180-Year-Old Vermont General Store In Barnard Closing

The bad economy combined with the effects of climate-change exacerbated weather disasters helped kill off a Vermont store that had been in business since Old Hickory was in the White House. Here is the Burlington Free Press with the details:

The Barnard General Store in central Vermont is closing its doors on Tuesday after 180 years in business.

Owners Carolyn DiCicco and Kim Furlong say years of financial losses and 60-hour weeks have taken their toll.

The closing of the store that opened when Andrew Jackson was president, where for generations people have gone for news, food, more recently Internet service and the greater connection to each other and the community is more than just the closing of a business. It's located on the shore of Silver Lake at the intersection of state Route 12 and two town roads.

"It belongs to the town. It's a community place," DiCicco said.

DiCicco and her ex-husband bought the store 18 years ago after moving from Massachusetts with their two children, ages 10 and 12. Two years later, Furlong, a Maine native who likewise had moved to Barnard with a family, came on board. The two women now own the store together.

In 2004 the building and land were sold to another Barnard resident for $450,000. The cash helped dig the store out of a hole, DiCicco said. In 2008, a group of residents explored turning it into a co-op.

While the store struggled, it was Tropical Storm Irene and the nearly snow-less winter that pushed the store over the edge. The flooding made the town hard to reach and foliage season was a bust. Then the lack of snow kept away the snowmobilers, skiers and ice fishermen.

And so it goes.


Bonus: In tribute to the Barnard General Store, a song by the band Vermont

Betsey Johnson Files For Bankruptcy, Will Close Most of Its Stores

I guess I'm just not hip, because I had never heard of this fashion chain before reading this story. Here is New York magazine with the details:

Sad news: Betsey Johnson LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close the majority of its 63 stores, according to WWD. Betsey Johnson the person will remain at the helm of the brand, which is still owned by Castanea Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm that took over the company in 2007. Moving forward, the label will focus on its lower-priced range of clothing, which is sold at Macy's and other mass retailers. Meanwhile, Steven Madden, Ltd., which has owned all of Betsey Johnson's intellectual property since assuming her $48.8 million in outstanding debts in 2010, estimated that the bankruptcy will cost about 350 jobs overall. Steve Madden himself assures WWD that there won't be any interruption in wholesale deliveries or e-commerce.

This development isn't a huge surprise (the Betsey Johnson brand has wallowed in debt for years), but it's really too bad. Johnson's wacky fashion shows — which she always concludes with her trademark cartwheel — are always a highlight at fashion week, and she's a beloved character in the New York fashion industry. Best of luck to her and her employees.

This development isn't a huge surprise because in the middle of a never ending economic recession very few people need overpriced clothes, no matter how stylish they are.


Bonus: Something tells me that notoriously gloomy New Yorker Lou Reed doesn't attend a lot of fashion shows.

Penn State Economists: Walmart Breeds Hate Groups

Regular readers will know that my sheer loathing for the predatory Walmart corporation knows few bounds. That said, even I had to laugh at the truly daffy conclusions reached by a report that appeared this week in Social Science Quarterly. Raw Story has the details:

The more Wal-Mart stores a county has, the more likely it is to have active hate groups in the area, according to Penn State economists.

“Wal-Mart has clearly done good things in these communities, especially in terms of lowering prices,” Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics, explained. “But there may be indirect costs that are not as obvious as other effects.”

The study, published in Social Science Quarterly, found that the number of Wal-Mart stores was a better predictor of hate group participation than the unemployment rate, high crime rates and low education.

There were 1,018 active hate groups in the United States in 2011, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, up from 1,002 in 2010.

The researchers believe that the correlation between Wal-Mart and hate groups exists because of breakdown of the community. Small local businesses are more likely to be members of civic groups and involved in the community. They are also more likely to have closer relationships among their employees.

“While we like to think of American society as being largely classless, merchants and bankers are part of what we could call a leadership class in a community,” Goetz said.

In contrast, people are more likely to feel alienated by big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, the researchers explained.

Hoo-boy, where to start on this one. Stretch Armstrong would have a hard time wrapping his arms around these findings. While the argument can certainly be made that big box stores have caused breakdowns in communities and lead to alienation among shoppers, asserting that they cause people to be more likely to join hate groups is a leap wider than the one Evel Knieval tried to make over the Snake River Canyon. Confusing association with causation is a basic logical fallacy, of course, and one you would think a couple of Penn State economists would scrupulously try to avoid.

