I’ve seen a couple of articles questioning the earlier linked to story about retail store closings. Prior to posting, I checked both Snopes and cherry-picked Google News and Trends to check the veracity of the stores mentioned. Like Snopes, I am confident that it is at least partially true, with the caveat that the list was drawn up in April 2008, and most likely will contain more stores and locations by the time the year ends.
The theme is further reinforced by sources in this article referencing consumer spending declines and reports of declining chain-store sales. In fact, a quick search of “the Security Exchange” [sic], otherwise known as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for “store closing” in corporate filings brings up several recent, relevant hits.
A quick skim of Google News mentions the bankruptcy of Boscov, Value City, and National Wholesale Liquidators. Further, there are store closing mentioned for Circuit City, Mervyn’s, Linen & Things, Saks Club Libby Liu, Sears, and Tweeter. Restaurants are failing as well, led by Bennigans.
A retail environment where Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Saks, and scores of others are all reporting sales declines in same-store-sales does not bode well for the future, with some analysts predicting thousands of closings yet to come. Simply put, we aren’t going to learn more until we get a feel for how the remainder of the Christmas season, starting with Black Friday, and ending approximately a week or two into January, to know what the future holds. It doesn’t look pretty.
Tags: bennigans, boscovs, Circuit City, linen & things, mervyns, national wholesale liquidators, retail, saks, Sears, snopes, store closing, Target, tweeter, value city
