Free Republic

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)On July 2nd, Target "respectfully" asked law-abiding citizens to "not bring firearms" in their stores. The department store chain did this via an announcement posted on its website and shared by interim CEO John Mulligan. The announcement says: As you've likely seen in the media, there's been a debate about whether guests in communities that permit "open carry" should be allowed to bring firearms into Target stores. Our approach has always been to follow local laws, and of course, we will continue to do so. But starting today we will respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target--even in...

During a meeting with analysts and investors on Wednesday, Advance Auto Parts executives were asked how many stores they expect to close as a result of the company's acquisition of Raleigh-based General Parts International. George Sherman, Advance Auto's president, said the company is consolidating 100 stores as part of a first round of closings. "There will be more going forward," he said. "We have to assess fully 1,200-plus stores across the country. There will be a large group of consolidations, but there will be a lot of conversations where we flip the banner and there will be some relocations." General...

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, recently decided to go into the newspaper editing business. The Arkansas-based company responded to an article from New York Times columnist Timothy Egan, titled “The Corporate Daddy” by doing the work that it felt Egan’s Times editors should have done. “Thanks for sharing your first draft,” reads a red-inked note from Walmart, which is known more for its low prices than its snark. “Below are a few thoughts to ensure something inaccurate doesn’t get published,” continued the note, which was posted at Walmart’s blog and is attributed to David Tovar, Walmart’s director of corporate communications....

I have never met David Tovar, Walmart’s vice president, corporate communications, but I’d like to shake his hand. In this brilliant response to a column by Timothy Egan of the New York Times, Mr. Tovar puts to shame the editors who worked on the Egan piece, literally taking a red pencil to the piece they deigned to publish, and showing them how to do their jobs.For example: As you can suss from this excerpt, the premise of the Egan column is that Starbucks (which dispenses expensive coffee to the type of people who work art the New York Times) is...

The accident that injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed a passenger on his limo bus was one of hundreds of crashes involving Walmart trucks in the past two years. Walmart trucks have been involved in 380 crashes in that time, federal data shows. Nine people have been killed; 129 have been injured.

Sears Holding Corp. will lay off 55 employees at its parts and distribution center in north Fort Worth as troubles keep mounting for Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer. In a letter under the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act (WARN) to the Texas Workforce Commission, the company said the employees will be laid off from its facility at 5001 N. Beach St., and that the eliminations are expected to be permanent. The terminations are expected to occur on or around June 29, the letter said. Sears said it will keep the Fort Worth facility open while reducing its staff. "These decisions...

May 26, 2014 - 06:47 AMBy: James Quinn The definition of death rattle is a sound often produced by someone who is near death when fluids such as saliva and bronchial secretions accumulate in the throat and upper chest. The person can’t swallow and emits a deepening wheezing sound as they gasp for breath. This can go on for two or three days before death relieves them of their misery. The American retail industry is emitting an unmistakable wheezing sound as a long slow painful death approaches. Death rattle It was exactly four months ago when I wrote THE RETAIL...

When I woke up to see the news, I could hardly believe it: President Obama is planning a visit to the Mountain View Wal-Mart where I work. But the excitement quickly passed when I found out the store would be shutting down hours in advance of his visit. I wouldn’t be able to tell the president what it’s like to work at Wal-Mart and what it’s like to struggle on low wages, without the hours I need. I am living at the center of the income inequality that he speaks about so often, and I wanted to talk to him...

NORFOLK, Va.—With J.C. Penney Co. and Sears Holdings Corp. racing to close stores, America's weakest malls are being pushed to the brink. Nearly half of the 1,050 indoor and open air malls in the U.S. have both of those struggling chains as anchor tenants, according to real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors. Of those malls, nearly a quarter are struggling with sales below $300 per square foot and vacancy rates above 20%, meaning they will have a hard time finding new tenants if old ones leave. For an already-weakened mall industry, the negative turn for two once-reliable anchors is promising...

Wayfair is an e-commerce site selling home furnishings. But with 1,600 employees, its physical presence is rapidly outgrowing its space in an obelisklike skyscraper in Boston’s Back Bay–which happens to be a former hub of the Christian Science church. Long gone are the white shag carpets, wood paneling and executive-floor elevators that once allowed church higher-ups to avoid hoi polloi. Flat-panel TVs on each of 12 floors beam not messages of faith healing but maps of the U.S. and Europe that light up whenever there’s a sale. Within seconds Katherine from Decatur, Tex. buys a $49 tungsten wedding ring, Jen...