There are a number of plausible reasons, in fact, why there might tend to be more hate groups in areas where there are more Walmarts that have nothing whatsoever to do with the company itself. One that I can think of right off the top of my head is that Walmarts predominate in smaller towns and cities that are usually less multicultural than the larger cities, and thus people who live there have far less exposure to those of other races, religions or national origin. People who live in such regions also tend to have less formal education on average because, as in my own case in having to leave my hometown for good after I graduated from college, there are far fewer white collar career opportunities available. Additionally, people living in such areas usually earn far less money and are less financially secure, which can cause them to look for scapegoats to blame for the dissatisfaction they feel in their own lives (though I would note that Walmart IS a factor in driving wages down, which directly contradicts the assertion made by Stephan Goetz above that Walmart's lower prices are a GOOD thing for these communities).

I think even the authors of this study realize that they are on shaky ground, because they qualified their conclusions with this statement:

“We’re not trying to pick on Wal-Mart,” said Goetz. “In this study, Wal-Mart is really serving as a proxy for any type of large retailer.”

“We doubt strongly that Wal-Mart intends to create such effects or that it specifically seeks to locate in places where hate groups form,” the researchers said.

What a relief it is that they only "doubt strongly" that Walmart is INTENTIONALLY responsible for their conclusions. Glad to know the billionaire members of the Walton clan don't secretly have Ku Klux Klan robes or SS Stormtrooper outfits tucked away in the back of their bedroom closets. Well, maybe. After all, the researchers didn't actually say they were willing to rule it out 100%.


Bonus: "I know politics bore you, but I feel like a hypocrite talking to you...and your racist friend"

Walmart Determined To Do More Damage To Americans' Standard Of Living

Perhaps no other single entity has done more to help destroy the average American's standard of living during the past 30 years than Walmart. The chain's maniacal insistance on lowering prices at the expense of everything else in order to increase the bottom line has made founder Sam Walton's heirs among the wealthiest people on the planet while destroying mom-and-pop businesses all across the country and helping to drive down wages in every market it has entered or touched.

It all was working out handsomely until high gasoline prices and the Great Recession hit, and distressed consumers found themselves at a breaking point in which many of them could no longer afford even Walmart prices. So what is America's most predatory retail chain going to do in response? Why, lower prices even further, of course. Here is AOL Daily Finance with the details:

Walmart has put out an APB for shoppers: "We have the lowest prices all the time. Period."

This week, the nation's biggest retailer detailed its $2 billion plan to "reinvest" in low prices, expressly in areas such as food and consumables, to drive more traffic to its 3,868 U.S. stores.

During a presentation at a CIBC World Markets conference, Duncan Mac Naughton, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, also outlined Walmart's other key priorities: to add more nutritious and high-end food to stores, such as USDA Choice beef; rework its poorly performing clothing business; and enhance its appeal to ethnic minorities with more merchandise tailored to their tastes.

The first question I had upon reading that passage was to ask exactly what kind of horrifically bad beef Walmart is currently carrying ("pink slime" would be my guess), but the business reporter stenographer who wrote the story apparently didn't think to ask it.

The money passage, so to speak, was in the next part of the story.

Walmart's move to regain its status as the nation's bargain emporium comes in response to the rise of dollar stores, which won over large swathes of new shoppers during the recession. It's also a course correction aimed at remedying its own missteps.

Over the past three years, the retailer unleashed a bevy of promotions that muddled its original everyday-low-price message, Mac Naughton said. That led customers to begin to question whether they could still expect Walmart to have the lowest prices, he said. The promotions "fractured some of that trust," said Mac Naughton. "That's why we're so focused on consistent pricing now."

Making sure the price is right is crucial as the U.S. consumer "is still facing some significant headwinds," Mac Naughton said. Although the recession has been officially over for a few years now, 23 million Americans are still officially unemployed, gas prices are high and rising, and economic growth is anemic, he noted.

