Posted on 04/21/2020 11:58:55 AM PDT by NRx
American department stores, once all-powerful shopping meccas that anchored malls and Main Streets across the country, have been dealt blow after blow in the past decade. J.C. Penney and Sears were upended by hedge funds. Macy’s has been closing stores and cutting corporate staff. Barneys New York filed for bankruptcy last year.
But nothing compares to the shock the weakened industry has taken from the coronavirus pandemic. The sales of clothing and accessories fell by more than half in March, a trend that is expected to only get worse in April. The entire executive team at Lord & Taylor was let go this month. Nordstrom has canceled orders and put off paying its vendors. The Neiman Marcus Group, the most glittering of the American department store chains, is expected to declare bankruptcy in the coming days, the first major retailer felled during the current crisis.
It is not likely to be the last.
“The department stores, which have been failing slowly for a very long time, really don’t get over this,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Business School. “The genre is toast, and looking at the other side of this, there are very few who are likely to survive.”
At a time when retailers should be putting in orders for the all-important holiday shopping season, stores are furloughing tens of thousands of corporate and store employees, hoarding cash and desperately planning how to survive this crisis. The specter of mass default is being discussed not just behind closed doors but in analysts’ future models. Whether or not that happens, no one doubts that the upheaval caused by the pandemic will permanently alter both the retail landscape and the relationships of brands with the stores that sell them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I expect Sears to go first, with Costco picking over the few good bits.
Good. One less place to see a million foreigners that were never invited to be here.
What the minimum wage continued, WuFlu will finish off...
Meanwhile, Macy’s is looking for rescue financing and Kaiser Wilhelm is talking about cancelling Macy’s annual 4th of July fireworks show.
There’s going to be lots of hyper-pissed, depressed, anxious, suicidal, homicidal, broke etc people out there...lots and lots.
Nothing new - anyone else remember Woolworth’s or Monkey Ward’s?
Brick and mortar chains and malls are dying. Have been for 20 years
The minimum wage has nothing to do with this. LOL.
The mall nearest me had a Macy’s, Penny’s, and Nordstrom’s. All closed last year. The nearest Sears store also closed last year. I no longer have anywhere to buy clothes, so I’ve been walking around nude for the last month. Fortunately, because of social distancing, no one has noticed.
Never met a payroll, have you?
Whoever’s licensed for BSA/GSA apparel will be safe for now.
Lehman Marcus went bankrupt last week or so.
Needless Mark-up.
Last week I picked up 200 shares of JC Penney at $.32. If they can limp on, perhaps I’ll make a little bit of money. If not, not too much lost
I am college educated and as such I have always worked for large corporations or entities. I could never become so boorish to then be able run a "small" minded business. I mean who grows up wanting to buy from A, mark it up 20% and try to sucker sell it to B. When it sits around on the shelf to long dust it off mark it down 10% and then B buys it.
I mean retail it is positively stultifying.
And that's unfortunate. I don't like shopping online. You can't try on clothing or shoes through the computer screen and whatever you order online may be stolen by porch pirates.
Dollar General has replaced Woolworths.
Shoes and work boots I have to try on.
Clothes are simple in my case. I wear usually jeans, cargo shorts, sometimes khaki pants, polo style shirts, and New Balance shoes.
Eventually, I will have to look for a good suit or two just to have. I have a lot of suits and jackets that don’t fit and barely worn. At some point, I will mass purge the closet.
Fitting for a good suit will take a store visit.
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