Twelve Major Brands That Will Disappear

http://247wallst.com/2009/04/15/twelve-major-brands-that-will-disappear/ ^

[FromLori]

A number of well-known brands disappeared in the last year in large part due to economic forces. Many of them were in the retail industry, led by Circuit City. ATA and Aloha airlines are gone. Gateway Computers has effectively disappeared after being bought by Acer. It still has a website, but the brand is no longer marketed.

As the recession deepens and stretches out quarter after quarter, more companies will close or will shut divisions. More brands will disappear because their parents firms fold or can no longer afford to support them. Other brands will be obliterated by mergers.

24/7 Wall St. examined 100 large brands that are facing troubled futures. The analysis included records for those brands that are public companies or part of public companies. We considered sales information, information from industry experts, and brand histories. We also looked at the level of competition in each brand’s market and the extent to which that competition is growing. We examined the likelihood that a brand could be sold or spun off in cases where parent companies are in financial trouble.

We have compiled a list of 12 brands that will we believe will not survive until the end of next year. Each brand and the major reasons for its demise are listed along with some of the public information 24/7 Wall St. examined.

1. Avis/Budget (CAR) operates two car rental businesses. The primary competition

[Spktyr]

What they’re already doing - shopping online and in other stores.

Gap/Old Navy/BR are considered “old people’s stores” now. Old to the teens, that is.

[Rebelbase]

“You can buy look-a-likes at Walmart for $5, so why buy genuine Crocs for $20? “

My kid’s mom bought them Birkenstocks for $125/pair last week. I’ve had a pair of knockoffs I bought at Walmart for $5 two seasons ago, can’t tell the difference between them from 2 feet away.

[Rastus]

I’ve done around 200 eBay deals and have been ripped off twice. The first time, a guy charged me $7 for shipping and used the cheapest media mail shipping that came to about $1.75. The second time, I sent a money order and never got the $56 item. It turns out he ripped off a lot of people. He listed several items (”too good to be true” deals), didn’t send them out, and closed his account right then. He was basically raising some quick Christmas money. I never got any satisfaction from that one.

[OrangeHoof]

I read a column similar to this that predicted the demise of Star*ucks. I’m disappointed they didn’t make the list here too.

[TSgt]

My neighbor works for Home Depot. While I don’t want him to lose his job I know from the stories that he tells me that the company is horribly mismanaged.

And Lowes is just better.

[starlifter]

Regrettably HD is the Wal-Mart of big box home stores. They decided to buy all the merchandise they could from China, gleefully trading price for quality. So today they basically sell crap - and apparently less than they used to.

[neb52]

Starbucks isn’t going anywhere. They will defiantly shrink back to realistic store numbers and hopefully go back to being just a coffee shop, but the coffee shop hangout has become ingrained into the populace. In fact I think what will happen and what is best is that the outside eateries options will shrink to high class restaurants, coffee shops and 24/7 dinners. All the other restaurants were replacement excuses for the lazy that didn’t want to cook lunch and dinner. The exception that of the gaggle of restaurants that depend on touristy type places.

[reformedliberal]

Pick and choose what you buy on eBay. You _can_ use a cc on Paypal, but a Paypal account has a guarantee and will refund your money from a bad seller. I just had an item I paid for from another website become unavailable. The seller refunded my Paypal account instantly once they knew they could not get the item. The only potentially weak aspect of Paypal is it must link to a bank account. The solution is set up a checking account just for that and always keep the balance as low as possible. You can set up that account with a debit card attached, fund the account when you need to make a purchase on the net and be assured that only that amount is even available. The debit card works online just like a credit card.

I buy and sell on eBay. Just last week, I looked at an item on Amazon and balked at the postage and price. Went to eBay, found a better version, more for less and free shipping. It shipped at the package rate and I got it in a week instead of 3 days with USPS Priority. I usually avoid foreign sellers and don't ship out of the US, but that is just me and my dislike of paperwork. I have many friends who do both and are happy with their transaction.

A note on postage: on eBay and my own website, the postage is set at a flat rate above the cost of the postage. Reason 1) it takes time and materials to pack an item. Packing tape, for example, has become quite expensive. Reason 2) while shipment within a few hundred miles may be under $4, the same package from the center of the country to either coast can be $9+ for the 2-pound rate. I would rather lose a sale than show a loss on the time and materials, but that's just me. I never understood the concept of making up a loss with volume.

I have bought on eBay for over 10 years and never had a rip-off. I buy Amazon all the time, but I check all aspects of the sale and compare around the net, first. Often, with books, I get free shipping and with genre fiction and some other items, I often get 4 for the price of 3. Saves time, saves gas, usually saves money. You have a choice on Amazon, usually. Either you buy from them or you can choose to buy from an individual who has an Amazon store.

