Economy & financial crisis and store closings

[Zayre88]

Things are not looking good, the stock markets are shaky, credit is harder to get for people and companies, the housing market, recession fears and other news recently...

The economy might go really bad, even though it's not the time to panic, i think that the result of less spending will be many more store closings and maybe bankruptcy for retailers already in bad shape.  What are your predictions?  Discuss!

[Zayre88]

If things get worse, i think that Sears and Kmart will be the first major retailers to have to close stores, especially Kmart.  They might have to close Kmart all together.

Best Buy and Circuit City will probably have lower sales if people stop buying big ticket items (plasma TVs, home theatres, stailness steel appliances).  Although some might want to stop going to the movies and buy home entertainment.

Toys'r'us: families probably will spend less on toys and games and stick with what they already got.  They probably will close some stores.

Dollar stores and Wal-Mart will probably benefit from a downturn.

[NJxxJon]

blah blah plup blup blah! ...........this crap is getting old. I can't get a credit limit rise now either. And our board is BAM! woo...

[AmesNewington]

What a depressing thread. Can't we leave this alone for now? Ironically enough, since all of this mess started, no entire major store chain has shut down, only underperforming stores have closed and some have filed for Ch.11, but this happens all of the time, no matter the state of the stock market. Business failures are the fault of the business itself. The way people on the news and around the country are making it look, it would seem that every company will be forced to close and no one will have jobs. It's rather depressing and disgusting, because there has been recessions in the past, and I doubt there were this many crybabies as there are now. I have never seen such crap from the news media in my short life. Stock market down, oh now up, and down again, etc, etc.

If I hear the word (economy) one more time, I'll explode!!

[Zayre88]

Sorry you guys, i'm positive and i know that everything is not going bad.  But after you hear everything they say in the news, it looks depressing.  Everyday, they do open with a huge news about the stock markets down, it's normal these days but i think that if they keep saying that things are getting worse and worse, it may happen faster... :mad:

[powersbt]

Keep the thread going!! It's one of the most legitimate thoughts that I have seen on here in a while. As depressing as some may find it, it is the reality, and it is going to affect Retail.

[store215]

Circuit City is gonna be a goner after the holidays...their stock is worth almost nothing. There is no way they are going to be able to survive in their current condition.

Sears/Kmart is likely to go under soon too...unless they have more rounds of store closings and only keep their most profitable stores open.

FYE and Blockbuster seem unlikely to last too much long either.

Locally to me, sadly, I don't see Boscov's lasting too much longer. They are trying to sell off to an investment group, but even then, I don't see them sticking around.

Basically anything that is not Wal-Mart, dollar stores, Big Lots, etc.. are gonna see mass closings as people spend less and less money.  

At the mid-range department store level, Kohl's should be okay, but everyone else is in for a world of hurt.

[Zayre88]

October 9, 2008
Retailers' Sales Fall Sharply at Both High End and Low
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM - NY Times

Sales at some of the nation's best-known retailers fell by double digits in September, highlighting the rapid deterioration of the economy and raising fresh questions about how many of those chains can survive.

Retail analysts and executives said they had not seen such a rapid slowdown in consumer spending since the nation's last deep recession, in the early 1980s. Retail executives, though braced for bad news, were stunned at the magnitude of the drop-offs reported on Wednesday. Retailers high and low — like Nordstrom, J. C. Penney and Kohl's — lowered their earnings projections.

September sales for stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, a barometer of retail health, plunged 14.8 % at Stein Mart, an off-price department store. That chain, like many others, was already in trouble a year ago, but the drop-off last September was only 9.1 %.

Sales at Dillard's dropped 12 %, compared with a 7 % decline last year. J. C. Penney's same-store sales fell 12.4 %, compared with a decline of 3.7 percent for the period a year ago. Sales at Kohl's decreased 5.5 %, compared with a 3.2 % decrease last year.

At Bon-Ton Stores, same-store sales decreased 4.6 %, and they declined 3 % at Target.

The sales results laid to rest any lingering notion that the nation's luxury retailers might be impervious to the downturn. Same-store sales in the specialty retail segment of Neiman Marcus, which includes Neiman Marcus Stores and Bergdorf Goodman, tumbled 15.8%. Saks's same-store sales sank 10.9 % and Nordstrom's were down 9.6 %.

Dean Hillier, a partner and a retail specialist with A. T. Kearney, a management consultant, said the Christmas shopping season "could quite frankly be one of the worst we've seen in 25 years."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/09retail.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&adxnnlx=1223899910-o+chnHr195k3rbaTjtARPw

[Zayre88]

Circuit City shares climb on store closure report
By ASHLEY M. HEHER – 15 hours ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Shares of beleaguered electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. rose Monday after a report said the chain may close at least 20 percent of its stores to shore up its finances and avoid filing for bankruptcy protection.

