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Major U.S. Retailers Are Closing More Than 6,000 Stores
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
If the U.S. economy really is improving, then why are big U.S. retailers permanently shutting down thousands of stores? The “retail apocalypse” that I have written about so frequently appears to be accelerating. As you will see below, major U.S. retailers have announced that they are closing more than 6,000 locations, but economic conditions in this country are still fairly stable. So if this is happening already, what are things going to look like once the next recession strikes? For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the U.S. economy, and I still feel that way. And since I started The Economic Collapse Blog at the end of 2009, I have never seen as many indications that we are headed into another major economic downturn as I do right now. If retailers are closing this many stores already, what are our malls and shopping centers going to look like a few years from now?
The list below comes from information compiled by About.com, but I have only included major retailers that have announced plans to close at least 10 stores. Most of these closures will take place this year, but in some instances the closures are scheduled to be phased in over a number of years. As you can see, the number of stores that are being permanently shut down is absolutely staggering…
180 Abercrombie & Fitch (by 2015)
75 Aeropostale (through January 2015)
150 American Eagle Outfitters (through 2017)
223 Barnes & Noble (through 2023)
265 Body Central / Body Shop
66 Bottom Dollar Food
25 Build-A-Bear (through 2015)
32 C. Wonder
21 Cache
120 Chico’s (through 2017)
200 Children’s Place (through 2017)
17 Christopher & Banks
70 Coach (fiscal 2015)
70 Coco’s /Carrows
300 Deb Shops
92 Delia’s
340 Dollar Tree/Family Dollar
39 Einstein Bros. Bagels
50 Express (through 2015)
31 Frederick’s of Hollywood
50 Fresh & Easy Grocey Stores
14 Friendly’s
65 Future Shop (Best Buy Canada)
54 Golf Galaxy (by 2016)
50 Guess (through 2015)
26 Gymboree
40 JCPenney
127 Jones New York Outlet
10 Just Baked
28 Kate Spade Saturday & Jack Spade
14 Macy’s
400 Office Depot/Office Max (by 2016)
63 Pep Boys (“in the coming years”)
100 Pier One (by 2017)
20 Pick ’n Save (by 2017)
1,784 Radio Shack
13 Ruby Tuesday
77 Sears
10 SpartanNash Grocery Stores
55 Staples (2015)
133 Target, Canada (bankruptcy)
31 Tiger Direct
200 Walgreens (by 2017)
10 West Marine
338 Wet Seal
80 Wolverine World Wide (2015 – Stride Rite & Keds)
So why is this happening?
Without a doubt, Internet retailing is taking a huge toll on brick and mortar stores, and this is a trend that is not going to end any time soon.
But as Thad Beversdorf has pointed out, we have also seen a stunning decline in true discretionary consumer spending over the past six months…
What we find is that over the past 6 months we had a tremendous drop in true discretionary consumer spending. Within the overall downtrend we do see a bit of a rally in February but quite ominously that rally failed and the bottom absolutely fell out. Again the importance is it confirms the fundamental theory that consumer spending is showing the initial signs of a severe pull back. A worrying signal to be certain as we would expect this pull back to begin impacting other areas of consumer spending. The reason is that American consumers typically do not voluntarily pull back like that on spending but do so because they have run out of credit. And if credit is running thin it will surely be felt in all spending.
The truth is that middle class U.S. consumers are tapped out. Most families are just scraping by financially from month to month. For most Americans, there simply is not a whole lot of extra money left over to go shopping with these days.
In fact, at this point approximately one out of every four Americans spend at least half of their incomes just on rent…
More than one in four Americans are spending at least half of their family income on rent – leaving little money left to purchase groceries, buy clothing or put gas in the car, new figures have revealed.
A staggering 11.25 million households consume 50 percent or more of their income on housing and utilities, according to an analysis of Census data by nonprofit firm, Enterprise Community Partners.
And 1.8 million of these households spend at least 70 percent of their paychecks on rent.
The surging cost of rental housing has affected a rising number of families since the Great Recession hit in 2007. Officials define housing costs in excess of 30 percent of income as burdensome.
For decades, the U.S. economy was powered by a free spending middle class that had plenty of discretionary income to throw around. But now that the middle class is being systematically destroyed, that paradigm is changing. Americans families simply do not have the same resources that they once did, and that spells big trouble for retailers.