I have sold on eBay, off and on, for 3 years or so. You must make sure as a seller, to account for fees and packaging or you are wasting your time.

My husband won't use Paypal because of the checking account requirement. So what does he do? He asks me to buy the item for him or he uses a credit card through Paypal. I have to add that while I signed up for Paypal in 2000, I did not have the account verified until last year when eBay mandated Paypal. I have a Premier account, so I can sell as well as buy. I prefer it to using a credit card. As a merchant, I pay 1.69% for a Paypal transaction and 5% if the customer uses a credit card. But I have no statement fee, no other fees, no security requirement fees and no cancellation or inactivity fees. I no longer have a merchant credit account and I am saving money.

[ottbmare]

Since Home Depot forced the real local hardware stores and lumberyards out of business, I wonder where we are supposed to get stuff once HD closes. Not Lowe’s, that’s for sure—they don’t stock the stuff you really need, but just curtains and rugs and a few odds-and-ends that suburban homeowners need for some cosmetic fixes. If I need a hundred yards of Romex or a big serious masonry drill, they are sure not going to have it.

[kalee]

Another recent list said Krispy Kreme. I think KK may just go back to being a regional favorite, fine with me...I live in the region. ;)
I order most books through Amazon, but I often stop at Borders and pick up something spur of the moment when I don’t want to wait for Amazon to ship lol and I’m a member of the Amazon second day shipping club. I prefer Borders to B&N or Books a Million.

[Maceman]

There are more than a few senior people in the banking industry that think the Citi brand will disappear. I know because I have been speaking with them in connection with a professional project I have been working on for the past several weeks.

[Coldwater Creek]

Have you tried to find a fabric store lately?

Almost nonexistent.

But! One can find the labels that you mentioned at a ton of thrift stores, many times with the tags still on.

[commish]

I have had well over 100 EBay deals and only one “more or less” ripoff — I say more or less because in the end I came out ok.

Bought an Aeron Chair (Best desk chair ever made IMO) for $650. Never recieved the chair, could not get EBay person to resond. Was one of 12 that didn’t get chairs. Protested to Pay Pal and got about half the money back throgh thier protection with a promise I would get the rest when/if they collected it.

Well, it turns out it wasn’t a true ripoff. The guy had bought a shipment of chairs and only recieved half of them, but had already sold all of them on EBAy. He panicked and didn’t explain what happened (Dumb ass) because he had used the money already to pay off debt and for Christmas (the chair was my Christmas present).

Well, long story short, 6 months later the chair I ordered shows up at my door out of the blue, and the guy never asked for any of the payment back. While I had to wait 6 months, I ended up getting a $900 chair for $300.

[uncitizen]

I liked Architectural Digest. Subscribed to it for years. But who has the disposal income for magazines or for decorating their homes anymore?

[Petronski]

I don’t think Old Navy will disappear, but I can certainly see them curtailing/eliminating their brick and mortar positions and going all on-line and/or becoming a kind of brand or line inside the Gap.

[CholeraJoe]

I haven’t shopped at Home Depot in years. The two stores in town are dirty, poorly stocked and poorly staffed. I can shop on line at Lowes and 2 hours later my order is ready for pick up at my local store. If something has to be special ordered, the Pick up desk calls me when it’s ready.

[Non-Sequitur]

It still ticks me off the way libs demonize Wal-Mart, saying that it kills downtown businesses. There may be a kernel of truth in that, but Amazon.com is slowly murdering the entire retail book industry. Forget mom-and-pop stores, whole chains are going south. Any anti-corporate union-thug types boycotting it? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

The glimmer of light in this may be that if Amazon kills off the two major chains then the mom and pop book stores may make a comeback and cater to the niche market that prefers sitting and reading before buying.

[this_ol_patriot]

I want to thank you guys and gals that answered it helps.

I've bought many times from retail establishments that have an online presence like B&H Photo, Dell, Circuit City, Best Buy, FarmTek, Springhill etc. but never from an online only retailer. I like to know there is a place I can point the Attorney General to if I get ripped.

But my main concern was Borders. I buy almost all of my books, DVD’s and CD’s as impulse buys well kind of, I usually have a mind to spend some money on something when I go there. I like to browse the store, find something interesting and buy it.

Online just doesn't have the same feel for those things. I would probably just do without rather than buy without the pleasure of the hunt.

My kids buy online all the time, they never hit the stores but I guess I'm an old fart set in my ways.

[AFreeBird]

Where did you see HD in the article?

[mad_as_he$$]

Lowes around here is infinitely better stocked than HD, cleaner and better organized too. At HD you have to know where what you are looking for is or spend 20 minutes looking for an employee. HD went to c$ap when all the GE guys came in.