50,000 U.S. STORES COULD CLOSE NEXT YEAR, EXPERT SAYS

[larsonstdoc]

http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=1096115


NEW YORK -- Retailers will face a Darwinian fight for survival next year as they run out of cash as early as January and competition forces thousands of store closings, according to private-equity buyers and restructuring experts.

Probably 50,000 stores could close without any effect on consumer choice, Gregory Segall, a managing partner at buyout firm Versa Capital Management Inc., said earlier this month during a panel discussion.

"The United States is massively over-stored in all categories," Mr. Segall said. He said his firm is in "a wait mode" and he expects banks to squeeze retailers after Jan. 1.

Plunging home prices, rising unemployment and tightening credit have led consumers to rein in spending, resulting in what may be the worst holiday season in at least four decades. Macy's Inc., Kohl's Corp. and other retailers have marked down items 50% to lure customers, eroding margins at a time when store owners hope to make a third or more of their annual profit.

Only retailers with healthy balance sheets will survive the recession, said Matthew Katz, a managing director at consulting firm AlixPartners LLP.

"This is a very Darwinian time," Mr. Katz said.

At least a dozen U.S. retailers have entered bankruptcy this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Circuit City Stores Inc. and Boscov's Inc. have said they will reorganize and leave court protection as smaller chains, while Linens ‘n Things Inc., Sharper Image Corp., and Value City Department Stores LLC all plan to liquidate.

There are some "fires that need to be left to burn" in retail, Mr. Segall said. "At the moment we think it's a time for a very cautious approach."

Increases in consumer confidence, reductions in credit spreads and a lower jobless rate would be indicators that the retail sector is beginning to turn around, panelists said.

"Americans are inherently optimistic," said Cathy Leonhardt, a managing director at boutique investment firm Peter J. Solomon Co. "And when the credit markets open back up, and they will, our optimism comes back."

The Standard & Poor's 500 Retailing Index had shed 29% by mid-December, with only three of its 27 members posting gains. The index doesn't include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, which had climbed 16%.

While Wal-Mart will continue to be important, smaller specialty stores are returning, said James Schaye, chief executive officer of Hudson Capital Partners LLC. The liquidation firm's clients have included Kmart and Linens ‘n Things.

"People are going back to the one, or two, or three-store chains," he said. "People are getting a little tired of going to the mall and buying all the same thing."

Overall, the retail market will get tougher starting next month as banks start to see all "the messes that have been left to fester," Versa's Mr. Segall said. With the turmoil in the financial sector, banks have been focused inwardly for the past few months and that will change come January, he said.

There are also some perfectly healthy companies trading at distressed values, according to Leonhardt at Peter J. Solomon.

"For acquirers, this is an unprecedented period," she said.

[iamc]

Your post is all to true..and America will not wake up until it is starving!
( thanks  )
...waste not ! want not!..as the saying goes...

[Xill]

But how can this be??? The TV said the bailout would save us all!

[thadividedsky]

50,000? that's it? Talk about conservative. All around me, I see establishments I grew up going to closing down. Last month I volunteered along with 10 other people to go all the way to northern mass to collect about $2 mill worth of rebuilt calipers. My company forgave the debt the company had with us in exchange for the brake parts. The auctioneer who supervised the clean-out by us said in his 40 years in the bankruptcy liquidation/auctioneering business, it has never been so busy. The caliper company, C&W calipers, was open for about 35 years and suddenly closed. I'm lucky to even get the overtime, workin 60 hours with no heat and this horrible black dust for a few weeks was pushin it for me, but it was worth the money. I have friends who auction assets from foreclosed homes and according to them, things are getting a whole bunch worse. I might go into that part-time since they're hiring as many people as they can because of the volume. So yeah MSM, keep on being conservative with the 50,000 stores. IMO, I see about 160,000 retailers closing. Everything from pet stores to jewelers, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see wal-mart close a whole bunch of stores.

[Monkeypox]

Hmmm, so it's OK for unprofitable retailers to go out of business, but we must bail-out unprofitable banks and brokerage houses and car companies?

 

[plantop14]

Hmmm, so it's OK for unprofitable retailers to go out of business, but we must bail-out unprofitable banks and brokerage houses and car companies?

 

F--k yeah pox and you better pay your debts, you get no bailout, you better thank your lucky stars that they even allow you to breathe, oh, and only after you pay your Gore tax (CO2) of course!!!!

