom has been driven by people taking out bigger home loans, rather than receiving pay rises.
You'll notice that these reasons for the retail slump are not short-term factors likely to turn around next month – they are deep-seated, or "structural" in the economic jargon.
That is a concern when you consider that retail is one of the largest employers in the country, especially of younger people.
Indeed, CBA reports that about 59,000 retail jobs disappeared in the year to February, the latest month for which figures are available.