As you read this article, the United States still has more retail space per person than any other nation on the planet. But as stores close by the thousands, “space available” signs are going to be popping up everywhere. This is especially going to be true in poor and lower middle class neighborhoods. Especially after what we just witnessed in Baltimore, many retailers are not going to hesitate to shut down underperforming locations in impoverished areas.
And remember, the next major economic crisis has not even arrived yet. Once it does, the business environment in this country is going to change dramatically, and a few years from now America is going to look far different than it does right now.
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Somehow Wall Street and CNBC will spin this as a positive and ramp the DOW up another 1,000 points.
Hence there's a 99% chance of QE4.
On total QE life support until a currency crisis.
Definitely positive for AMAZ0N! less brick and mortar = MOAR $$ for them. BUY BUY BUY
"Robot Shack" and "Build a Drone" are expanding.
While "Build a Shack" is downsizing.
Soon the US will be downgraded to Banana Republic statue.
Wait though. Are all of these stores actually closing and going away? or at least some of these simply old buildings that are being closed and new ones will replace them?
Stores like Tiger Direct are closing all but 3.
There are way too many retail stores and banks.
OVERSUPPLY....I remember seeing some data a couple years back where Merika had around 20 square feet of retail for every Merikan CONNEDsumer. Next place was Sweden with about 5.......So we need 4x the shopping space of the ROW..... OMG!
This has resulted from the GROW GROW GROW myopia of our society. Plus the misallocation of capital by our perverted interest rate management. Its totally nuts check with about any National or Regional Retailor/Restaurant and a significant portion of their BONUS structure will be based on how many freaking stores/units they open for the year. CRAZY? Again this has been preverted by Bonus Pools, Tax incentives, Stock buybacks, the illusion of growth, but most importantly virtually Free Money, All shaken and stirred with greed and short term thinking/horizons.
Stupidity in Spades....
There seems to be a complete oversight of much of what was driving al this "building;" Ponzi immigration. Ya open the flood gates to destroy America cause, after all, white people need to be taught that "diversity" makes them better. And that through "diversity" the nation that had 6oo,ooo white men die in the Civil War, and One Million White Men die in WWII (92% of those who fought in WWII were white) would be taught a lesson, oh yeah, you bad bad white people who show up Every Single Time someone somewhere in the world is in trouble.
And ask yourselves, once all this "diversity" has taught us our lessons, like how California...once the most beautiful place you've ever seen...should be turned into a cesspool for third worlders, how will white people explain to any of their children, the few who are born without the politically correct "mixed" blood, that they now live in a horror show of fingers pointed at them for their "discrimination." OH yeah, meanwhile, China: 100% Chinese; Mexico: 100% mexican that they can run back to anytime they want; Africa *yes, it is different countries* where in many countries they say, "we wish the whites were still here." Funny how that white Christian thing brings a wealth of opportunity and structures that make things work. And yeah, it's imperfect, but the flip side is so so much worse...
This is what happens when everyone butt-kisses about keeping minimum wages stagnant, way below standard of living. Raising minimum will slightly raise prices across the board the tradeoff is injecting millions, even billions, disposable income to working and class THAT WILL CONSUME and keep these stores from shuttering. Anyone that disagrees go look at the list again!
We've tried it your way and look what we got!
This appears to be the Giant Sucking Sound, Ross Perot was talking about years ago. Or maybe phase three of the Giant Sucking Sound.
Four trends before the Great Depression...
1. rich got richer
2. investment turned to speculation
3. massive amount market credit
4. lagging business investment
We have all four thanks to the FED. They are getting ready for the reset and want their buddies to be well positioned. Their buddies will get the memo before the plug is pulled. Us not so much.
Check out HULU documentary- 9/11: TEN YEARS OF DECEPTION
HULU is a mainstream site- Jade Helm is preparation for the great awakening. How pissed will the world be at us when they find out we played them for fools. How pissed will the citizenry be when their benefits stop arriving because DC can't borrow anymore money from anyone. How many people understand we went from the greatest creditor nation to the greatest debtor nation in the last 40 years.
Coming to you this fall on every station- THE END OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE HAS ARRIVED
Goodbye New American Empire.
Hello Old American Republic.
Good luck dislodging tens of millions of heavily armed, highly motivated Americans fighting for keeps on their home turf.
Countries like the U.S. can print their own money, and they have proven they will to save one thing or another, it is not necessary to borrow, but from the FED which is like the my left hand borrowing from my right.
The FED is the last resort and will be used to shore up many social programs.
