Posted on 01/12/2013 8:21:08 AM PST by lowbridge
Christmas season was a disappointment. GDP growth is slowing. Taxes are going up. What’s the retail industry to do? There’s really only one choice: close more stores.
Through the first nine months of 2012, closings were up 25% over the same period from the prior year (fourth quarter numbers aren’t available just yet). And Howard Davidowitz, chairman of retail banker and consultant Davidowitz & Associates, expects roughly the same pace of closings in 2013.
“The consumer is 70% of GDP. If growth is decelerating, how are you going to have (retail) growth? You’re not, you’re going to go on closing stores,” he says.
For the healthy and unhealthy alike, store closings are part of the landscape. And probably will be at least a little while longer. Start with those retailers that are sliding away altogether. Fashion Bug, the discount women’s apparel chain whose parent, Charming Shoppes, was recently bought by Ascena Retail Group, announced it will shut down all 600 stores.
(Excerpt) Read more at shopping.yahoo.com ...
JCP , best buy, Radio shack.
(In the comments at the link)Same old usual suspects complaining about jobs going over seas; seventy five percent of which would not work in a factory anyway. It sure is a shame there’s not enough manufacturing to enable those mentioned to push paper with their worthless college education.
The demand curve has very little to do with outsourcing. Sure, it is a component - reduced employment opportunity leads to some reduced spending. The correlation would be clear only if people lived within their means. Most Americans have been living on credit for 20 years. As available credit or access to credit lines decreases, such goes consumer demand.
We have the fed to thank for declining growth. People have been high on cheap credit for years and glutonous with their consumption. As their credit goes to hell, or they finally reach the tipping point where the compound interest of their revolving accounts outruns their income potential, we have a mess. We are walking into that mess, and have been for five years.
No surprise to see Sears on that list.....been going downhill for years. I worked for them for nine years. They sorta turned it around in the mid-90s, but it was clearly too little, too late.
Then, there's the increasingly hostile bands of roving yutes inside, behaving territorially.
Maybe this is not the case in other parts of the country, but the era of the enclosed megamall seems to be drawing to a close, here. The flush of success and the crowds are in the “town center” style retail complexes. Park nearby, exterior ingress and egress, no bands of roving yutes behaving territorially.
All in all, it's a more pleasant experience, even considering the vagaries of weather.
“The business of America is business.”
In a nation of poorly educated, greedy, self-absorbed and self-serving citizens, Democracy loses some of its charm.
You voted to re-elect a president and party that clearly opposes the private sector and villifies it on a daily basis. This is the fruit. Hard to feel sorry for you, America.
“I wonder just how much decline for certain retailers could be associated with their location in enclosed shopping malls. I haven’t set foot in one for years. The parking is inconvenient and not everyone has the time or interest to run the gauntlet of a half mile or more to get what they’re there to buy.
Then, there’s the increasingly hostile bands of roving yutes inside, behaving territorially.
Maybe this is not the case in other parts of the country, but the era of the enclosed megamall seems to be drawing to a close, here. The flush of success and the crowds are in the “town center” style retail complexes. Park nearby, exterior ingress and egress, no bands of roving yutes behaving territorially.
All in all, it’s a more pleasant experience, even considering the vagaries of weather.”
I’m beginning my third year of not going into enclosed malls. Miserable selection of stores and miserable stock on hand combined with miserable clerks.
Our towncenter has been a flop. The orginal owner of the center would drive successful business out by tripling their rent or sometimes more. He has lot of younger generation relatives to support with jobs they are really miserable at.
Then, our left wing Nanny city council refuses to bring in good retail chain stores which have the resources to help keep them in business. So they keep selecting local left wing losers to open up cutsy left wing boutiques with terrible stocking and the worse managers/clerk they can find in the towncenter and the main street to get to and from the town center.
This past Christmas week, my wife didn’t believe me re the blight of closed stores. So I took her on a walk past the 20+ closed stores on the main street to the town center. In the town center where only a handful of merchants still surviving. These merchants have clean stores, mechandise that is current/fresh and not that available elsewhere. Usually the owners are there with long time employees.
My wife after seeing the blight, now believes me that the liberals controlling our city are killing it by only allowing their peers to open up a cutesy/guaranteed to fail business.
Our only Sears store is closing at the end of the month. The mall it’s in is becoming a ghost town.
For 40 of my 61 years, “going to the mall” ranked below “getting a root canal” on my Bottom 10 list.
Luckily my wife and kids buy my shirts, sweaters, socks, underwear and jackets. I make an annual trip (generally against my will) for new slacks and shoes.
Almost everything else (except groceries) is a click away on Amazon with flat-rate, unlimited annual shipping for $70 (and they toss in streaming video for free, too!).
“or 40 of my 61 years, “going to the mall” ranked below “getting a root canal” on my Bottom 10 list.”
BOL! At least with a root canal and a good oral surgeon, you are sedated, have something on board to numb and minimize any pain, and if lucky you got Versed to keep you from remembering the procedure.
For most of us that is not possible re Mall Trips.
And, like most men, when I do have to go to a mall I have a plan of action. I know what I want, find it, buy it, and get out as fast as humanly possible!
__________________
Ain’t that the truth? Made a bet with my ex-wife one time: we’d go shopping at our local Delvita (a now-defunct grocery chain here), and I’d have all the items in less than 10 minutes. Sure enough, when I’d gathered up everything, she was still deliberating over whether she wanted chocolate, strawberry or blueberry yogurt and which brand thereof.
I can honestly say I’ve never received a dirtier look in all my life than the one I got from her when I said, “Told you so.”
Let me tell you the quickest way to get service in a store, particularly a Pandora store around Christmas time when the "wait" is 2+ hours: CRUTCHES.
I broke my left foot on Dec. 19th. On the 21st my wife dropped my two sons and myself off at the mall to get a gift (she didn't know it was HER gift.)
While on crutches, it took me 15 minutes to traverse the mall finally making it to the Pandora store with my two sons. There was a 2+ hour wait, they were handing out numbers. The young lady who was giving out numbers saw I was on crutches, offered to get me a seat, then found the first available salesperson to take care of me and my two sons ahead of everyone else on the list.
Luckily, we knew exactly what we wanted and the entire purchase/transaction took less than 20 minutes. It took me another 15 minutes to hobble back across the mall to where the wife dropped us off so she could pick us up again. She was circling the mall parking lot, unable to find a parking spot it was so busy. (Orland Square Mall, Orland Park IL)
Lesson learned and note to self: Repeat "Crutches" next year for fastest service!
BTW: major KUDOS to the nice ladies at Pandora. Even though I told them I was fine with waiting like everyone else, they insisted on taking care of me first. I guess they didn't want to take any chances of me being bumped/further injured in their very crowded store.
I wonder about Amazon. Now that it is starting to collect taxes for some states, how long before it is for all states, and likely some BS federal Internet sales tax.
I'd rather pick up dog crap than go to a mall...
If it weren't for women who spend like government or drunken lotto winners and the slick shiny packaging designed to make chimps do backflips, they'd all go out of business.
I like walking around outside. Why would I go in an enclosed mall to buy someting unless I have to?
Some call it mindless consumerism.
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