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A 'tsunami' of store closings expected to hit retail
CNBC ^ | 1/22/2014 | Krystina Gustafson

Posted on 01/22/2014 1:59:17 PM PST by EBH

Get ready for the next era in retail—one that will be characterized by far fewer shops and smaller stores.

On Tuesday, Sears said that it will shutter its flagship store in downtown Chicago in April. It's the latest of about 300 store closures in the U.S. that Sears has made since 2010. The news follows announcements earlier this month of multiple store closings from major department stores J.C. Penney and Macy's.

Further signs of cuts in the industry came Wednesday, when Target said that it will eliminate 475 jobs worldwide, including some at its Minnesota headquarters, and not fill 700 empty positions.

Experts said these headlines are only the tip of the iceberg for the industry, which is set to undergo a multiyear period of shuttering stores and trimming square footage.

Shoppers will likely see an average decrease in overall retail square footage of between one-third and one-half within the next five to 10 years, as a shift to e-commerce brings with it fewer mall visits and a lesser need to keep inventory stocked in-store, said Michael Burden, a principal with Excess Space Retail Services.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhoeconomy; chicago; christmasshopping; deflation; illinois; jcp; jcpenney; macys; minnesota; retail; retailstores; sears; serviceeconomy; storeclosings; target
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To: VideoPaul

Yeah; I mainly shop online and with a little research, the stuff at the mainstream stores are boring, repetitive, and are certainly not good quality.


41 posted on 01/22/2014 2:55:47 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: Not gonna take it anymore

There building the largest mall in Florida in Sarasota….I wonder if they can fill it??? Stores will probably close in the older malls


42 posted on 01/22/2014 2:59:59 PM PST by Hojczyk
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To: Not gonna take it anymore

“It was more expensive in the store and when I questioned the price I was told it cost too much to stock so that is why the price online is less. I did end up getting it for the online price but I had to push for it.”

Best Buy pretty much makes up random excuses about the pricing differential. They’ll also price match their own online prices, though they’ll often grouse about it.

Best bet at Best Buy is to walk in and ask right off the bat if they’ll price match their online prices without saying what you want to buy and look like you’re about to flee if they won’t. They’ve always matched when I’ve made that approach.

Actually, our Best Buy will price match ANY legitimate competitor’s price in their entertainment electronics area.


43 posted on 01/22/2014 3:01:05 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: EBH
Could it be that people except for those with no financial restraints are buying less stuff? Such a large percentage of ones income goes to things that have no substance....technology, insurance, paying off education loans etc. People aren't buying real physical books, movies, music. Many sold their jewelry to pay the bills. It's been written that many younger people aren't even interested in owning cars. The local businesses that are surviving are restaurants and grocery stores.

There's no reason to buy merchandise locally. Most of it is pawed over and in those large stores shopping isn't even fun. All of the merchandise is the same anyway, just with different labels. What's the point of having local merchandise if the stores don't sell unique hand-crafted merchandise that I can't get online?

44 posted on 01/22/2014 3:08:34 PM PST by grania
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To: EBH
...we already have 92 million Americans not in the workforce. That is nearly one third the population...by summer this country is going to be tearing itself apart.

Yeah, but look on the bright side.

The private patrol business is going to be booming as is the barrier/security wall building and gate construction business. Also, instead of hiring more union cops, you and your neighbors can patrol your own neighborhoods.

Who knows? Maybe the Committees of Vigilance will come back into fashion!

45 posted on 01/22/2014 3:11:50 PM PST by Gritty (Nobody wants to hear about American exceptionalism when the issue is American ineffectualism-MSteyn)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
There is more vacant retail space out there than we’re ever gonna fill again.

Yet they keep building more! I don't understand why you see so much new retail space being built and so much vacate retail space. What a waste of resources.

46 posted on 01/22/2014 3:14:42 PM PST by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: EBH

I noticed that since Xmas the local Barnes & Noble has stopped carrying a LOT of periodicals that I happen to like and would regularly buy from them.

They’re also dedicating a LOT more space to non-book items like toys and games.

I understand that the advent of eBooks, etc, has really messed with their business model. But I really lament that their business model drove all of the Mom&Pop newstands out of business (and I patronized those Mom&Pops up to the point where I could only find the magazines I was interested in elsewhere).

