Posted on 04/15/2017 4:03:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
From rural strip-malls to Manhattan’s avenues, it has been a disastrous two years for retail.
There have been nine retail bankruptcies in 2017—as many as all of 2016. J.C. Penney, RadioShack, Macy’s, and Sears have each announced more than 100 store closures. Sports Authority has liquidated, and Payless has filed for bankruptcy. Last week, several apparel companies’ stocks hit new multi-year lows, including Lululemon, Urban Outfitters, and American Eagle, and Ralph Lauren announced that it is closing its flagship Polo store on Fifth Avenue, one of several brands to abandon that iconic thoroughfare.
A deep recession might explain an extinction-level event for large retailers. But GDP has been growing for eight straight years, gas prices are low, unemployment is under 5 percent, and the last 18 months have been quietly excellent years for wage growth, particularly for middle- and lower-income Americans.
So, what the heck is going on? The reality is that overall retail spending continues to grow steadily, if a little meagerly. But several trends—including the rise of e-commerce, the over-supply of malls, and the surprising effects of a restaurant renaissance—have conspired to change the face of American shopping....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
So you were after a luxury fly swatter with a velveteen grip?
One should never settle for a mid level fly swatter.
Life is too short for that.
Yep.. Definitely. And $70 cotton tee-shirts (JCrew, etc.). And maybe a little bit of burn out. I know I have felt, especially lately, that every season, be it Christmas or Easter, or Spring, or whatever, is thrown at us so fast that there is no recoup time in between. I’m just baked from too many years of that.
It's online shopping. Period.
For the record, I DON'T blame Obama
Maybe it accelerated under his watch, but he didn't "cause" it.
Ask yourself: "What would make me go back and shop at a mall?".
While the quick and easy answer is online shopping, my wife is a real shopper, and she makes very good points about why retailers are having problems.
1. The selections are terrible and completely out of season. They are doing swimsuits in January in Ohio, heavy coats in August. Her appraisal of places like Sears and Nordstroms is very low.
2. There is very little help and almost no one to take your money in these stores. Countless times I’ve gone into a Kohls and had to run all over the store to find a register open. Just try to find someone to ask a question.
3. While online is convenient IF you know exactly what you want and are sure of the size, in both men’s and women’s clothes, sizes don’t mean much. I’ve gone into a dressing room with 3-4 different pants the same exact size. Some fit, some are way too small, some are too big.
4. Texture: even if you can see what you want on line, you never really know how something feels till you try it on.
My point is, these stores are having trouble, not because there isn’t a demand for them, but because they are performing badly as a business.
If I go to a mall twice in a year, it’s a lot. I can recall going once in the last year, and the place was all but deserted.
I think you responded to the wrong person.....
I never mentioned Obama or causing it....
I buy my wine from two sources now: my local winery, and online from my favorite winery in Germany. Even with shipping, I’m paying about 40% of retail, and they ship to my door. Both wineries have award winning wines, and they’re both very customer friendly.
“Buy a clue idiots!”
Haha. You’re the one living in Alaska.
Walmart on-line is excellent. Skip the store with its 3rd world customers & employees and shop on line with them.
Twenty-five years ago if you went to twenty stores looking for a backpack or a notebook or a set of kitchen pans you would see thirteen or fourteen different styles made by various brands to choose from. Now you may see three brands.
You have to go online for product differentiation.
Corporate calls all the shots that’s why customer service is so very bad. The managers and retail associates cannot do anything; their hands are tied. It’s also why I only bank with local banks now that have the owners and managers working in them every day.
Ever go into Barnes & Noble and see “Employee Recommendations” on some books? Nope. It’s Corporate makes those fake recommendations - the booksellers have nothing to do with it.
Deep state cooking the books to make Trump look bad.
Obama weaponized every facet of government just like IRS, EPA, and Justice.
In this case, it was something that the online site said was supposed to be in the store. Oh, well.
Eight years of economic depression will be the reason for the current retail blow out.
Duh level analysis way over the head of the author.
FREE SHIPPING.
I shop for very little in clothes. For years I’ve bought my underwear at Walmart. I see their Hanes underwear has gone up 25% since I last purchased it: $16.95 for six. I don’t think Goodwill sells underwear.
The last two orders we placed through Amazon were screwed up. One never shipped the product and the other shipped the wrong product. From here out, I am going to shop online at the company that offers the product, not Amazon. Amazon is great for cheap Kindle books.
We spend money at the grocery store, the post office, the pharmacy, doctors’ offices, the dentist, and a variety of hardware stores for the things that we need. No more going out to dinner and spending on things that are not necessities.
Interesting post
In Maryland:
Columbia mega Mall is struggling, Sears, Macys, plus ~ 10 empty store fronts.
Towson and Anne Arundel mega malls seem fine.
Absolutely mobbed with people. No abandoned store fronts.
I should have been more clear.
I'm just weary of everything being "Trump's Fault".
It's becoming very tiresome hearing it every single day.
” But GDP has been growing for eight straight years, gas prices are low, unemployment is under 5 percent, and the last 18 months have been quietly excellent years for wage growth, particularly for middle- and lower-income Americans.”
None of this is true. It’s all right up there with “shovel ready jobs.” People were laid off employment and couldn’t find jobs. When they no longer were illegible to continue collecting unemployment, they drop out of the statistics entirely so the unemployment rolls are laughably inaccurate. GDP was likewise fictional. Obama undermined every possibility of economic recovery and we were in free fall. It’s against the MSM’s religious principles to accurately reveal what Obama did to the economy or that we just can’t snap out of it as quickly as we’d like.
Quality in clothing, shoes, textiles of every description - it all went downhill. And then the magazines and online stores took over.
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