Citing "several people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal said the nation's second-largest consumer electronics chain was considering closing at least 150 locations and slashing thousands of jobs to avert a Chapter 11 filing.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQTl1Ofp_57K7dcnar357VWmsCCgD93UF38G0

[Zayre88]

Linens'n Things Going out of Business Sales Begin Friday, Oct.17

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Oct 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Linens-N-Things store closing sales begin on Friday, October 17, at the remaining 371 stores in 48 states. Over $1 billion of high quality, name brand home furnishings will be sold at discounts up to 30%.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/linens-n-things-going-out-business-sales/story.aspx?guid=%7BD746DD47-53F4-4B4E-A978-8BE10F58B0FC%7D&dist=hppr

[Lastdaysofrain]

Kmart near me (Somerville, MA) which is always usually the busiest KMart I've been in just cut back their hours.  I'm guessing that's a sign.

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by MBZ321
Circuit City is gonna be a goner after the holidays...their stock is worth almost nothing. There is no way they are going to be able to survive in their current condition.

Sears/Kmart is likely to go under soon too...unless they have more rounds of store closings and only keep their most profitable stores open.

FYE and Blockbuster seem unlikely to last too much long either.

Locally to me, sadly, I don't see Boscov's lasting too much longer. They are trying to sell off to an investment group, but even then, I don't see them sticking around.

Basically anything that is not Wal-Mart, dollar stores, Big Lots, etc.. are gonna see mass closings as people spend less and less money.  

At the mid-range department store level, Kohl's should be okay, but everyone else is in for a world of hurt.

you forgot to add target they wont go anywere anytime soon

[KmartDanny09]

Originally posted by Lastdaysofrain
Kmart near me (Somerville, MA) which is always usually the busiest KMart I've been in just cut back their hours.  I'm guessing that's a sign.

According to an internal-memo, the hour cutbacks are company-wide. Stores normally close at 10:00pm will close at 9 with 8 being the quitting time for Sundays, the pharmacy will not open.

The reasoning is that by cutting back the final hour more employees will be available during the day. Usually, a normal Kmart schedule has 2 cashiers, 2 hardlines associates, and 2 softlines associates. By having the closing an hour-earlier, an additional associate can be added to the register and a go-between for hardlines/softlines.

Normally, a Kmart crew will take an hour to straighten the store for business the next day. With more people at closing time, corporate hopes that this can be reduced to a half-hour. Other factors included 'engery-savings' for having 50% of the lights off an hour earlier for evening clean-up and 80% of them after the evening crew leaves.

[d_fife]

Originally posted by KmartDanny09

Originally posted by Lastdaysofrain
Kmart near me (Somerville, MA) which is always usually the busiest KMart I've been in just cut back their hours.  I'm guessing that's a sign.

According to an internal-memo, the hour cutbacks are company-wide. Stores normally close at 10:00pm will close at 9 with 8 being the quitting time for Sundays, the pharmacy will not open.

The reasoning is that by cutting back the final hour more employees will be available during the day. Usually, a normal Kmart schedule has 2 cashiers, 2 hardlines associates, and 2 softlines associates. By having the closing an hour-earlier, an additional associate can be added to the register and a go-between for hardlines/softlines.

Normally, a Kmart crew will take an hour to straighten the store for business the next day. With more people at closing time, corporate hopes that this can be reduced to a half-hour. Other factors included 'engery-savings' for having 50% of the lights off an hour earlier for evening clean-up and 80% of them after the evening crew leaves.

all Kmarts are cuting back on hours from OCtober 12 to November 12 or 15th.

[Zayre88]

Best Buy cuts fiscal 2009 profit outlook
By ASHLEY M. HEHER – 6 hours ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Best Buy Co. Inc. rattled investors Wednesday, warning that an already grim holiday shopping season that's expected to be the worst in decades might be getting worse.

Days after its rival Circuit City filed for bankruptcy protection, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain dramatically cut its fiscal 2009 earnings outlook and said it was being hammered by the worst retail environment the 42-year-old company has yet to endure.

"Rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we've ever seen," Chief Executive Brad Anderson said in a statement. "Best Buy simply can't adjust fast enough to maintain our earnings momentum for this year."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWb7jZm0GdS1wZGyRLt_b3ZJDtHQD94DJN500

[CTAmeshopper]

it's a chain reaction: economy gets bad--->people don't shop as much as before--->more vulnerable chains start closing stores.