[larsonstdoc]

50,000? that's it? Talk about conservative. All around me, I see establishments I grew up going to closing down. Last month I volunteered along with 10 other people to go all the way to northern mass to collect about $2 mill worth of rebuilt calipers. My company forgave the debt the company had with us in exchange for the brake parts. The auctioneer who supervised the clean-out by us said in his 40 years in the bankruptcy liquidation/auctioneering business, it has never been so busy. The caliper company, C&W calipers, was open for about 35 years and suddenly closed. I'm lucky to even get the overtime, workin 60 hours with no heat and this horrible black dust for a few weeks was pushin it for me, but it was worth the money. I have friends who auction assets from foreclosed homes and according to them, things are getting a whole bunch worse. I might go into that part-time since they're hiring as many people as they can because of the volume. So yeah MSM, keep on being conservative with the 50,000 stores. IMO, I see about 160,000 retailers closing. Everything from pet stores to jewelers, I wouldn't be all that surprised to see wal-mart close a whole bunch of stores.

 Agreed.  It's probably closer to 500,000 than 50,000.  Things are bad, really bad.

[OldSchool]

And why the hell is Walmart doing so great, being a NWO establishment and all. I avoid that place like the plague. They have literally killed small business and the mom n' pop businesses. I think it's high time we shut that nazi corporation down too. If Walmart and Target vanish, a much more stable economy can flourish.

[angndon]

And why the hell is Walmart doing so great, being a NWO establishment and all. I avoid that place like the plague. They have literally killed small business and the mom n' pop businesses. I think it's high time we shut that nazi corporation down too. If Walmart and Target vanish, a much more stable economy can flourish.

Not only have the killed mom and pop biz but they have killed the quality of products they sell by demanding manufacturers produce the items for pennies....resulting in poor quality and toxic ingredients from china!

[OldSchool]

Not only have the killed mom and pop biz but they have killed the quality of products they sell by demanding manufacturers produce the items for pennies....resulting in poor quality and toxic ingredients from china!

And that whole brainwashing session every day before work, and pushing stocks on their employees. Surveillance everywhere but the commode. That place is insane! It's like a rothschild empire 

[plantop14]

Not only have the killed mom and pop biz but they have killed the quality of products they sell by demanding manufacturers produce the items for pennies....resulting in poor quality and toxic ingredients from china!

You are f--king right there, I've got 7 kids, 6 at home and any damn clothing you buy from them for the kids just falls apart at the seams, and I mean literally at the seams!!!!!

[Revolt426]

Darwanian my ass. A business with a pristine balance sheet could go under just because a bank refuses a loan now. This is Corperatism, Mousilini style. They are going to keep the stores they want in business and let the rest collapse, just like the banking system. Half the banks in the country will collapse next year as well - unless they do their job and pass a f**king law to put the Derivative casino into bankruptcy and wipe out all the fictional funny money debts.

[OldSchool]

Yeppir, and we can consider that when martial law is called, the military will have supply huts in every city 
 Get your stockpile going now, cuz when the SHTF, you won't be "popping over to Walmart for bread and an oil change".

[BlackPowderBill]

But how can this be??? The TV said the bailout would save us all!

 LMAO now that was a funny one.
 
 A guy at work today said the same thing, I told him yes the goverment told all of us that. But it was really a pay off for the banks and investors.

 This month Backwoods Home magazine has an article by John Silveira.
 He starts with Jimmy Carter and the Community Reinvestiment Act. This is the program I've mentioned to people but could not remember the exact details.

 ACORN was birthed because of the CRA, they were the ones who threatened and sued banks for not granting loans to those who could not afford them.

 Stores closing; WOW~ in NY I've driven through small towns where all but a do-dads & nick nacks store, chinese food and pizza shop were the only shops open, out of say, a dozen store fronts.
 Most of the stores closing in 2009 were already on their way out.
 Now that the people have seen their tax dollars go "POOF" maybe they will wake up and only buy essentials.

 Now that 2008 has been the year of the bail-out look who else is asking.


http://blog.retailtrafficmag.com/retail_traffic_court/2008/12/23/retailers-want-a-bailout-too/
TrafficCourt
Industry news, views and occasional strange stuff.
Contributor
 David Bodamer
David Bodamer has been Editor-in-Chief since May 2006. Prior to that, he served as Managing Editor. Before joining Retail Traffic, Bodamer served as associate editor and senior associate editor for Commercial...more Retailers Want a Bailout Too
David Bodamer December 23rd, 2008
First commercial real estate groups ask for a bailout. Now retailers want in on the action and are asking for a sales tax holiday.

Facing a disastrous holiday shopping season, the retail industry on Tuesday urged President-elect Barack Obama to incorporate three national tax-free shopping holidays in 2009.