Right there you see a clueless corporate flack, touting a new policy to increase his company's profitability that is utterly self defeating. Sorry to break this to you, Mr. Mac Naughton, but Walmart has reached a breaking point in which putting any more price pressure on your suppliers is going to cause direct economic pain for the companies who supply your products, which will be passed along to their workforce, which will result in them having less cash flow to be able buy shit at your hideous stores. You and the other major vulture retail firms have finally managed to squeeze all of the excess wealth from the pockets of your beleaguered working class customers. They are tapped out...just like your awful business model. It's just too bad that they were so dimwitted as to have gone along with the program until it was too late.


Bonus: "Now cousin Clifford...he got the good land...right on the highway off of Airbase Road...looks like a Walmart...waiting to happen...I'm here to tell you it's a pot of gold"

The "Walmart of Weed" is Opening in Washington

When a government refuses to acknowledge either public sentiment or common sense in a certain area of the law, the people start finding creative ways to undermine the very same law. It happened during the prohibition years, and it is gradually happening again. Here is the Washington Post with the story:

A company dubbed the “Walmart of Weed” is putting down roots in America’s capital city, sprouting further debate on marijuana — medical or otherwise.

Just a few miles from the White House and federal buildings, a company that candidly caters to medical marijuana growers is opening up its first outlet on the East Coast. The opening of the weGrow store on Friday in Washington coincides with the first concrete step in implementing a city law allowing residents with certain medical conditions to purchase pot.

Like suppliers of picks and axes during the gold rush, weGrow sees itself providing the necessary tools to pioneers of a “green rush,” which some project could reach nearly $9 billion within the next five years. Admittedly smaller than a big box store, weGrow is not unlike a typical retailer in mainstream America, with towering shelves of plant food and vitamins, ventilation and lighting systems. Along with garden products, it offers how-to classes, books and magazines on growing medical marijuana.

“The more that businesses start to push the envelope by showing that this is a legitimate industry, the further we’re going to be able to go in changing people’s minds,” said weGrow founder Dhar Mann.

Although federal law outlaws the cultivation, sale or use of marijuana, 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized its medical use to treat a wide range of issues from anxiety and back pain to HIV/AIDS and cancer-related ailments. Fourteen states also have some kind of marijuana decriminalization law, removing or lowering penalties for possession.

Nearly 7 percent of Americans, or 17.4 million people, said they used marijuana in 2010, up from 5.8 percent, or 14.4 million, in 2007, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. A Gallup poll last year found a record-high of 50 percent of Americans saying that marijuana should be made legal, and 70 percent support medical uses for pot.

Public sentiment is definitely swinging toward finally legalizing marijuana. In fact, one question I would want to ask the 20% of respondents to that poll with the inconsistent opinion about pot is why exactly do they favor the "medicinal use" of marijuana versus it being legal otherwise? How does someone enjoying a little weed in the privacy of their own home affect your life in any way whatsoever? So they should have to wait until they get a brain tumor before they can fire up a joint? That makes exactly no sense whatsoever.

It is long past time to change this country's insane marijuana laws and legalize it already. Taxing it like alcohol in cigarettes would also help cash strapped governments at all levels raise revenue. It's a win-win with very little downside. Except for the prudes, busy-bodies and fundie whack jobs who aren't happy unless they are all up in somebody else's business.


Bonus: Too bad Bill didn't live to see it

Peak Flat Screen Televisions

It goes without saying that Americans LOVE their flat screen teevees. So if sales of the damn things are starting to slip, it stands to reason that it isn't a good economic indicator. Here is paidContent.org with the story:

The consumer electronics trend that had us shuffling out our perfectly good but perfectly bulky CRT televisions in favor of fancy-new flat screens appears to be ebbing.

Whoa...whoa...gotta stop you right there, Hoss. I still have my old CRT television that I bought back in the late 1990s, and it still works perfectly fine, thank you very much. I could easily afford a flat screen, but I don't care to throw out a perfectly good set because I'm not a mindless consumer zombie like you are. So knock it off with the "us" stuff.

Anyway, proceed:

According to research firm IHS iSuppli, U.S. shipments of flat-panel TVs will actually decline for the first time since Fujitsu introduced the first 42-inch plasma display in 1997. And it doesn’t appear as though the now mature product category is in line for returned growth anytime soon.

IHS forecasts the U.S. flat-panel TV market to decline to 37.1 million units in 2012, down 5 percent from 39.1 million units in 2011. By 2015, the research firm predicts that the American market for these TVs will drop to around 34 million shipments. The flat-panel category includes TVs built around the now-dominant liquid crystal display (LCD) technology, as well as older plasma and somewhat obsolete digital light projection (DLP) technologies.