Empire may be diminished, but I doubt as long as oil is the main fuel, and Israel needs to have us defend them, and AIPAC and other jewish institutions are contributing money to political candidates, that our involvement in the Middle East will be the same or more so.
Side note: Wait, how many countries outsource their currency?
Half the world. Between 10 and 20 percent of all bank notes around the globe are printed by private companies, such as the U.K.'s De La Rue, the Canadian Banknote Company, Giesecke & Devrient in Germany, and Crane, a printer working in Sweden and Massachusetts. Of the world's 171 currency-issuing authorities—there are more countries than currencies, because of the EU and an economic union of West African countries—around 50 percent outsource some portion of their printing needs. Giesecke & Devrient, for example, prints currency for five dozen countries, and Canadian Banknote fills orders for 20. (There may be overlap in those numbers. Central banks sometimes split production of different denominations between companies.) It's impossible to compile a complete list of outsourcers, though, because many governments don't like to talk about the practice, and the printing houses refuse to release their client lists. Singapore, Finland, Sweden, Bahrain, and Qatar are known to outsource all of their printing. Controversy erupted in India last year when its outsourcing became public. The Philippines has been ordering notes from abroad for years, with mixed results. In 2005, the French company Oberthur misspelled the president's name on some of the bills.
Is this why they want to eliminate cash?
What about U.S. bonds that China is holding? Isn't that a debt? Don't they have about a trillion or so. What about Russia don't they hold some U.S. bonds? Don't bonds get redeemed at maturation? If U.S. loses the battle on oil being sold only in dollars won't that effect things. Aren't some countries already selling oil for something other than the dollar. Sure the Fed can print more dollars and I suppose that could support social obligations. I still think things are going to change. What about demanding CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
War will take care of it all.
Duct tape and bailing wire.
We had a lot of our big UK retailers go bump a few years ago. Then there was 'all those empty shops look awful, we must do something' fanfare. So pop up shops have become all the rage along with estate agents and charity shops. All towns look the same now. You have to look at who owns the land and charges the rent. If tennent shops don't stay, the landlord will look to develop the land another way. They won't care that local communities have fewer shops, they want profit. Small business can't compete as rents are too high or they take on big loans from the banks to survive. Internet shopping took off earlier in the UK than USA and is very popular. The down side is that you have to wait longer and pay more for postage. It seems we have to wait longer as 'things are out of stock'. I do notice shops not having all things available at the same time -supply issues/ finance. Our leaders must think we don't notice these deflationary policies. Stock up on useful stuff I say.
Left out 350 McDonalds, at least.
The internet may be taking its toll but, finally, the 'over-stored' reality may be ending. Its all fine when money is easily borrowed. When there's easy money its build, build, build. But again...it...was...borrowed...money. The decades long borrowing-and-building binge is coming to an end. Its just a sign-of-the-times of the end of the debt super cycle.
And just think, fewer retail stores might mean the river of money going to U.S. job-killing overseas manufacturing might shrink a bit.
I stopped using retail because the customer service was horrible, gum snapping morons...
Why would I want to deal with that?
Yes, I understand that, I hate bad service too. What I worry about is the slow creep of less shops to spend CASH in. The trend to shop electronically does undermine the freedom that cash gives. TPTB use fiat as a tool to control behaviour, a real 'divide and conquer' weapon. Its too late when we are all electronically dependant. There is also the jobs aspect to consider, the retail employees spend their wages, buy houses etc. keeping the economy going, not shrinking. My shopping is now more planned and local, ditching big business when I can. Zombie banks and poor leaders are the real problem.
Buy in cash gift cards for many online shops. That is what I do.
tick tick tick tock. The great currency collapse is coming. The globalist have a plan and we're not in it.
BULLISH! All of those empty storefronts will have broken windows that will need to be repaired. The recovery continues...FORWARD mother fuckers.
Getting worse is a prerequisite of getting better when it comes to the business cycle. All of these stores that are being closed are not needed. These retailers overbuilt on the backs of consumer debt. We are reverting back to the mean ie; equilibrium. Actually having these places shut down, as opposed to being open because they are supported by bailouts/government voodoo, is a good thing because we will reach equilibrium sooner.
Getting worse is a prerequisite of getting better when it comes to the business cycle. All of these stores that are being closed are not needed. These retailers overbuilt on the backs of consumer debt. We are reverting back to the mean ie; equilibrium. Actually having these places shut down, as opposed to being open because they are supported by bailouts/government voodoo, is a good thing because we will reach equilibrium sooner.
