Free Republic

Retailers across New York state say there’s no end in sight to the rising epidemic of organized shoplifting rings — and warn it could lead to more store closures, increased costs for consumers and threats of violence against store employees. Store owners said they lost $4.4 billion last year as a result of retail theft — which they say adds to the urgency for Gov. Kathy Hochul to crack down. However, Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill last week — to the chagrin of store owners — that would have created a task force to combat organized theft. ... The Retail...

The first nine months of 2023 have seen big-name retailers including David’s Bridal, Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City file for bankruptcy. And more could be on the way. An illustration of people walking by closing sale signs. Already in 2023, David’s Bridal, Party City and Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy. Yujin Kim/Retail DiveMoody’s Investors Service in July said defaults in retail and apparel would continue to rise, jumping from 6% to 8.6% in the following 12 months as weakening consumer spending and high product, labor and freight costs weigh on businesses. And in a Sept. 20...

The East Village has gone south. Residents and retailers in the liberal Manhattan bastion are fed up with its ever-growing population of unhinged vagrants, random street crime — and the city’s laissez-faire attitude toward both. The Ninth Precinct, which spans from East 14th Street to Houston Street, has seen an 17% spike in felony assault, an 7% jump in rape, and a 7% increase in grand larceny auto so far this year when compared 2022’s year-to-date numbers, police data shows.

Retailers abandon downtown San Francisco in droves. Nordstrom is the latest, signaling the death of the area. .... Nordstrom closes two stores and Saks Off 5th says goodbye as well. ... Walgreens and Whole Foods Leave ... San Francisco’s Dying Downtown The San Francisco Standard says Nordstrom’s Exit From San Francisco Calls Downtown Mall’s Future Into Question The Nordstrom at Westfield will close at the end of August, the company confirmed on Tuesday. The retailer’s exit will leave a gaping vacancy that could be very difficult to fill: the store sprawls across 312,000 square feet and five floors. A Nordstrom...

Members of the Arizona House of Representatives on both sides of the political aisle came together to pass a bill aimed at protecting the ability of Arizonans to use cash for retail transactions. HB 2555 passed with wide bipartisan support, on a 52-8 vote. The bill requires retail businesses to be willing to accept cash as a form of payment for goods and services with a total value of up to $100. HB 2555 now moves to the Senate for consideration. “People rely on using cash for transactions,” said the bill’s sponsor Representative Chaplik. “As of 2021, FDIC data estimates...

A nationwide shoplifting epidemic is crippling the finances of brick-and-mortar retailers, who warn that they may be forced to raise prices or even shutter stores in order to offset tens of billions of dollars in lost inventory. The National Retail Foundation is estimating that it lost $94.5 billion last year due to “shrink” — an industry term that means lost inventory — which is being blamed primarily on shoplifting, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s are among retailers that have recently said they are canceling some orders to better balance inventory levels, a replay of a strategy used at the start of the pandemic. Other steps retailers are using to clear inventories as spending has slowed on some non-discretionary categories are employing markdowns and packing away products for the following year. The elevated inventory levels also reflect intentional over-buying to mitigate shortages and the easing of supply chain constraints. One risk of canceling orders is straining or damaging relationships with trading partners. After the pandemic arrived, many retailers were called...

Though consumers are being hammered by price inflation at gas stations and grocery stores, they may be surprised by what they find at electronics, clothing, furniture and appliance stores. Swamped by excess inventory, many major retailers are offering big-time discounts on a variety of consumer goods. One such retailer is Target, which has twice cut its profitability outlook in recent weeks. In its June 7 warning, Target projected its second-quarter operating margin would be roughly 2%, well less than half the 5.3% the company projected in May. At the same time, Target said it was “planning several actions in the...

The Biden-Harris administration on Monday opened an investigation into retailers, and not itself, to scrutinize the supply chain crisis. The probe is a repeated strategy from November when the administration opened a Department of Justice probe into oil companies for allegedly “gouging people.” The investigations into private companies is an Obama-era tactic deployed to displace blame on failed administrative policies to the private sector.

With global container shipping rates hitting never before seen levels amid a historic global scramble to secure good and inventory…… suppliers to Walmart, Target, Amazon.com and other major retailers told Reuters they are placing holiday orders for Chinese-made merchandise weeks much earlier this year, as a global shipping backlog threatens to leave many gift buyers empty-handed this Christmas shopping season. Reuters surveyed nearly a dozen suppliers and retailers of everything from toys to computer equipment in the United States and Europe. All expect weeks-long delays in holiday inventory due to shipping bottlenecks, including a global container shortage and the recent...

