US: Stores closings - road to hell

Micah

@Vitaliy_Kiselev You've hit the nail on the head. The credit industry is out of hand here. It's just one aspect of the financial industry, which has grown to be a gigantic parasitic tumor. Nothing but greed.

I remember when I worked retail how we were pushed to sign people up for credit cards as a sales technique. I rarely had the heart to push the cards. I remember the few times that people tried they always seemed poor and ignorant. It seemed likely they'd never pay it off and were being fooled by low/zero short term interest rates. The stuff we sold wasn't essentials either, I always wanted to tell people: hell, don't buy this crap on credit. Get something cheaper that you can actually afford. Or buy your kid some clothes or food instead.

I actually did well in sales, but I couldn't stomach it. I could see that the bottom was all going to drop out soon.

What scares me is that we haven't hit bottom yet. It's been a slow motion crash for the last ten years.

Actually, I worked a few years at Ritz stores in college.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

You've hit the nail on the head. The credit industry is out of hand here. It's just one aspect of the financial industry, which has grown to be a gigantic parasitic tumor. Nothing but greed.

Credit industry was temporary cure, do not work anymore. But worked as energy availability had been growing. If not credit it had been all over many years ago.

What scares me is that we haven't hit bottom yet. It's been a slow motion crash for the last ten years.

It won't be so slow motion as you think. SLow motion illusion is created because income is still pretty enough for all basic needs, as soon as value will hit basicneeds (income will be decreasing, cost of basic required products and services will be rising faster with each month) it'll become bad almost in instant.

tetakpatak

What scares me is that we haven't hit bottom yet. It's been a slow motion crash for the last ten years.

+1
IMO the sinking started long ago, big ships need longer time to sink. The global world economy was fatal error of the politics (and politicians) based on short term thinking.

Where we are now is nothing new, it is replay of the situation around 1900 when imperialism and monopolism destroyed world's economy.

Yet, ending of one means beginning of two- after the global economical crash of 2000ies humans can start again with preparing the next crash, likely in the 2100ies. Ha,ha,ha- homo sapiens is able to visit the shools and universities, but it is unable to learn.

ahbleza

So last weekend I met with many people who believe a crash is coming in the US economy (as part of making documentary about this.) Some of these people are using gold and silver in their trades, but increasing numbers are using Bitcoins. Does anyone here feel that Bitcoin could be a viable replacement for fiat currencies?

tetakpatak

@ahbleza buying a not-overpriced parcel of land is usually best idea. Alcohol and cigarettes are best money replacement for trade in the crisis

ahbleza

@tetakpatak Except you never really own land, since here in the USA, there is property tax which in some states is up to 4%. I like the idea of investing in distillation technology.... moonshine never goes out of style, although it might incur the wrath of the revenuers... :-)

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Some of these people are using gold and silver in their trades, but increasing numbers are using Bitcoins

People are making many very strange things :-)

Alcohol and cigarettes are best money replacement for trade in the crisis

This is much better proposal.

ppcroft

buying a not-overpriced parcel of land is usually best idea.

So true. So old age. You must be over 50 :D

Alcohol and cigarettes are best money replacement for trade in the crisis

Only where the crisis has made it difficult to source either.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

2015 and up store closings

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
50 Express (through 2015)
31 Frederick’s of Hollywood
50 Fresh & Easy Grocey Stores
14 Friendly’s
65 Future Shop (Best Buy Canada)
54 Golf Galaxy (by 2016)
50 Guess (through 2015)
26 Gymboree
40 JCPenney
127 Jones New York Outlet
10 Just Baked
28 Kate Spade Saturday & Jack Spade
14 Macy’s
400 Office Depot/Office Max (by 2016)
63 Pep Boys (“in the coming years”)
100 Pier One (by 2017)
20 Pick ’n Save (by 2017)
1,784 Radio Shack
13 Ruby Tuesday
77 Sears
10 SpartanNash Grocery Stores ** 55 Staples (2015)
133 Target, Canada (bankruptcy)
31 Tiger Direct
200 Walgreens (by 2017)
10 West Marine
338 Wet Seal

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/USRetailStoreClosingInfoFAQs/fl/All-2015-Store-Closings-Stores-Closed-by-US-Retail-Industry-Chains_4.htm

CFreak

"66 Bottom Dollar Food" I think they were bought out. They opened a new store in my town and it closed due to the buy out within 9 months. According to Wikipedia, they were bought by Aldi and will reopen 30 locations as Aldi and flip or sublet the rest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_Dollar_Food

HillTop1

Its amazing how the US is and has being an emerse target of how things are not going good here on PV which I don't dispute but you can't hear about Honduras or that part of the world or other countries which I know don't fair better or even worse. Smear campaign.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Its amazing how the US is and has being an emerse target of how things are not going good here on PV which I don't dispute but you can't hear about Russia or that part of the world or other countries which I know don't fair better or even worse.