I do most of my shopping onlline. Best prices. and no parking fees and a few gallons of gas used to get to store.
And you forgot to mention: Safety. Been to a mall recently? Yowza. Where do those people come from? ...There was a Superman movie...back in the day...an after school program, and one of the episodes was these people who crawled out from inside the earth. Multiple generations of welfare have now bred something unrecognizeable as human; for all the whining about Margaret Sanger and her "eugenics," she is proving to be exactly correct. Welfare has created a race of morlocks; they eat their keepers first. Can you say Nancy Pelosi or Hilary Clinton?
so they can buy back stock for the 1% to cash in the billions?
Epic economic recovery !
Smupid & smupidity & more HOPIUM !
Trying to bail water out of the Titanic, is like shooting pool with a rope...
The culling will begin soon.
The retail sector has been overbuilt far past saturation point. No one's going to miss yet another department store shut its doors, or a food franchise go out of business.
There are likely another 20,000 that should close.
WHERE’S THERE A CRASH? WORLDS ECONOMY COLLAPSING!!! - HEADLINES APRIL 2015 http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=247239.msg1511502#msg1511502
Nice link youri carma! If that ain't the truth! WOW
It's true too because I have been watching numbers around world a long time. It's right there just look at the headlines.
Thank u!
I bought a fucking Brother printer for 45 Euros on sale. I only need to print black and white but they include all the colour cartridges.
So I printed a few docs and didn't use the thing for a few months. Somehow the print head got clogged up so have to buy head cleaning kit.
And all these fucking printers don't work if one of the colours goes dry, even if there is plenty in the BLACK cartridge.
I got so fucking pissed off I dumped it into the bin and found an old laser printer (black and white). for 10 Euros. on Dutch Ebay. (guy lived only 3 miles away). Works perfect.
Meantime under putin regime people left without paid salaries:
Keep drinking the kool aid. Russia hater.
No one every said that the bankers and their cronies were efficient at using money, only redirecting it to themselves and putting others in debt.
I am sure the banks that financed the expansions and the crony CEOs and boards all made out very well. Most probably have no clue that they were part of a larger plan.
But now that Obama is the face for global communism (who oddly enough is still funded by the banks and cronies) the size of the elitist parasitic oligarchy will get trimmed. Mind you, it will not go away ... just get trimmed.
It would be interesting to understand more about the significance of the above numbers. How does it compare to other years, is there a netting effect of openings and closings, how big are the closings relative to the total number of each company's outlets and most importantly, are the big retailors simply being replaced by other expanding big retailers?
DECOUPLING!!!!
If we're honest, most of the stores above won't be missed. For the most part, retailers have been selling useless crap for a lot longer than a free market should allow. Clothing retailers have offered ill-fitting, poor quality, sweatshop garbage for more than a decade, ignoring consumer needs the entire time. This has been true across every sector of the economy. These store closures do not reflect an economic downturn, so much as a winnowing of fat, stupid, useless business models. They show the free market righting itself.
The old business model of "you'll buy the crap we sell and like it" has reached its final limit. All the uncompetitive corporate businesses are collapsing. Meanwhile, those engaged in the real, productive economy, producing things of true value and meeting real consumer needs, will fare just fine.
The parasitic, crony-capitalist, corporate-fascist economy is decoupling from the real economy. The fascist model will disappear and the real economy will flourish. This is a great time to be alive!
So true on the clothing quality of today. I've some really old clothes from the early to mid 90s that look better physically today than anything I've ever purchased in the past 10 years. I had a two year old pair of shorts that literally fell apart almost like dry rot had set in on them. I paid $50 for them.
I only shop at thrift stores now for clothing getting high end brands for a fraction of retail and hardly if ever worn.
Why do you think the "tiny house" movement is taking off? People my age and younger are waking up and realizing they don't want to live a life of DEBT just so they can suffocate under a pile of useless material SHIT.
Tiny house and tiny meal(tabas and 100 calorie portions), and tiny car payment are taking off because everything's gotten too damned expensive to afford otherwise
and in a few generations, tiny people. :)
We shoud engineer people so that they would be about 1 foot tall, that would greatly reduce the stress on the planet, but then we would have a real cat problem !!!
Chickens wouldn't be much fun either, those fuckers look real mean at the 1 foot level...
