It may not be a the top of most people’s “danger” list, but Toys ‘R Us is facing both falling sales and a $646 million term loan coming due next year, notes Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., a New York City-based retail consulting and investment banking firm. The company’s total long-term debt load is greater than $5.6 billion. Meanwhile, during the 2014 holiday season, Toys ‘R Us’ domestic same-store sales fell 5.0 percent. If whatever ails the chain is not fixed in the near future, expect a large-scale internal restructuring, including a considerable number of store closings, Davidowitz warns. The retailer currently operates 893 stores in U.S., Puerto Rico and Guam.

If the real estate industry learned anything in the past few years, it’s that specialty chains that don’t occupy the market-leading position in their sector end up either swallowed up by their competitors or exit the game. Aeropostale is that chain in the teen apparel segment, which is struggling as a whole. It closed 75 stores in the fourth quarter and already announced plans to close up to 75 stores in 2015. During the all-important holiday season, its same-store sales fell 9 percent, and that included e-commerce. Aeropostale’s management now talks in terms of lower than expected operating losses, rather than growth or gains. The company may have to take some drastic measures to right itself or it may be a goner by the time the next holiday season comes about. Aeropostale operates approximately 900 Aeropostale and 100 P.S. from Aeropostale stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

Cache may escape the close scrutiny afforded to Aeropostale because of its lower profile, but it’s not good news when a chain is publicly described as “the next specialty retailer to bite the dust.” From January through September 2014, the most recent period for which data is available, same-store sales fell 6.2 percent. In December, Cache’s management revealed it was approached about a potential buyout, which for troubled retailers usually means store closings (provided a sale takes place). The company currently operates 238 locations around the country.

Over the past year, RadioShack’s management has tried everything, from store remodeling to store closings to negotiations for debt relief, but the chain is now reportedly preparing for a bankruptcy filing and liquidation may not be far behind. With the advent of digital everything, combined with Amazon’s relentless assault, bricks-and-mortar electronics retailers are a dying breed. Even sector leader Best Buy continues to experience difficulties, and RadioShack hasn’t been on its A game for quite some time. During its third quarter, ended Nov. 1, same-store sales fell 13.4 percent. The company faces a debt load of $841.5 million, with total liquidity of $62.5 million. RadioShack operates approximately 4,000 stores in the U.S. and Mexico.

The teen apparel chain is doing so poorly it simply walked away from its leases when it announced it would close 338 stores this month, representing about two thirds of its 532-store portfolio. In its third fiscal quarter, same-store sales declined a whopping 14.5 percent. Since the store closings came after Wet Seal’s landlords declined to grant the retailer rent concessions, a bankruptcy was virtually inevitable, notes Davidowitz, and the retailer filed for Chapter 11 on January 15. “The landlords were going to sue,” he says. Wet Seal executives hope that a financing offer from B. Riley Co. LLC will help it stay in business, but how this story plays out remains to be seen.