Texas and Mississippi followed Florida’s lead this week and announced they would lift key business restrictions and end statewide mask mandates, but many popular retailers plan to continue requiring customers to wear face coverings in their stores.

J. Crew is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as this weekend after struggling to stay afloat as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which put added strain on its already fraught books. According to CNBC, the filing could come as early as this weekend. The company, which is privately owned, is seeking $400million in financing to try to keep going in bankruptcy. J. Crew was already struggling financially when the pandemic hit, forcing retailers to close their stores around the world.

A handful of large American retail companies are changing their gun sales policies in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., shooting that took the lives of 17 people. Dick’s Sporting Goods The nation’s largest outdoor sports retailer announced Wednesday that it will no longer sell AR-15 style rifles like the one Cruz used in the Florida shooting. The company also said it will not sell guns to anyone under the age of 21-years-old. “As we sat and talked about it with our management team, it was — to a person — that this is what we need to do,” Dick’s...

With more than half of 2017 still ahead, the retail industry is seeing a record-setting pace for bankruptcy filings and store closings — and more are expected in the not too distant future, despite what most consider a healthy consumer. This tipping point for retail is the result of a number of compounding reasons, but the inability to pay looming, massive debt bills is dealing the final death blow to many. More online shopping Yes, more shopping is shifting online in general, and to Amazon specifically, as in-store shopping traffic and sales trends fall for many retailers and shopping...

vAmazon giveth, and Amazon taketh. The giant internet retailer said on April 27 that it will create 2,000 full-time jobs by opening two more fulfillment centers in New Jersey. One will be a 600,000-square-foot facility in Florence, Burlington County, generating 500 new jobs. The other will be an 800,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Carteret, Middlesex County, that will generate about 1,500 jobs. Together, the two facilities will bring Amazon's total physical footprint in the Garden State to 2.5 million square feet of space, if you count three existing centers. The irony is that Amazon made the announcement the day after a...

You’ll never hear the Obama administration pass on an opportunity to gloat about the miracles they think they’ve managed to pull off over the past seven years to get America’s economy back on track. The only problem with that is, it’s not remotely true. Somehow, the spin doctors at the White House always manage to cherry pick rare instances of economic improvement and turn them into something much bigger. If you want a real indication of how President Barack Obama’s economy is fairing, just look to a recent report that shows a coming “retail apocalypse,” with major retailers across the...

In order to provide additional and enhanced credit card protection for consumers, credit card companies will soon implement new rules that will change the way credit and debit card transactions will be processed. All major credit card companies are issuing new EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) cards or “smart cards” that contain embedded microchips that provide transaction security features and other capabilities not possible with current, traditional, magnetic stripe cards. (Note: Smart cards are not new. They have been around a long time and most of the world has already migrated to EMV technology. The United States is one of...

RICHMOND — A state report linking Virginia cigarette smuggling to terrorist organizations has prompted a Republican state senator to push a bill that would require retailers and wholesalers to obtain a state license to sell cigarettes. The bill, from Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spottsylvania), has cleared the Senate, but odds are against it in the GOP-dominated House because of conservative objections to increased government regulations and taxes. Even in the more moderate Senate, eight conservative Republicans voted against it. They are a group that Reeves, a fiscal and social conservative, often votes with. “I think they are concerned about regulatory...

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.” ? Mark Twain. I never believe government manufactured numbers. They will always be adjusted, massaged, and manipulated to achieve a happy ending for the propagandists attempting to control and fleece the sheep. Yesterday, the government produced retail sales numbers for August that were weak and the corporate MSM propaganda machine immediately threw up bold headlines declaring how strong these numbers were. Positive stories were published on the interwebs and Wall Street hack economists were rolled out on CNBC, where the bubble headed bimbos and prostitutes for the status quo like Jim Cramer...

Brick-and-mortar retailers have been suffering from slow economic activity for years, as well as from increased competition from online retailers. The rise in store closings is a prominent sign of their struggles. Weakened companies cannot afford the real estate and personnel costs that go along with supporting hundreds of unprofitable locations. The clearest proof of the problem was Radio ShackÂ’s recent decision to close more than 1,000 stores. Radio Shack is hardly alone. During that last several years Gap has closed 20% of its locations. Even MacyÂ’s, which has forecast strong earnings and is considered the most successful of the...