Fresh government statistics reveal that two west Texas cities, Odessa and Midland, are leading the nation in income growth. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found between 2008 and 2012, while many cities saw significant decreases in personal income--Odessa and Midland led the nation with increases of 10.2 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. According to the data, traditional leading markets like Los Angeles see roughly 10 percent of the population often unable to find a job. Odessa and Midland have the opposite problem. "We have issues filling our jobs," Sara Higgins, a spokeswoman with the City of Midland, told Breitbart...

What a better way to celebrate the rigged markets that are telegraphing a "durable" recovery, than with a Credit Suisse report showing, beyond a reasonable doubt, that when it comes to traditional bricks and mortar retailers, who have now closed more stores, or over 2,400 units, so far in 2014 and well double the total amount of storefront closures in 2013, this year has been the worst year for conventional discretionary spending since the start of the great financial crisis!From Credit Suisse's Michael Exstein Since the start of 2014, retailers have announced the closure of more than 2,400 units,...

Did you know that Family Dollar is closing 370 stores? When I learned of this, I was quite stunned. I knew that retailers that serve the middle class were really struggling right now, but I had no idea that things had gotten so bad for low end stores like Family Dollar. In the post-2008 era, dollar stores had generally been one of the few bright spots in the retail industry. As millions of Americans fell out of the middle class, they were looking to stretch their family budgets as far as possible, and dollar stores helped them do that....

The rank-and-file retail workforce has never been through an employment drought like the kind seen in the past two years, outside of a recession or its immediate aftermath. While retail-industry woes are a regular news staple, the sector's addition of 308,000 nonmanagerial jobs from December 2011 to December 2013 — before severe winter weather began skewing economic data — has provided the appearance of a recovery in payrolls. Yet that increase was offset by a slide in the average workweek to 30 hours from 30.7 hours. In fact, total hours clocked by nonsupervisors didn't budge in that two-year span, Bureau...

Brick-and-mortar retailers have been suffering from slow economic activity for years, as well as from increased competition from online retailers. The rise in store closings is a prominent sign of their struggles. Weakened companies cannot afford the real estate and personnel costs that go along with supporting hundreds of unprofitable locations. The clearest proof of the problem was Radio ShackÂ’s recent decision to close more than 1,000 stores. Radio Shack is hardly alone. During that last several years Gap has closed 20% of its locations. Even MacyÂ’s, which has forecast strong earnings and is considered the most successful of the...

On February 27th, Gordon Brothers Group, a global advisory, restructuring and investment firm was awarded the store closing process for all locations by the bankruptcy court. Store closing sales will begin on March 1st and will involve significant discounts on all merchandise, as well as store furniture, fixtures and equipment in order to wind down company operations. “Our employees continue to do a tremendous job maintaining high quality standards and they are dedicated to fully serving our customers during this transition,” David Minnix, president of Dots, said. “We appreciate the continued support of our valued customers over the years and...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — Staples will close up to 225 stores in North America by the end of next year as it seeks to trim about $500 million in costs annually by 2015. The nation’s largest office-supply retailer said Thursday that nearly half of its sales are now generated online, so it will aggressively cut costs to become more efficient....

If the U.S. economy is getting better, then why are major retail chains closing thousands of stores? If we truly are in an "economic recovery", then why do sales figures continue to go down for large retailers all over the country? Without a doubt, the rise of Internet retailing giants such as Amazon.com have had a huge impact. Today, there are millions of Americans that actually prefer to shop online. Personally, when I published my novel I made it solely available on Amazon. But Internet shopping alone does not account for the great retail apocalypse that we are witnessing. In...

The first time I ever saw a Wal-Mart I was a grad student getting my MBA down in Tallahassee, FL. One opened up down the road from my apartment and I was immediately taken by the big bright stores with lots of stuff and what seemed to be pretty low prices. In class I learned the secrets to Wal-Mart’s success in its niche of “Always low prices”. It demanded efficiencies from its suppliers. It became fanatical about using information technology to optimize its sourcing and distribution channels. It paid its employees the community average or sometimes slightly more, but never...

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday after economic reports had more Americans than projected filing for jobless claims last week and retail sales unexpectedly falling in January. The Labor Department reported applications for unemployment benefits climbed by 8,000 to 339,000, higher than the 300,000 projected by economists. Separately, the Commerce Department reported retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month from December, versus expectations they would be flat.