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The term ‘mall anchor’ has shifted - it now matches the nautical usage.

I understand economics and cost structures, but retailers are circling the drain with their product offerings. We have moved beyond American designs made in China to Chinese designs made in China, where tatty, ill-fitting, poorly-cut and short-lifespan clothing would make all buyers look like they’d purchased knockoff gear from an Asian street market.

They are desperate to portray this rubbish as fashionable, but don’t we all have a threadbare t-shirt with a long-forgotten band logo folded up somewhere in the back of a closet? Why do they think we will pay $25 for a ‘new vintage’ model? Moreover, why are they trying to revive the 70s, the decade that taste forgot?

Brands like Gap, Lands End and others that built their reputation and following on quality goods and word of mouth have squandered these precious advantages.

Like broadcasting, the choices made by buyers living and working in the dysfunctional Manhattan closed loop do not translate to the rest of America. The father of two in St Louis is rather unlikely to seek the same clothing that a rail-thin, chain-smoking, coke-sniffing Euroweenie wannabe would favor yet the Euroweenie’s choices are farmed out across the country.

The papers rely, as usual, on stating the obvious about consumer confidence and retailer woes about rent, Internet competition etc. They never get round to completing the logical circle i.e. provide some viable choices and business may return.