" We-B-Broke "
~ Everyday Merikan
But REITs are at ATH
Things have to be fantastic for them to do that, no?
You now folks technology and the labor saving aspect of it are great but there is another edge to that knife for slicing your way to higher productivity. I assume most, if not all, readers here have one of those new fancy "smart" phones. Yank it on out and start looking at all the widgets, translate factories, this has made obsolete. Calculator, GPS, language translator etc... just use your imagination on what "apps" you have installed. You couple this hand held technology with the internet and you are talking millions upon millions of people "displaced" or let go to make way for Apple and Samsung. I am feeling a little like a Luddite recently. All this technology and convenience is just dandy, right? There is a cost.
Obama's been in charge for almost 7 years. You'd think "they'd" own up to the economy we have by now (Valerie Jarrett/Keynesian ecominics/Cloward & Piven).
But of course it's the Republican's fault b/c they won't spend enough of taxpayer's money (though some do).
Capitalism works when the government gets out of its way.
But what is truly killing America economically, is the taxation that burdens society.
If we had a 0% Federal Income Tax across the board (and no EIC),
along with a 3% Capital Gains Tax, we would see economic GROWTH like never before.
Taxation not only kills American entrepreneurship, it also funds the behemoth government that crushes Liberty.
Considering I disagree with 99% of what my taxes pay for, I feel much less desire to pay taxes....we need a new paradigm. Close the Family Dollar and use the abandoned lot to open a locally grown garden/Farmer's Market...
Well that would be fine and dandy if the banks didn't own congress, right? Taxation without representation may be more to the point. Big government is the problem, no doubt...
Thug USA, break some windows Baltimore style.
... Krugman loves ya!
Save the jobs!
There are no thugs, didn't you hear?
Why? Answer: the internet.
Truly not brilliant, you no mind Zombie!
How about Keynesian economics, through the roof government spending on entitlements, taxation policies that choke businesses and
their employees to death, Obamacare, Socialism, and the Welfare and Warfare state.
Once the internet is killed off by Net Neutrality, who else will you try to blame?
Why not start by blaming yourself for being such a retard and voting these Commies into office.
You are talking about the corporate welfare folks? Or the war machine? Those commies?
Why is Retail cutting back? Because they over expanded, listening to the never ending drivel about the 'recovery' that was only increased oil drilling and financial games from stock buy backs. The only recovery has been in FIRE, consumers have been bleeding since 2000, and the end is nowhere in site. Now that we have a congress full of Rethuglican Teabaggers, who will vote to bail out Goldman and BOA when the markets meltdown next? If you think we have had it bad before now, just wait.
Uncle Tusla:
You lost everyone here:
"Now that we have a congress full of Rethuglican Teabaggers, who will vote to bail out Goldman and BOA when the markets meltdown next?"
1. Do you REALLY think it makes any difference?
2. How many republicans voted for Obama care?
3. Which houses of congress did the republicans hold when MF global stole 1.6Billion from depositors' accounts?
4. When 'Dear Leader' was enogurated he held both houses of congress plus a filibuster proof 60 seats in the Senate....And how many bankers went to prison? Bueler, Bueler, anyone?
But I will give you this:
Each party has their own brand of idiots but they BOTH do that same things:
1. Print money to spend with no intention of every paying it back,
2. Spending YOUR SS trust fund (which is now gone, its gone bro, understand, gone) and not call it spending,
3. GROSSLY overfund the military security complex,
4. Start needless wars.
Now, 'Dear Leader' is a democrat with a Nobel Peace Prize and has started more wars than any other president in history. George Bush had both houses of congress and what did he do:
1. Start 2 wars,
2. Pass medicare Part D.
And here I thought Republicans were fiscally responsible and Democrats were peace loving?
Are you getting my point? In the coming election, are you going to vote republicrat or demopublican?
Do you think it makes any difference?
Squid
Interesting to note that Nordstroms, Sachs, and Bloomingdales did not make the list.....I guess the 1% shops at these.....
from lord buffett and lord munger:
"The sentiment at the meeting was overwhelmingly positive, and Buffett was again surrounded by a mob of admirers as he toured the product booths in the morning. But the two men faced pointed questions about Berkshire's association with the cost-cutting 3G Capital investment firm and about the lending practices at the company's manufactured home unit.
Berkshire teamed up with the Brazilian investors at 3G two years ago to buy ketchup maker Heinz in a $23 billion deal that was followed by thousands of job cuts. Now Berkshire and 3G are buying branded food giant Kraft Foods.
