Posted on 05/03/2015 4:02:11 PM PDT by dennisw
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
If the U.S. economy really is improving, then why are big U.S. retailers permanently shutting down thousands of stores? The “retail apocalypse” that I have written about so frequently appears to be accelerating. As you will see below, major U.S. retailers have announced that they are closing more than 6,000 locations, but economic conditions in this country are still fairly stable. So if this is happening already, what are things going to look like once the next recession strikes? For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the U.S. economy, and I still feel that way. And since I started The Economic Collapse Blog at the end of 2009, I have never seen as many indications that we are headed into another major economic downturn as I do right now. If retailers are closing this many stores already, what are our malls and shopping centers going to look like a few years from now?
The list below comes from information compiled by About.com, but I have only included major retailers that have announced plans to close at least 10 stores. Most of these closures will take place this year, but in some instances the closures are scheduled to be phased in over a number of years. As you can see, the number of stores that are being permanently shut down is absolutely staggering…
The truth is that middle class U.S. consumers are tapped out. Most families are just scraping by financially from month to month. For most Americans, there simply is not a whole lot of extra money left over to go shopping with these days.
In fact, at this point approximately one out of every four Americans spend at least half of their incomes just on rent…
More than one in four Americans are spending at least half of their family income on rent – leaving little money left to purchase groceries, buy clothing or put gas in the car, new figures have revealed.
A staggering 11.25 million households consume 50 percent or more of their income on housing and utilities, according to an analysis of Census data by nonprofit firm, Enterprise Community Partners.
And 1.8 million of these households spend at least 70 percent of their paychecks on rent.
The surging cost of rental housing has affected a rising number of families since the Great Recession hit in 2007. Officials define housing costs in excess of 30 percent of income as burdensome.
For decades, the U.S. economy was powered by a free spending middle class that had plenty of discretionary income to throw around. But now that the middle class is being systematically destroyed, that paradigm is changing. Americans families simply do not have the same resources that they once did, and that spells big trouble for retailers.
As you read this article, the United States still has more retail space per person than any other nation on the planet. But as stores close by the thousands, “space available” signs are going to be popping up everywhere.
closing:
180 Abercrombie & Fitch (by 2015)
75 Aeropostale (through January 2015)
150 American Eagle Outfitters (through 2017)
223 Barnes & Noble (through 2023)
265 Body Central / Body Shop
66 Bottom Dollar Food
25 Build-A-Bear (through 2015)
32 C. Wonder
21 Cache
120 Chico’s (through 2017)
200 Children’s Place (through 2017)
17 Christopher & Banks
70 Coach (fiscal 2015)
70 Coco’s /Carrows
300 Deb Shops
92 Delia’s
340 Dollar Tree/Family Dollar
39 Einstein Bros. Bagels
(more at source)
55 Staples. They always seem empty.
lol. They were going to put post offices into them. How dang stupid are people in charge of the Post Office. Keep the Post Office as is because it is fine. In fact besides being required by the Constitution, they will be the only thing left standing because of their incredible requirement of paying for future retirees. Good for them although stupid to put post offices in Stables.
The only brick and mortar stores I shop at now is the local grocery stores, Wal-Mart for food and some DIY building supplies and our local Hardware store, And occasionally Lowes for DIY stuff and Sam's Club for food.
Clothes, computer stuff, ebooks, movies, shoes and all of my gift giving purchases are done online.
And lately more and more of my DIY supplies is getting bought online.
AT least part of what he is saying is just stupid. He sites 400 Office Depot/Office Max store closings without bothering to mention that the merger of the two companies has meant consolidation of stores in areas where there is duplication....That is not necessarily an indicator of a down turn
I give what extra cash to my adult children to help with the grandchildren.
I know many who do because they have it very hard to make ends meat due to jobs.
Excellent observation. Time was, you could literally order a house from the Sears catalog. It was the pre-tech, paper precursor of Amazon before there was an Amazon.
How times change.
“Build A Bear?”
It’s a design your own teddy bear store. My GF’s grand nephew at 5 years old was terrified of the place.
Such is life in the retail biz. As populations shift and change, stores close and new ones open. Except that the “new ones open” part of the equation has been stymied by the Obola economy and the rise of online shopping.
Why should I buy a book at Barnes & Noble when I can get it cheaper (including shipping) on Amazon? Ditto that for many other items, plus gas prices and the ghettoization of many big city malls and you have more and more people shopping by mouse and touch.
Traditional clothes shopping will be the last thing to die out completely other than grocery shopping - too many people have to try on before they buy. Whoever figures out a way to do that online (maybe by a precisely sized model avatar?) will be the next internet billionaire. Once clothing goes, retail is finished (along with a whole crapton of jobs, especially for young people).
I hate to admit it but if Amazon went under I would be lost. I buy all my clothes through them and shoes (though I don't buy clothes or shoes except when the wear our.) Also computer stuff and I get all my ebooks from them for my Kindle/Fire Phone. We have Amzon Prime and watch their movies and listen to all that great music. I even buy seeds for my garden from them with free points from bing rewards and all the other rewards deals that give Amazon gift cards.
I hope they stay in business because I have no idea how to replace all the things they do for me.
Belk is trying to find a buyer, they have over 300 stores in 16 states.
Their biggest problem is they went on a huge buying spree over the past 20 years trying to buy up the competition.
Then they jumped off into wasting millions on totally meaningless promotions like musical contests.
Instead of just keeping their main thing their main thing.
I knew they had jumped the shark when they got involved in the democratic national convention in Charlotte by giving free makeovers to leftist delegates.
In some ways yes but not this one. What you are experiencing is the blurring of boundaries between "drug stores" and "grocery stores" and "dollar stores" and who knows what else. We are well into an era where everybody carries most of everything, but nobody carries absolutely everything. A friend of mine bought some very nice china recently, at a lawn and garden store. They had nice clothes too, although she wasn't there for clothes. You can still buy matches and watchbands, just at a different store.
Not hard to understand at all. Internet sales obviously have a better profit margin than brick and mortar stores can return. If things continue, they may close a bunch of stores as well, while earning good profits.
Actually Millenials are larger then Baby Boomers. We are having tons of kids right now. Will that last? Who knows.
“Good news, 2016 is coming.”
Bad news, Obama is still the POTUS until 20 Jan 2017.
They forgot one store...CVS in Baltimore.
Didn’t think about eBay. Will try them. Staples does deliver at no extra cost and usually the day after we order so we generally wait until we are really low on something. Tried printer ink at one of those places that sells refilled cartridges. Initially was great and saved a lot but the last time we ordered none of the cartridges worked so waste of money.
Baby Boomers are in their 60s and some of them have already died.
I use certain cartridges for my printer. Over $100 apiece at Staples; found three of them (name brand and unopened) for less than $150 on eBay. That included shipping. Office liquidation or whatever. Well worth a search. Happy hunting!
Costco has very good prices on office supplies. Can order on line. Shipping is free or very inexpensive.
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