1. Best Buy
2. Sears
3. J.C. Penny
4. Office Depot
5. Barnes and Noble
6. Gamestop
7. Office Max
8. Radio Shack
1. Crappy shopping experiences turn off customers?
2. Getting creamed by the Internet?
3. All of the Above?
Wow. If this is true, our local mall will be decimated.
I’ve actually been surprised Sears has lasted as long as it has. Except for tools (which probably is what keeps it afloat) everything else is sub-par quality (selling the same crap they do in K-Mart) the stores always seem empty and many times they occupy very high rent-space.
Radio Shack — such a weird store. I can never just go in and look around and figure out what I need. They think customer service is pouncing on a customer and badgering him.
The Amazon effect coupled with poor service of the retailer. In ten years Amazon or operations like it will dominate the retail market. Ops like Home Depot will survive because some stuff you need now, same thing with Staples, but big purchase appliances,electrics, computers will all be from an Amazon type op. Exceptions exist. In the NYC area P.C. Richard prospers because of competitive pricing, excellent support, and sales guys who are old school. Here on L.I we also have a couple of independent retailers who prosper for the same reasons.
A local Mall has been a ghost town for years and has lost even more productive stores over the last 4 years. There’s a Pennys on one end and a Sears on the other with a lot of vacant slots in between - even Chik-Filet closed up last year. It looks like Wal-Mart is going to take up a big chunk of it with a new super store and it might breathe some life into the remaining merchants by getting some folks (other than those who use it as a walking track) into the facility. I know one guy who had a coffee/pastry shop and had to move out because they wanted too much for rent (trying to soak remaining businesses to make up for all the empty places). He moved back in recently because the other location is suffering the same economic woes and the Mall lowered its rates to try to keep what merchants it has. He’s about to fold for lack of business. I was in the Mall last week (getting over Flu and wanted a climate-controlled place to walk in) and even at 2 PM it was a ghost town.
Gamestop???
Noooooooo!
Can’t happen. I’ve got direct deposit there.
The only one I really like is Barnes and Noble, even though it is a lefty outfit. They can’t control all the content, and they do sell conservative authors, although it pains them. I love it when I plop a Coulter, Levin or Steyn book at the checkout.... lol
Hey, I just got a job at Best Buy. I’m going to live the high life now.
Say, what?!?
Why is that in the article about bad economic news?
When in a few months ago. Saw that they were pushing something that they called "Born this way".
Thought about it and decided I would go to Staples instead.
Yes, it might not have been what I thought it was but just the name was enough to turn me off.
Thanks to the economic situation coupled with the recent graduation of low end H.S. students that know nothing of value and character is going to sink other clothing and food retailer chains as well...
Of course there are adults that are employees there - supervisors and others - but the core work force out young undereducated to past standard graduates that think more about tweeting than they do about churning out a competitive product...this is society as it grows from what was a minority 30 yrs ago - to what it has become today as a direct product of our educational, entertainment, and lack values throughout society in the US....
Reminds me of the late 70’s early 80’s.
“Strip malls” were a relatively new phenomenon, and there were dozens of empty stores that folded or never opened.
It wasn’t until Reaganomics kicked in that stores proliferated again.
Let’s see, who was president in the late 70’s? Oh, that’s right, Jimmy Carter. And who is president now?
Both lefty libs, huh. Whaddyaknow.
Took a job last year with Sears (NJ) out of desperation after the company I was with for 15 years went belly up. It was one of their Home Appliance showrooms. They seemed to want to give good service, and expected a great amount of work of us for the possibility of big sales. As much as they had good intentions, we as salespeople still had to deal with Sears customer service, and got the runaround just as much as the poor customer. 3 different agents, 3 different answers, and most often none of them were correct. You had to pray as a salesperson that things went right after the customer placed the order. If things didn’t go textbook, the poor customer was put through hell. Basically, no ability for them to think outside the box. Diversity seemed to be their biggest concern, not the quality of the service. Pure torture as a commissioned associate, as when Sears service and installation caused the customer to cancel their order out of frustration, it came back out of my commission check. I’m so thankful I was able to get out of there and started a great job in Dec.
Big K Mart has shut two stores around our area recently. There are only two that I can think of around the counties near here now.
Lots of people aren't going to be happy when Amazon's showroom closes their doors. Where else will they be able to play with the latest electronic gadgets before placing their order on Amazon?
My last three significant appliance purchases were at Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot.
To my surprise, I had no problems at Best Buy, but the shopping experience sucks (throbbing rap music fills the store).
Lowe’s was impressive, OK on price, outstanding on service.
Home Depot sucked. Even the employee that I dealt with agreed. Defective returns go right back on the shelf waiting for another sucker to come along.
My friend bought appliances from Sears, and had a lot of trouble with the appliances themselves, and with his treatment by the store. He will never make that mistake again.
Any Sears store is relentless in asking for a phone number, and offering various charge accounts and credit cards (with a $15 discount) every time you buy something. It’s annoying, as is waiting at the counter forever waiting for someone to take your money, when there are store employees standing around doing nothing.
Radio Shack is useless. My local store had some sort of transsexual working there, which made the experience interesting, to say the least. He was friendly and helpful, though. At least they have gotten past the demand for a name and address on every little purchase. That annoyance kept me out of the store for years and years.