Driving the forecast, IHS says, is the maturation of the market—most consumers who could afford to swap out their big, bulky TVs in favor of more elegant high-definition flat screens have already done so. That means that in the U.S., most of the purchasing is being conducted by consumers who are replacing an older flat screen.

“The U.S. flat-panel television market has never declined on an annual basis, even at the height of the recession in 2008 and 2009,” noted Lisa Hatamiya, TV research analyst for IHS. “The decline starting this year suggests that demand may have crested for the mature U.S. TV market. Sales in the United States now are being driven by consumers who are replacing their older flat-panel sets with new models boasting more advanced features. This contrasts with developing regions of the world where vibrant, untapped markets remain for buyers making their first-ever purchase of flat-panel sets.”

But they saved the best part for last:

Another factor cited by IHS: “irrational exuberance” on the part of TV manufacturers, who glutted the current market by over-projecting demand last year.

See what happens when the government releases manipulated economic statistics to make things look better than they really are? Idiots, like those who run flat screen teevee manufacturing companies, believe them.


Bonus: A cool little ditty by the Television Personalities

Best Buy Closing 50 Stores

One major retailer that stupidly continued to expand into he teeth of the Great Recession was Best Buy. Yet another one opened a couple of miles down the road from my house just a couple of years ago. At the time I wondered how they could expect to keep making huge profits off of increasingly strapped consumers. Well, it turns out they can't. Here is Forbes with the story:

Best Buy is closing 50 superstores and focusing on mobile in an effort to reduce expenses. But since when is cost cutting to profitability a successful retail strategy?

Since never.

The electronics chain announced it would shutter 50 stores and concentrate on smaller stores selling mobile electronics. There will be 100 more of these locations by the end of this year and two markets — San Antonio, Texas and the Twin Cities — will receive remodeled superstores dubbed “Connected Stores.”

Judging by the snarky attitude in this piece, I take it Forbes doesn't think much of this strategy. But of course, Best Buy's CEO thinks his own farts smell like the finest French perfume:

In order to help make technology work for every one of our customers and transform our business as the consumer electronics industry continues to evolve, we are taking major actions to improve our operating performance,” said Brian J. Dunn, CEO of Best Buy. “As part of our multi-channel strategy, we intend to strengthen our portfolio of store formats and footprints — closing some big box stores, modifying others to our enhanced Connected Store format, and adding Best Buy Mobile stand-alone locations — all to provide a better shopping environment for our customers across multiple channels while increasing points of presence, and to improve performance and profitability.

But Forbes has his number:

In so many ways, it feels like a shell game. The kind that companies use to deflect negative attention by waving their arms and yelling, “look over here!” Changing things up, reducing its footprint and getting out of too large or otherwise unfavorable locations is important and probably needed to be done long ago. But these changes look more like an olive branch to the financial community: a restructuring to reduce costs.

Ha! The first two sentences right there sound a lot like something I might have written, actually. Closing stores isn't Best Buy's only change, however:

Management estimates a $300 million savings from the store closures and another $300 million in corporate reductions — Best Buy is also laying off 400 people at its Minneapolis headquarters.

Cost cutting its way to profitability.

Which has pretty much been par for the course in corporate America ever since the recession officially (if not actually) ended three years ago.

Sharks Eat Shark Porn: Amazon & Costco Devouring Walmart

I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning. Smells like...Walmart biting the dust. Here are the gory details from DailyFinance:

Walmart revolutionized consumers' lives for decades. It built a successful retail empire across the country, powered by its low prices.

Hold on for just a minute. Wally World built its successful retail empire by running mom and pop stores into the ground and destroying the social fabric of communities all over the country, not to mention perfecting the business model of using precious resources to have cheap shit built in China and shipped halfway around the world using more cheap resources. It changed people's lives all right, but hardly for the better. The company is a scourge upon the Earth, and when in finally goes belly up, I for one will be dancing upon its grave.

But anyway, please continue:

But Walmart has failed to keep up with the innovation, and now other companies are successfully changing consumers' behaviors in a way that is slowly killing the world's most famous retailer.

Want proof?