Several shareholders questioned whether the cost cutting and restructuring methods 3G employs fit with Berkshire's model of buying good companies and allowing them to continue largely unchanged.
"We've never said companies should employ more people than they needed," Buffett said."
no those snakes never employ anyone - chain saw Al is their
hero.
Uncle Warren came to visit my old home town back in 1965.
Have no fear people, Elon Musk will save us all with his new home battery...
Standard Disclaimer: I just threw up in my mouth.
Evidently you don't know jack shit about solar power.
Watch this documentary and get informed, Dumbo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ
That's a pretty sad argument - a couple sentences. I'll take this moment to say this was my idea. It is somewhere on here from a decade ago. A battery the size of a water heat or smooth against a wall that would be charged in some fashion.
Why did this brilliant idea cause you to regurgitate? Presbyesophagus?
Anything to rid this planet of the big CEOs in each industry is fine with me. I'd happily live like an Amish person just to know I am no longer funding their monopoly. They destroyed Tesla through a teaser loan - causing him to accept loan from JP Morgan bank, refusing the other offers, to fund his laboratory and staff. JPM failed to meet the contract, causing Tesla to be unable to operate his laboratory, pay his employees. He died a broken man, both in spirit and in worth, alone. They did this methodically. Before his laboratory was 10 years old, they tore it down. Standard Oil - Same approach to doing businss with the world - destroy everyone so they have no choice but to do businss with you - Standard oil - went in and purchased every last one of a product which was required by gas pumps to operate, hell, it could have been a certain "washer" that wears out often. The other gas stations had to shut down. Standard oil was their only choice.
The bane of our existent - Big Oil, Big Pharm, Big Banks, Big Churches, Big Universities, Big Medical Facilities. Competition keeps men honest. It is the only thing that will because...no one wants to do business with a crook.
Doomer porn. Without the sq footage and age of stores closing (especially vs new stores) this list means very little because you have no real context to evaluate it against anything.
What it means is that the fact these stores existed in the first place was due to the Great Credit Expansion of 1920s...err 2000s (go shopping america). New stores? Towns expanded like Israel with new shopping complexes complete with cinema, restaurants, book stores, coffee shops, personal loans made small business owners come to life with a credit line guaranteed to make them overspend too.
Supply and demand economy - Olives are suddenly in demand. Martini drinking has become fashionable. Everyone has a martini glass in their hand during cocktail hour. Farmers tear out their orange trees, plant olive trees, olives flood the market. Price drops because the number of demand hasn't changed but the supply did.
A real economy does not have bubbles. A real economy is stable and that guides the citizens to their decisions about a family or retiring, what to study. This "economy" is a con game. And it has been underway for a long time. We all know it. As one person said, you could turn this country around in 24 hours just by dragging a couple hundred men out into the street and, if you love your country as an American and hope to hand the children of your nation a decent life, make them pay and set an example at the same time. You are being ROBBED. Globalization is a SCAM. The bankers are MASTER THIEVES with Ivy school educations. And when this is evident to everyone, I imagine, thanks to Black America, the police state will be in final steps. And then when they go house to house looking for "rioters" it's going to be an assesment and inventory - Code Enforcement cars already drive up and down the street. They'll have drones soon. People like you are the worst kind - your nonchalance and benefit of doubt is toxic as a nuclear fall out. If you are a man, grow some balls. If you can't get out of the fuckign way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz2dwc941QU If you are a woman, well, you apparently werent out there when ten thousand credit cardits offers a day were being made, nails, tatoos, massages, vacations, cruises, new homes, new cars, finest handbags covering a football priced to sell. It was like wining the fucking lotto and they knew we would fall for it because ~We are hunters and gathers~ You need some silver bullets.
We downsized some folks!
“How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?”
Winston thought. “By making him suffer,” he said.
“Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
Why the F is this story up on top all day long?? WTF with this?
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.jobs-review.com
"So why is this happening?
Without a doubt, Internet retailing is taking a huge toll on brick and mortar stores, and this is a trend that is not going to end any time soon.