The group wants the measure to be included in Obama’s stimulus efforts.

“The situation is critical,” the National Retail Federation (NRF) wrote in a letter to Obama. “In October, consumer confidence was at its lowest level in the 41 years. We urge you to act quickly on legislation to help stimulate consumer spending as one of the first priorities of your new administration,” the NRF said.

So far, most of the ideas under consideration as part of the stimulus package vary widely, but do not include a plan for a tax holiday.





 

[rawiron1]

I'm in on the online dating scene.  I see more and more chics with no car and no job listed on their profiles.  Both of these are deal breakers for me.  Of course, if I was smart I would go after these ones.  They need a meal ticket.  I got your meal ticket right here!  LOL!  But I'm not like that.

Jason

[vcif]

And why the hell is Walmart doing so great, being a NWO establishment and all. I avoid that place like the plague. They have literally killed small business and the mom n' pop businesses. I think it's high time we shut that nazi corporation down too. If Walmart and Target vanish, a much more stable economy can flourish.

LOL! Fantastically ironic! Of course, borne of complete ignorance.

Nazi Party Platform
"16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality."

Other translations call them "department stores"

You are promulgating NAZI ideas and principles by calling for the closure of Walmart/Target.

Wake up, smell the coffee burning. The almost identical economic problems we have today resulted in many good people voting in that madman. Now YOU are repeating history by falling into the same trap.

[OldSchool]

LOL! Fantastically ironic! Of course, borne of complete ignorance.

Nazi Party Platform
"16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality."

Other translations call them "department stores"

You are promulgating NAZI ideas and principles by calling for the closure of Walmart/Target.

Wake up, smell the coffee burning. The almost identical economic problems we have today resulted in many good people voting in that madman. Now YOU are repeating history by falling into the same trap.

Closing Walmart is NAZI? I highly doubt it. Walmart will not be happy until it monopolizes the entire retail market just as Monsanto has monopolized the entire farming industry. Just as wall st has monopolized the financial market. These superstores have a massive impact on small town business and create worker-bee mentality. I suggest you look into yourself when you deem other people ignorant. Wake up junior and do your homework. Go to a walmart and count how many surveillance cameras they have. Ask the employees about the mandatory pre-work exercize, and the 'go-go-walmart' chanting they do before each shift. Ask about the inferior wages, and how much of the garbage you buy there is imported from other countries. Ask yourself why walmart is so good, that thousands of business owners had to close down their business where THEY were the boss, and have to go work as a slave at the business that destroyed theirs because they are the only micro-society in the county. You seem to have lost your vision of the American dream somewhere along the way. Walmart is a proud participant in the NWO agenda.
 As others can attest, I'm pretty laid back in these threads and I rather enjoy debates and sharing information. When some dumbass like you plows head first into the forum with less than 100 posts ans starts insinuating that others outside your ideal are ignorant, then it's my turn to answer back. Go do some research and figure oout how you can be elpful in this forum instead of your inflammatory idiocy. Good day to you sir.

[WarChest]

And why the hell is Walmart doing so great, being a NWO establishment and all. I avoid that place like the plague. They have literally killed small business and the mom n' pop businesses. I think it's high time we shut that nazi corporation down too. If Walmart and Target vanish, a much more stable economy can flourish.

Here here!

I have bought my last imported HMO, lead painted piece of crap from Wallmart.

All you passive agressive out there do something and take your country back.

[Geolibertarian]

And why the hell is Walmart doing so great, being a NWO establishment and all. I avoid that place like the plague. They have literally killed small business and the mom n' pop businesses. I think it's high time we shut that nazi corporation down too.

It's not Wal-Mart itself that must be eliminated, but rather the small business-destroying practice of granting Wal-Mart such things as tax abatements, zoning exemptions and development subsidies, while simultaneously denying these privileges to smaller competitors:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3836296181471292925

If we eliminate privilege, then Wal-Mart and other corporate giants will no longer have artificial advantages over local, family-owned businesses. Then we'll have true free enterprise instead of the crony capitalism we have now.

[OldSchool]

It's not Wal-Mart itself that must be eliminated, but rather the small business-destroying practice of granting Wal-Mart such things as tax abatements, zoning exemptions and development subsidies, while simultaneously denying such privileges to smaller competitors:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3836296181471292925

If we eliminate privilege, then Wal-Mart and other corporate giants will no longer have artificial advantages over local, family-owned businesses. Then we'll have true free enterprise instead of the crony capitalism we have now.