Look no further than its most recent quarterly earnings report. Although it marked its second full quarter of positive same-store sales growth (albeit a measly 1.5%) after nine consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales, overall earnings still declined 13%.

Bwahahahahahahaha. So their margins are getting squeezed. Excellent! Couldn't happen to a bigger or more deserving bunch of scumbags.

So if Wally World is in a funk, who is picking up the slack?

Amazon's low prices (thanks to its low overhead expenses and no sales tax in most states) and unbeatable selection (thanks to the acquisition of companies like Diapers.com and Zappos), combined with the convenience of online shopping, have attracted a growing fan base of customers -- stealing more and more customers away from Walmart.

Even Jeremy King, the chief technology officer of Walmart, admits Walmart.com is "playing a catch-up game" with Amazon. And yet it's pretty clear that any attempts to compete with Amazon online will be futile.

That's because Amazon's reach will only continue to expand as it builds out its Kindle platform. The ease of purchasing with just one click from virtually whatever device you choose (your computer, phone, Kindle, or even Apple's iPad) will continue to attract a growing number of consumers -- again, spelling bad news for Walmart.

And how about those not going online to shop?

On the physical front, the most revolutionary Walmart killer is Costco.

Costco, a members-only warehouse chain, targets a more affluent demographic than Walmart but similarly prides itself in offering heavily discounted items. Even though Walmart has a similar arm of its business, Costco is light years ahead of Walmart's Sam's Club.

Costco's charm permeates many levels.

Markups on products are heavily controlled. Items can never be sold for more than 15% of cost (whereas supermarkets will mark up items by 25%, and department stores mark items up by as much as 50%). This means consumers always know they'll find unbeatable bargains. And that keeps them coming back for the majority of their shopping needs.

Stores require little upkeep. They are bare bones in design, meaning they require less maintenance capital than its more posh (by comparison) competitors. Plus, Costco only stocks around 4,000 items. Walmart's stores, by contrast, often carry more than 100,000 different items, which constantly need shelf attention.

Shopping is easier. The smaller scope of products makes the purchase decision easier for customers. But it also generates higher sales volumes, which enables Costco to sell items quicker than they have to pay their suppliers for them -- and allows them to negotiate even lower deals with these suppliers.

Costco has a secret ingredient. The stores have an additional element that Walmart will likely never be able to replicate: the "treasure hunt." Costco constantly stocks shelves with new items available for just a short time. Customers return excited to see new offerings, and they often leave with items they hadn't intended to purchase.

Returns are never a problem. Even if shoppers later decide their impulse buys were unwise, Costco has the most consumer-friendly return policy out there, accepting returns on most products without a receipt and with an infinite timeframe.

Given all this, it's little surprise that Costco's retention rate for members hovers around 90%. This means that once a customer gets a taste for the savings -- and experience -- Costco offers, he or she will likely be a customer for life. Again, bad news for Walmart.

Ummm...there are a lot of words I might use to describe Costco, but saying it has fucking "charm" isn't one of them. The downside to this story is that Walmart's woes are not being caused by consumers finally wising up to the horrific societal costs of cut rate, cut throat retailers. In fact, all it really means is that the O.S. (Original Shark) is now getting devoured by two even more ruthless sharks. But nevertheless, it is fun to contemplate the possibility of Walmart's rapid demise and that soon all of its stores will look like the one in the picture above.


Bonus: "That place is huge and fucking horrible"

Eroding Profit Margins Cause Stores To Reduce Issuance Of Coupons

Issuing coupons have always been a great way for retailers to lure shopper into their stores, or for manufacturers to ensure consumers look to buy their brand over a rival at the supermarket. It's all fine and dandy until those same consumers become driven by a poor economy to start overusing them. Here is the Ft. Lauderdale SunSentinel with the details:

"Why so many coupons?" Ellen DeGeneres asks in an ad forJ.C. Penney. "This is ridiculous."

Some companies are starting to agree. They are scaling back the value of coupon offers and limiting how many of them bargain-conscious consumers can redeem.

It's hard to find a $10 off $40 Whole Foods Market coupon anymore. Publix has cut back on coupons it offers through fundraisers and tightened its general policy. AndJ.C. Penney has abandoned coupons altogether.

"It's harder and harder," Orlando coupon blogger Amy Selleck said. "I used to be able to go out and do deals every day and stock up a cart. Now it seems like the deals aren't there."