But as Thad Beversdorf has pointed out, we have also seen a stunning decline in true discretionary consumer spending over the past six months…"
True & obvious reasons, but deeper than that is the core economic inflation has risen in the last 10 years, and the proof is the fact that commercial property insists on being wayyyyyyyy over priced in the first place. Just as the housing property was wayyyyyyyyyy over priced in 2007, and shadow loans were made at nearly give-away prices, and yet they failed anyway. These commercial entities are in the same boat, and have been for quite a while now. The retailers are paying wayyyyyyyy too much overhead, and the answer is that they must compete against the most ridiculous that have a nice new loan at less than 5% APR, of which leverage tends to overbid.
Case in point: family dollar, or dollar tree, or dollar general, all importers/retailers of at least 90% of their foriegn made inventory. They have demanded peon wages system wide, in addition they have enjoyed accelerated equipment depreciations, and other tax subsidies given to them, since GW Bush/IRS made it so...the bottom line is, after all the new has worn off of all the NEWNORMAL gimmicktry... they have paid/bid too much for their retail location, and the empty store closing is a crossroads of the much deeper problem of inflation and 'one born every minute', as PT Barnum might say.
It need not be any more complicated that that, but all 6000 stores that close, will claim it has been much more complex.
wwxx
Why pay two dollars for a banana when you can find another store selling bananas for one dollar.
Keep charging higher prices and this is what happens.
Now add in high sales tax. What are going to do? Hello online sales with no sales tax.
Add in free shipping and you have my business every time.
To recap:
Lower prices for the exact same item
No sales tax
Free shipping
I live outside Toronto. Amazon has increased their warehousing footprint but dont appear to be that busy yet. The strip mall comment(s) is interesting. Many of the new suburb sections have a little strip mall "attached" to them. The occupants can vary but these usually dominate: pizza, walk in clinic, physio therapy, eye glass?, pharmacy, convenience store. Possible relationship to union benefits?
Its because some brainiac let the cat out of the bag that credit is not capital. If you had kept your mouth shut and just issued more and more credit, everything would be fine. But noooooooooo.....
The reason is that American consumers typically do not voluntarily pull back like that on spending but do so because they have run out of credit...
Just extend credit. Problem fixed. LOL
Victorias Secret?? Ahh, who cares; I prefer my bitchezzz naked anyhow...
Because people are shopping online now and it seems the opposite in the NYC tri state area as well as around Boston.. Stores & shopping areas are EXPANDING. Stores are always jam packed whenever I travel to NYC and in the Boston area (meaning Massachusetts east of I 495 - the economy and consumer demand is simply booming)
Our GDP agrees....
Matthew Good Band - Hello Time Bomb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnQ-Ixnqpe8 (4:03)
MATTHEW GOOD BAND LYRICS
"Hello Time Bomb"
I found me a reason
So check me tomorrow
We'll see if I'm leaking
Push and push and push till it hurts
My devil's on rollerskates
Down at the roller rink
Picking up chicks for me
Ones that push and push and push till it hurts
Push and push till it hurts
Dirty enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Dirty enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Life's for the living
So check me tomorrow
We'll see if I'm kidding
Push and push and push till it hurts
Did it on Ritalin
I got me some good grades
Now I work me the night shift
Where I pull and pull and pull till it hurts
Pull and pull till it hurts
Dirty enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Dirty enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Hello time bomb, I'm ready to go off
If life's for the livid
Check me tomorrow
We'll see if I'm emperor
My devil's on sugared smacks
Down at the radio shack
We're turning shit into solid gold, solid gold
Dirty enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Dirty it enough I got me a love
And it's so bad, it's so bad
Hello time bomb, I'm ready to go off
Hello time bomb, I'm ready to go off.
O'Dicktator, hand selected to oversee the bankruptcy of the biggest corporation, the UNITED STATES. Fortunately the United States of America will still be here though broke as hell.
they took out jebbbbbbs!!!!
"So why is this happening?
Plumbing issues?
I have never ever seen the Baltic Dry this lower. Trade is dead in the water.
Does this mean Pud will be able to resurrect F'dcompany?
I mean... DUH.
Seriously... DUH.
Almost the entire plan of the predators-that-be was to DRIVE UP HOME PRICES... and keep them up.
What do high home prices mean?
Simple. Huge debt. Huge mortgage payments. Higher rents.
When the most expensive item for people is housing, and the price of that is artificially driven through the roof, what other possibility exists? What? Lend them more money so they can get even deeper into debt? That's the only option that remains... Greenspasm, Bernanke, Yellen, Obama, Bush and congress.