I can agree with that. The practices of obvious favoritism don't bode well for the small business. The biggest thing that scares me about places like Walmart, is that eventually they will be the only place left to shop (since they sell everything under the sun). In doing that, it gives them unlimited power and control of retail as a whole. When complete market domination is in place, then they can set whatever prices they want. You're right in stating the tax incentive program to them. They have huge tax writeoffs and tax breaks, and with the size and power of their influence, it is quite dangerous to any and all competitors in their vicinity.
 Microsoft was well on their way of a complete market domination when the fed stepped in and broke them up. I just get weary of watching the little guy pay the ultimate prices for capitalist mongers.

[Triadtropz]

In the end it will just be giant walmarts offering shitty jobs,,selling 100% chinese products, then once all other stores are gone. they will raise the prices.

[OldSchool]

In the end it will just be giant walmarts offering shitty jobs,,selling 100% chinese products, then once all other stores are gone. they will raise the prices.

Let's not forget the trinkets we import from sweat shops all over the globe (Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan), Martha Stewart/Walmart ring a bell? It's like watching an overweight Sally Struthers beg for food contributions in the CCF commercials. 

[fiatmoney]

Don't forget about the commercial real estate bailout...

[OldSchool]

Can't forget about that . And I almost forgot the fact that when the Sakagouiea Dollar coins came out, you could only get them at banks and.....yep....walmart...the very same place you can pay for your goods with nothing but a thumb-print 

[CaptBebops]

In the end it will just be giant walmarts offering shitty jobs,,selling 100% chinese products, then once all other stores are gone. they will raise the prices.

Gerald Celente on Alex's show suggested otherwise and something I had thinking too might happen is the big stores will go away leaving small town shops.  There's all kinds of reasons for this and one is the bigger you are the slower you are to react to the marketplace (think GM).  A quick change in attitude in shoppers could wipe out Wal-Mart though I must admit they were ready to go with a low priced items for Christmas flier which other retailers failed to do.  I envision what was once a Wal-Mart or even Target store filled with little stalls rented out to local businesses.  Could make for more interesting communities as you go from town to town and see different stuff instead of the same.

[TimeLady]

This belongs in this topic, lawl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PULFg7erYGI

[OldSchool]

Gerald Celente on Alex's show suggested otherwise and something I had thinking too might happen is the big stores will go away leaving small town shops.  There's all kinds of reasons for this and one is the bigger you are the slower you are to react to the marketplace (think GM).  A quick change in attitude in shoppers could wipe out Wal-Mart though I must admit they were ready to go with a low priced items for Christmas flier which other retailers failed to do.  I envision what was once a Wal-Mart or even Target store filled with little stalls rented out to local businesses.  Could make for more interesting communities as you go from town to town and see different stuff instead of the same.

That would be a great idea. Right now there are a few smaller stores already running in Walmart stores, but mainly opticians, nail salons, and more imported brickabrack. If Walmart allowed for such community involvement, then it would be different. Unfortunately they have every inclination to fill every gap themselves.
 15 years ago there was (for the most part) Kmart and Walmart. And they were essentially department stores. Then one idea after another piled up. Much to the shagrin of Kmart, they weren't able to compete with Sam Waltons conglomerates (Walmart & Sam's Club). Sam Walton had a mindset that 'I don't care what they buy, as long as they buy it from me', and that is an economic foul ball running right along with the selfish mindset of Rothschild and Monsanto.
 Anyways, 15 years ago Walmart was Walmart. Now they are 'Super Walmart' with lube shops, grocery stores, optometrists, full pharmaceutical, home builder, electronics superstores. And since they have a magnanamous power of buying such massive quantities at one time, their pricing has become devisive in putting its' competitors out of business. It's like only being able to buy one brand of gas. When there is no competition, there is corruption.
 If Walmart had developed the community mall concept, then economically they would still have a majority power, but in being subsidized partially by small businesses, the local economy is stimulated also. With the financial curtain now set in place by Walmart, all that local money people spen there is banked and sent to the HQ.
 Sorry for the rant. I think you're on to a good idea there

[OldSchool]

This belongs in this topic, lawl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PULFg7erYGI

  L  O  L

[heavyhebrew]

Somebody should have told you to not take the acid.

Standing against the un-American and anti-human Wal-Mart/Target is NAZI?
CRAZY, MAN!

LOL! Fantastically ironic! Of course, borne of complete ignorance.

Nazi Party Platform
"16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality."

Other translations call them "department stores"

You are promulgating NAZI ideas and principles by calling for the closure of Walmart/Target.

Wake up, smell the coffee burning. The almost identical economic problems we have today resulted in many good people voting in that madman. Now YOU are repeating history by falling into the same trap.