It’s probably too much to hope for a resurgence in the small and niche local retailer segment ...


47 posted on 01/22/2014 3:18:46 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: Lorianne

We’re just copying China’s ghost cities and keeping people working. Consider it the new ditch digger job!


48 posted on 01/22/2014 3:23:46 PM PST by EBH ( The Day of the Patriot has arrived.)
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To: tanknetter

I was at a Books a Million at Christmas and finding the actual BOOKS...was confusing to the say the least. Lots of toys and such for the kids. I recall pondering ...

Where did imagination go?


49 posted on 01/22/2014 3:25:36 PM PST by EBH ( The Day of the Patriot has arrived.)
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To: EBH

So much for the Consumer driven recovery. Because of ObamaCare, we have $8K less discretionary income this year.


50 posted on 01/22/2014 3:37:05 PM PST by griswold3 (Post-Christian America is living on borrowed moral heritage)
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To: martin_fierro
Walmart might be causing some distress on local grocery stores too. How in the heck can they make any money if someone orders 50 lbs of sugar with free shipping? They keep gradually adding more and more stuff at competitive prices that is eligible for free shipping. Either they got a purpose or they are stupid, and I doubt the latter.


51 posted on 01/22/2014 3:47:54 PM PST by Karl Spooner
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To: EBH
So much for the 'service economy!'

Retail is not the "service economy". It is a necessary part of the wealth-creating economy.

Retail creates wealth by storing inventory in quantities too large for the consumer. Its profit is made by permitting the consumer to buy what he needs when he wants without the expense of buying and storing pallets of it in a warehouse.

52 posted on 01/22/2014 4:07:22 PM PST by BfloGuy ( Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas.)
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To: EBH

Online shopping.


53 posted on 01/22/2014 4:08:25 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Viennacon

It started long ago but the acceleration is picking up. I truly believe that NOTHING short of divine intervention will stop a collapse of the US economy. I hope that I live long enough to see tar, feathers and gallows put to use.


54 posted on 01/22/2014 4:14:22 PM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: martin_fierro

“We can get you a chicom counterfeit for only 499.99... but no warranty and no paperwork”.


55 posted on 01/22/2014 4:15:43 PM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: EBH

Small business is dying... when it goes... everything collapses.


56 posted on 01/22/2014 4:16:38 PM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: EBH

The knockout game isn’t helping retail, either.


57 posted on 01/22/2014 4:20:30 PM PST by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: MrEdd
Yet just a few years ago, a majority of Freepers insisted that there wasn’t a real estate bubble. And it wasn’t going to pop...

I was one of them. I recall mocking ex-Texan as a doomsayer. In retrospect, he was a raging optimist, as things were worse than even he predicted.
58 posted on 01/22/2014 4:21:43 PM PST by A Balrog of Morgoth (QMC(SW) USN........ CG21 DD988 FFG34 PC6 ARS53)
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To: SandRat

The great irony being that Sears and Roebuck started as a mail order business, quickly becoming the Amazon of its day, with Montgomery Ward following suit.

In the mid to late sixties, when the enclosed shopping malls became the model, mall developers wooed the big department stores as the anchors, counting on that customer draw to feed the smaller. retail tenants. At one time the A&E firm I worked for designed these anchor store shells and cores. Base line time frame was ninety days or less from signing of contract to core and shell construction completion. By the early seventies the market saturation point had been reached and our company of four hundred was history. I had seen it coming and left six months before the collapse. The Macy’s, Gimbels, Sears, and Federated Stores were all over extended at that time and had been limping along since. A herd of aging and weakened elephants on a slow trek to oblivion.


59 posted on 01/22/2014 4:23:44 PM PST by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: EBH

I personally find some schadenfreude in the fact that the same big retail chains that had everything to do with starting the race to the bottom for the US labor market by pushing for free trade are now getting buggered themselves by etailers.

It’s no comfort at all in that the collapse of traditional retail is going to put a whole slew of people out of work. Without any real industry or wealth production to support the retail and housing booms, they were going to die-off sooner or later anyway.


60 posted on 01/22/2014 4:26:23 PM PST by CowboyJay (Cruz'-ing in 2016!)
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