Everything they do destroys individuals... and their captured media trumpets their utterly absurd lies from morning until night --- high home prices is GOOD for the economy. Paying through the nose for your biggest expense means you'll have even more paycheck left to spend on other useless junk that keeps the economy going.
What an utter farce.
-----
PS: Oh right. And the banksters are still holding tens of millions of homes off the market to artificially keep home prices up. Why? So they can pretend their worth the bogus prices being paid, and get their bonus checks.
"PS: Oh right. And the banksters are still holding tens of millions of homes off the market to artificially keep home prices up. Why? So they can pretend their worth the bogus prices being paid, and get their bonus checks."
Bingo
A majority of the stores have a common theme: low quality, foreign made, high mark-up unnecessary junk. people can no longer afford to support the mindless consumption model.
I used to do this( mindlessly consume) but no longer and I make a very good salary but if I can't justify the need I won't spend.
Not all of this is economically driven or even caused by internet retailing.
223 Barnes & Noble (through 2023)
OK. This one IS due to Amazon.
25 Build-A-Bear (through 2015)
Business model based on screwing parents for vastly overpriced stuffed animals. I was one of the dumb schmuck screwees one time. After that, I kept my kids far away from that place. They should rename it Build-A-Bear-Bend-Over-A-Dad.
39 Einstein Bros. Bagels
Obviously caused by all of the evil anti-semites on ZeroHedge who don't eat bagels.
14 Friendly’s
This place has the slowest service of any restaurant. I'm surprised they have any stores left open.
63 Pep Boys (“in the coming years”)
Don't go there to get your car fixed. But if you want to be ass-raped, then go there.
1,784 Radio Shack
This place never could re-invent itself. Hint: you might try changing the fucking name! It harkens back to the 70s at the latest.
133 Target, Canada (bankruptcy)
Target is just Walmart with higher prices and a red theme (in more ways than one). I look forward to their US bankruptcy.
31 Tiger Direct
The PC heyday is over. People don't buy PCs and the myriad of peripherals, accesories and shrink-wrapped software that went along with them. Now people have smart phones and tablets with which they do absolutely nothing productive.
200 Walgreens (by 2017)
Fucking way overbuilt along with CVS during the last pre-crash era. The feds cracking down on Oxy didn't help neither.
Yes, it's a disaster. 1700+ from Radio Shack, another 200+ from Barnes and Noble. So 1/3 of this apocalypse is due to outdated business models. Oh no.
Another 1000 are due to mergers and Canadian outfits, that somehow made it onto this list.
How are these articles vetted?
This far down the line, few will read and understand.
Retail is asking ungodly prices for sq footage. Stores can't make a profit and pay their help. With all the TIF's and credits being offered it's cheaper to leave footage go than cut a deal. 2000 sq ft at $45/ft is 9 grand a month. I don't know of many "boutique" stores that can afford that kind of overhead off sales.
Malls are dying, but with taxpayer support, they are Zombified for the next 10-20 years. New Strips are springup up right and left offering payday loans, get your nails done and psychic parlors or a liquior store. Suprised the ATM/EBT cash kiosk isn't in there too (probably is, I don't visit strips).
BAM can't compete on price and people don't take shipping into account when they see it for a buck less online. Too bad clothing can't be downloaded, they don't have an app for that and the clothes still don't fit right. (Tiny screen, especially when you use your Ipod or smartphone.
Only places that will make it are those which own thier space outright, not renters. Problem is few of them are out there. I can remember the mom and pop general store in Red Bud on the corner in the middle of a residential area that offered a few things instead of isles and isles of monotonous crap. A few cereal types, canned soup, a small dairy refrigerated section and mostly dry goods. Special smell in those places, warm, homey. Not so much stuff that you couldn't make a decision and just good basic food. Open 10-7 M-Sa, closed Sunday.
Didn't have all the government regulation and shit either, people knew how to keep things clean and tidy without a government babysitter looking for violations or infractions of some obscure law pushed by a big retail chain that didn't have to follow it.
Ah well, guess I'll learn how to weave, already know how to sew and bake bread and make beer. Should do alright, except I dont know how to make shoes or boots. Guess I can learn that too.
Imploding overcapacity is not preventable only postponable. The Fed postponed the inevitable and now has to figure out how to get out of the trap it got us all in. Put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.
The lack of competition in this country was our downfall. When we had mom & pop shops on every other corner we had stability. I realize that we cannot return to a more simpler time. What with government bureaucracies sniffing in every nook & cranny. But, if just one state could secede, just one....