If we just keep pouring in more foreign nationals and others legally, while waving through endless waves of illegals, things should eventually improve.
Too many stores, too much clothing in people’s closets. Many people could last 20 years with the stuff they have.
also worthy of note is that people are buying stuff online
My take is that a lot of business and retail selling is done today in non-taxable ways via the black market, grey market, mobile food trucks that dodge taxes and so on.
Also uber and airbnb....taxes are not paid. IOW a lot of immigrants and liberals are going Galt
Many stores will be closing over the next two years. They are literally running on empty, if you go into most of them Monday thru Friday and often Sunday afternoons.
They cannot keep bleeding borrowed cash, even at the lower interest rates.
A lot of these are expensive clothing chains I shopped at during and after college. Now that I’m a bit older, I don’t care that my jeans aren’t Abercrombie. A lot of parents I know are scaling back on kids’ clothing.
There’s was a little store close to me that had been there for decades and I loved it. It sold make up, perfume, did facials, etc. They provided services you can’t buy online. The clients were upper middle class mostly. The owner had to declare bankruptcy a few months ago - and she cited a dwindling lack of disposable income.
Our taxes are too high in this state and everything going on is having a snowball effect on more than just the “poor”.
Hey, America, how’s that hope and change working out?
although the economy is not growing, a primary reason for the closings is over exhuberant expansion. Sales projections and growth based on over optimistic extrapolations resulted in unwarranted growth.
Is this “unexpected”?
I never shop at at any of those stores except Staples and Target. I’ve been to Macy’s once and was really disappointed in the low quality of the merchandise. As far as I’m concerned, these places deserve to die off.
Chains in the retail industry have to adjust occasionally.
Remember Ben Franklin 5 & Dimes? Woolco? Woolworth? A JC Penny on the square in every little town? The local Sears?
The inevitable result of corporate outsourcing, H1B visas and illegal invasions. All drive wages down, narrow the tax base and lower middle class median wage. So for the time being corporations maximize profits and the market irrationally soars until the middle class’ golden neck has been rung.
As any Russian will tell you, Marxism doesn’t work.
Thanks, Obama,for demonstrating that no one ever learns the lessons of history - especially ignorant, doctrinaire Democrats.
Excellent recovery, economy doing better than ever!!
/ end fed propaganda.
If the economy was as rosy as they claim, stores wouldn’t be closing.
Interesting list.
This recession was not caused by a decrease in the demand for products...but the influx of cheaper goods by 3rd world countries ...and then the exodus of American companies to those 3rd world markets to stay in business and compete with those 3rd world producers..not hampered by onerous EPA and other federal regulations.. not handicapped by our state and federal tax system and labor that wants a living wage ..
So there are no more middle class jobs to return to.. Even many semi skilled jobs that tried to retrain are gone.. there is no where for the uneducated or high school grad to go to be "middle class".. College grads are waiting tables now ...
Sorry but we have outsourced the American dream
ZeroHedge, where the Great Collapse is always just a day away but never comes.
6,000 stores out of how many total? How many are old stores that have been replaced by new ones in nearby locations? Yes, we have excess retail space. We also have MUCH higher internet sales. The market is adjusting, as always.
We’ve also been in a depression since 2008, this is to be expected. We will continue like this for close to 10 more years, get used to it.
But we won’t collapse, though it’s fine to prepare for that contingency. Just remember to prepare for “muddle through” also, which is much more likely.
If we just keep pouring in more foreign nationals and others legally, while waving through endless waves of illegals, things should eventually improve.