In 2011, name-brand grocery manufacturers' coupons fell 8.1 percent to 305 billion compared with the previous year, according to Michigan-based coupon processor NCH Marketing. But consumers used $4.6 billion worth of coupons last year — a 12.2 percent jump.

Coupon use has been on the upswing since the financial crisis in 2008. As consumers hit the brakes on spending, retailers began discounting, sometimes almost desperately. Companies were "chasing business just for business' sake," Dallas retail consultant Steven Dennis said. Now, they're trying to keep coupon redemptions from eroding profits.

More people are scouring websites, newspapers and even recycling bins for deals. Fueled by the tough economy and reality TV, "extreme couponing" has become popular with shoppers who snip their grocery bills down to nearly nothing by combining offers.

"Some retailers have said it's become harder to manage than ever before," National Retail Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis said.

Of course it has been the American consumer's incessant obsession over getting things for the lowest possible prices which has wreaked so much havoc in our economy in the first place, from declining wages and benefits of workers who make the products, to the rise of the megastore and the destruction of locally owned businesses, to the dramatically decreasing quality of many of the products on offer. Coupons are not the cause of all of those things, but they are certainly a symptom of the prevailing mindset that has allowed them to happen. Only in a decadent and depraved society such as ours with a value system gone completely askew could a teevee show like Extreme Couponing actually find an audience.

And now, as we remain mired in our economic malaise, stores are finding out that you can only take price cutting so far, especially at a time of rising food and energy costs, before the effort becomes utterly self defeating. The sad irony is that this is now happening at a time when so many financially strapped shoppers could really use the discounts.


Bonus: Extreme couponers--they just can't get enough

Complete List of U.S. 2011 Retail Store Closings

The website About.com ran a helpful list of what they claim are all U.S. retail store closings for calendar year 2011. I'm a little skeptical because they only have Barnes & Noble listed as having closed one store, and I know that the B&N location in the ritzy Georgetown neighorhood of DC recently closed. I can't believe that was the only one.

Anyway, Some of the big names like Borders and Blockbuster were well publicized. Others, less so. Anyway, here is the list and the number of closings for each:

633 Borders

405 Blockbuster

200 GameStop

189 Gap

160 f.y.e.

117 Anchor Blue

117 Foot Locker

100 Talbot's

71 A.J. Wright

69 Metropark

63 Friendly's

60 Rite Aid

52 Destination Maternity

50 Abercrombie & Fitch

50 Hot Topic

45 Big Lots

45 Family Dollar

43 Select Comfort

43 Sonic Drive-In

35 Denny's

32 Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (SuperFresh, Pathmark Super Market)

30 Ultimate Electronics

28 Dominos

25 Superfresh (Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company)

20 Lowe's

19 Sears

15 Stride Rite & Sperry (Collective Brands)

12 Bassett Home Furnishings

11 Sony Style

10 Donut Connection

10 Staples

9 Express, Inc.

7 Conn's

7 Dollar Tree

7 Johnny Rockets

7 Kenneth Cole

7 Pier One

7 Starbucks

6 Acme

6 Albertsons

6 Loehmann’s

6 Popeye's

6 Select Comfort

6 Shaw's

5 BJ's Wholesale Club

5 Books-A-Million

5 Crawford Retail Outlet

5 Edwin Watts Golf Shops (Sears in-store)

5 JCPenney

5 Sixth Ave. Electronics

5 Stage Stores

4 Filene's Basement

4 Wal-Mart Marketside

3 Shoe Carnival

3 84 Lumber

3 Macy's

3 Marsh

3 Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

3 Schnuck Markets

3 Thomasville Furniture

2 HP Palm Web OS

2 Cato

2 It's Fashion (Cato)

2 Kmart

2 Safeway

2 Pacific Sunwear of California

1 Ace Hardware

1 American Eagle Outfitters

1 Barnes & Noble

1 Boston’s Gourmet Pizza

1 Bright Light

1 Chanel Outlet

1 Coach

1 Dillard’s

1 Euphoria

1 Finish Line

1 Foodsource Supermarket

1 Fred’s Beds

1 French Connection Outlet

1 Gallery Warehouse Furniture

1 Giant Supermarket

1 Hallmark

1 Harry & David Outlet

1 Home Depot

1 JC Penney Outlet Stores

1 Kay Jewelers

1 Kenneth Cole Outlet

1 Kohl's

1 Lane Bryant

1 Liz Claiborne Outlet

1 Miss Sixty Outlet

1 New York & Co

1 Payless Shoe Source

1 Petco

1 Quiznos

1 Restoration Hardware

1 Saks

1 Timberland Factory Store

1 Toys ‘R Us

1 Tractor Supply

1 Williams-Sonoma Outlet

The article also contains this little tidbit:

Many experts believe that the number of retail establishments per capita in the United States was excessive even before the economy recessed. According to the 2007 Economic Census, there were 1,122,703 retail establishments in the United States and a total of 14.2 billion square feet of retail space. That means that there is approximately 46.6 square feet of retail space per capita in the U.S., compared to two square feet per capita in India, 1.5 square feet per capita in Mexico, 23 square feet per capita in the United Kingdom, 13 square feet per capita in Canada, and 6.5square feet per capita in Australia.

Gee, ya think?


Bonus: "We sell forbidden objects from places men fear to tread"

CPI Corp. Shuttering Hundreds Of Portrait Studios

Everyone who hasn't imbibed the hopium knows that the economy is not a (ahem) pretty picture right now. This of course (ahem) poses a lot of problems for companies which produce nonessential products, especially if the target market is lower middle income earners. Here is Stltoday.com with the latest (ahem) portrait of such distress:

CPI Corp. plans to close 346 of its PictureMe portrait studios located in Wal-Marts across the country next month.

The St. Louis-based operator of portrait studios announced the planned closures in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. In the filing, CPI said employees at the affected studios were notified today. The stores, which it described as "underperforming," will close by March 23. Company officials did not answer calls requesting comment about the closures.

After the stores close next month, CPI will continue to operate 2,712 portrait studios located at Wal-Mart, Sears and Babies "R" Us stores nationwide. CPI said in the filing that it expects exit costs to total between $2.8 million and $3.1 million related to the store closures.

We'll keep our eyes on this (ahem) developing story as I'm sure this will not be the last time this company is forced to close locations.

Okay, I'll stop with the puns now.


Bonus: "I've been living so long with my pictures of you...that I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel"

Mr. Paperback Bookstore Chain (Maine) To Close

I've covered the travails of the publishing and retail book industries here enough times that I really don't feel like rehashing it again. Here is the latest such sad news, from the Bangor Daily News:

Mr. Paperback, a bookstore chain that has been a fixture in Maine for 50 years, will be closing and its sister company, Magazines Inc., will be bought out, an owner of the companies said Friday.

Mr. Paperback’s 80 employees and Magazines Inc.’s 40 employees will be laid off, co-owner Penny Robichaud said. The companies notified their staffs on Wednesday.

“Business is not great. It seemed like it might be a good time to get out,” said Mr. Paperback General Manager Jim McCree. Both companies will cease operation by the end of April.

Mr. Paperback has 10 stores in Maine, with locations in Augusta, Bangor, Belfast, Caribou, Dover-Foxcroft, Ellsworth, Farmington, Presque Isle, Skowhegan and Waterville.

Magazines Inc., which distributes magazines and newspapers in the state, is based in Bangor.

Mr. Paperback and Magazines Inc. are separate companies, but are owned by the Foss family — Robichaud and her siblings Ralph Foss and Pamela Williams.

Robichaud said they are still in negotiations to sell Magazines Inc. to Hudson LLC., based in Worcester, Mass. The company would take over Magazines Inc.’s clients, and move distribution to a Gorham facility. Hudson LLC has no interest in taking over Mr. Paperback, she said, so the bookstores will be liquidated.

“We’re all just wrapping our heads around this this week,” said Robichaud.

“It’s painful,” said McCree. “Over the years we’ve had an extremely dedicated staff — smart people, faithful people. I can tell you it’s been extremely hard on the Foss family.”

A sad tale, indeed. But check out one of the reasons cited for the closures:

Robichaud said changes in the book industry and finances were the reasons for closing.

“It’s due to gas prices and a changing industry — Amazon, the Internet, Kindle — people don’t need the printed materials as much as we used to,” said Robichaud.

“Most of us know that the book business and anything in print is not a particularly healthy place to be,” McCree added.