You can turn your TV, find another site on or read newspaper for this :-)

Plus, anyone is interested in US. May be because of this:

Mistas

The chart is funny but meaningless. Why don't we announce seconds first, then minutes, then hour for time, if we follow the same logic? Anyone can make a point about anything by selecting facts that support the idea.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Why don't we announce seconds first, then minutes, then hour for time, if we follow the same logic? Anyone can make a point about anything by selecting facts that support the idea.

Yep. So, read, analyze and use your own head. Do not behave like 90% of population - monkeys with artificially inflated income.

robertGL

Went in best buy last week, and the employees seemed like a bunch of flunkies. Radio shack always had marked-up prices.. I worked at K-Mart as a teenager and it was hell on earth; there's no mystery as to why Wal Mart beat it senseless.

I do like Barnes and Noble, but I don't buy books so I rarely ever made purchases at it.

The fact is that those retailers never made competitive pricing, and if I'm staying away from them then I know lots of the public are staying away as well

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Went in best buy last week, and the employees seemed like a bunch of flunkies. Radio shack always had marked-up prices.. I worked at K-Mart as a teenager and it was hell on earth; there's no mystery as to why Wal Mart beat it senseless.

You can look at same thing from different perspective. If Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon show increased sales and profits this money came to them from someone. As data show no increase of median income, and inflation on healthcare, food, education and such are quite big - someone must suffer. Most of the time it is most weak and badly managed. But many times it is also hard working small retailers.

jleo

Best Buy is good because salespeople usually don't bug you. But if you want information about a product, don't ask anybody there, it's the Village of Dummies. Just go to the Apple section and look it up on the internet, or search on PV to see what members say about the product. :) Most stores like this are closing because people use them as showrooms for the internet: to test drive the product then go home to order on amazon or ebay etc.

In Canada, Future Shop ( owned by Best Buy ) just closed all stores as well as Sony. Target also closed all stores across Canada losing $7 billion. In the US target, the shelves are well stocked with a large choice of goods. But if you walked into a Canadian Target, entire shelves were empty for months. One package of bologna in a large cooler etc. worse than a North Korean supermarket!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-target-canada-idUSKBN0KO1HR20150115

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/future-shop-closures-reflect-changing-face-of-canadian-retail-1.3015266

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/retail-retreat-target-isnt-the-only-chain-closing-up-shop-in-canada/article22487550/

tosvus

A lot of closings seem related to chains that sucked, that are becoming irrelevant due to other competition, and sometime closing a location w low profit to open another one somewhere else. I like walgreens, but why do I have 5 (five) of them within 3 miles from my house?? There is simply too many retail places in some areas.

jleo

They seem to open a Walgreen's wherever there are a cluster of doctor's offices or a hospital, maybe so people can conveniently pick up prescriptions. I can walk in any direction and hit one within 4 to 20 blocks.

McDonalds has been downsizing for the past ten years, closing bigger restaurants and opening small take-out counters with fewer seats.

http://cok.net/blog/2015/04/mcdonalds-supersize-to-downsize/

jleo

Major U.S. Retailers Are Closing More Than 6,000 Stores

So why is this happening?

Without a doubt, Internet retailing is taking a huge toll on brick and mortar stores, and this is a trend that is not going to end any time soon.

But as Thad Beversdorf has pointed out, we have also seen a stunning decline in true discretionary consumer spending over the past six months…

What we find is that over the past 6 months we had a tremendous drop in true discretionary consumer spending. Within the overall downtrend we do see a bit of a rally in February but quite ominously that rally failed and the bottom absolutely fell out. Again the importance is it confirms the fundamental theory that consumer spending is showing the initial signs of a severe pull back. A worrying signal to be certain as we would expect this pull back to begin impacting other areas of consumer spending. The reason is that American consumers typically do not voluntarily pull back like that on spending but do so because they have run out of credit. And if credit is running thin it will surely be felt in all spending.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-02/major-us-retailers-are-closing-more-6000-stores

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@jleo

Link to source of this thing is few posts on top.

jleo

McDonalds To Close 700 Locations After Major Profit Losses

McDonald’s is experiencing a plummeting drop in profits due to stiff competition from healthier fast-food joints, more mindful consumers, and 'an overcomplicated menu,' according to Fortune.

http://ewao.com/a/1-mcdonalds-to-close-700-locations-after-major-profit-losses

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Birmingham-based Simply Fashion owners have announced the impending closure of 243 stores nationwide.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Macy's is closing 40 stores and cutting nearly 5,000 jobs nationwide after poor holiday sales.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on Friday announced plans to close 269 stores and lay off 16,000 employees, 6,000 of them outside the United States.

In a news release, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said it would close 154 stores in the United States and 115 others abroad, including dozens in Brazil that had recently stopped operating.

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