It's a symptom of the dying middle class.
Nearly all of those stores take up huge footprints in malls, yet get little traffic save for walk-thrus (at least from what I see & do). Can’t possibly maintain such inventory & footage without major traffic, all of which seems keen on going to the boutiques instead of buying similar-priced meh-fashion goods.
The rest of the stores are old high-profile retailers: not the giant square footage, but old enough to have their “cool” rooted in customers’ grandparents’ eras. Their day is passing.
So yeah, if you cherry-pick stores generations past their prime, you’ll have a list of businesses coming to their natural end.
One word:
E-Commerce
Although a lot of this is due to the online retail trend, it is still alarming to see such stalwart institutions shuttering so many stores.
But even giant Montgomery Ward closed in better times.
I don’t see how retail stores stay open. The amount of regulation, taxes, liability, theft, employees, stock on hand, utilities, rent, etc etc one requires makes it unlikely that you could ever compete with online retailers who have the product delivered to your door usually at a lower price. You have to pay all of that even when you are not profitable in the store.
It appears that online retailers have all the advantages.
Lots of people go to stores to look at things then buy them for the best prices on the Internet because money is so tight.
The local gun shops are doing real well. ;) Just saying...
I’ve been predicting the collapse of a lot of malls since 2007. It took long enough...
One word. “Amazon”.
I was surprised by the empty spaces on the shelves in a recent Walmart visit. The only area that seems to be improving is ammo; some areas such as electronics seem to be maintaining stock, pet food stocks were down, with decreased variety in the pet area, and some of the food areas were in need of re-stocking, while produce has been re-arranged to put less in a larger area.
Despite my comments about electronics, they didn’t have what I wanted, and I ended up going to Best Buy, another dying chain where selection is down, but they had what I needed.
Real estate TAXES make brick and mortar expensive. Failed governments need those taxes to pay their bloated welfare benefits and lavish retirement to public workers.
he’s saying that a big store has purposefully not stock shelves so rural people can’t get supplies?.....sounds ridiculous but who knows....maybe part of the big “plan”....
Why fight traffic, smelly people, lines, surly clerks and high prices?
This guy is talking about grocery stores. Maybe it's different in VA but I just shopped for groceries yesterday after church and the shelves were all fully stocked. And I'm as good a judge as the guy quoted, I have 15 year experience in retail store management and as a widower I do all my own shopping.
This is from Steve Quayle, the guy who thinks that ‘transhumans’ and robots are going to team up and do the Illuminati’s dirty work by killing off 90% of the human race.
Jeremiah Johnson made his way into the mountains
Bettin' on forgettin' all the troubles that he knew
The trail was wide and narrow
And the eagle or the sparrow
Showed the path he was to follow as they flew.
A mountain man's a lonely man
And he leaves a life behind
It ought to have been different, but oftimes you will find,
That the story doesn't always go that way you had in mind.
Jeremiah's story was that kind. . .
Jeremiah's story was that kind.
The way that you wander
Is the way that you choose
The day that you tarry
is the day that you lose.
Sunshine or thunder, a man will always wonder. Where the fair wind blows.
An Indian says you search in vain
For what you cannot find.
He says you'll find a thousand ways
For runnin' down your time.
An Indian didn't scream it
He said it in a song.
And he's never been known to be wrong.
He's never been known to be wrong.
.
And some folks say...He's up there still.
Part of the problem early in the year is people are paying into their deducible. My family has to pay $2,000 before the health insurance kicks in and mine is a good policy. So that is $2,000 less I have to spend in the first quarter that 5 years ago I had no deducible. To me it is easy to see why the first half of the year is slow.
Supposedly where we live is one of the better financial areas.
We started seeing an interesting trend last November, the lack of shoppers a few days before the normal paydays of the 1st and the 15th of the month. Besides less shoppers, there is less traffic around the shopping areas.
Last Thursday, we did our monthly Costco shopping trip. There were no lines at the Costco gas station, and we pulled up to a pump at 10:30 am. Then, we went into the main Costco parking lot and there were parking places everywhere, no need to circle or head a quarter of a mile away to get a parking place.
The only crowds in the store were at the food sample areas, a lot more than we normally see. Customers were doing some real chowing down at the free sample stands.
When we finished shopping, we walked up to an open cash register and checked out with no waiting.
Then, we did our monthly semi junk food stop at the local Popeyes. Again no parking problems and we walked right up to the order counter and placed our order. There was a handful of customers versus a normal full house with customers waiting to place their orders.
On the way home, instead of getting stopped at traffic lights due to heavy traffic, we made it home with only one red light out of 20 something traffic lights due to the light traffic.
There was a similar lack of customers at Raleys and Walmart when we finished our shopping on the next day, Friday. We walked up to the cash registers with no one standing in line ahead of us.
The above is not scientific and is only our observation in one market area. Our unscientific observation is that many people are not shopping until paydays. Maybe they are maxed out on their credit cards before and after Christmas.
I have noticed empty shells as well - I took it to mean stores are doing Just In Time inventory and no longer keeping a lot of stock at their warehouses. Also, I noticed a reduced number of name brands at stores. Many brands that were well established no longer can be easily found except online for me.
Prices have skyrocketed in the last 8 yrs.. but you can get incredible saving shopping online.