There it is--gas prices. Sure there are strong headwinds in the industry from those other factors, but somehow I'll be that bookstores would not be shutting down with quite such rapidity if gas were still $1.30 a gallon. Call it a hunch.


Bonus: Terry Tate sez, "reading is fundamental." And you better listen to him, sucka

Future of grocery shopping!

How about being able to make your grocery purchases using your mobile phone while waiting for your bus or metro train and having them delivered home? This is what Tesco has been pioneering, with great success, in South Korea by plastering subway station walls with facsimiles of groceries, labeled with a unique code for each product.



Shoppers waiting at sub-way stations can do their home grocery shopping using their mobile phones. A mobile phone application enables people to click/scan the QR code on any displayed product in virtual storefronts at select locations. The product will then get pushed into your virtual shopping cart and get delivered when you get back home. Waiting times get converted into shopping times!

500 More Blockbuster Stores Down The Crapper

Having finished lopping off all of its extremities, the honchos currently in charge of dying movie rental chain Blockbuster Video have started hacking at the torso. Here is Reuters with the details:

Dish Network will close 500 underperforming and unprofitable Blockbuster video stores in the coming weeks, accounting for about a third of its stores.

The announcement came as the company announced its fourth quarter profits increased 24 percent to $313 million in the fourth quarter. It reversed subscriber losses to pick up a net 22,000 subscribers thanks in part to its new Blockbuster-branded services. It acquired Blockbuster last year.

The closures will occur in the first quarter of this year, the company said. The company will try to expand its Dish Services offerings in remaining stores. It currently sells Dish Network sales in about 150 stores.

Oh well, no big deal. Yawn (scratches self, reaches for the remote). Just another few thousand people out of work. What time is American Idol on, anyway?


Bonus: Ahhh...video store memories from the very dawn of the Internet age

The Lies We Tell Ourselves (Part 2): Price Hikes Catch Up to U.S. Food Makers

Continuing on with the theme from this morning's post, the problem with repeatedly lying to yourself is that sooner or later reality comes along and rubs your fucking nose in it. As I pointed out in part one of this post, the mainstream media narrative of economic recovery is based primarily on two statistics, stocks and jobs, both of which are being blatantly manipulated. The funny thing is how when other factoids emerge that don't follow the party line, the business reporters stenographers are stil left cluelessly scratching their heads. For instance, check out this story about the declining profit margins in the food industry that appeared late last week on MarketWatch:

On Friday, General Mills blamed “weak volume performance across U.S. retail food categories in December and January” for cutting their fiscal May 2012 outlook to between $2.53 and $2.55 a share from $2.59 to $2.61.

Really? But I thought the economy was getting better. Tell me more.

General Mills and other brand-name food makers have faced softening consumer demand, calling into question exactly how financially strong the U.S. consumer really is despite rising employment numbers.

General Mills didn’t single out any particular brand in its statement, but it means shoppers haven’t been buying enough of its packaged foods.

“In their top five U.S. categories, General Mills continues to see strength from Nature Valley snack bars, but recent weakness, namely in yogurt, should have led to the guidance cut,” said Consumer Edge Research analyst Rob Dickerson, who in recent months has been skeptical of the company’s profit potential for this year and 2013.

Dickerson said General Mills’ Yoplait yogurt volumes fell 24% from Dec. 26 to Jan. 22, based on data collected from U.S. food, drug, mass retailers and convenience stores.

You see, this is what happens when the government arbitrarily casts workers out of the employment statistics after they become permanently unemployed. Everyone then gets all excited about an official unemployment rate that appears to be dropping when in fact all we have managed to do is create a massive structural unemployment. In addition, most new jobs that have been created pay for shit and have little in the way of benefits. Thus consumers who either aren't getting paid at all anymore, or are getting paid much less than they used to stop buying unnecessary but expensive grocery items like fucking yogurt. That this obvious fact is being completely ignored makes me want to slap the shit out whomever writes such drivel.

Oh, but hey, at least inflation is under control...so sez the government. That's something, right?

Wrong:

For all its food categories, General Mills has raised prices by 8.1% over the last 52-weeks in tracked-channels, while volume has fallen 8%, Dickerson said. This suggests General Mills needs to cut prices or increase advertising to whet consumers appetites.

And wrong again:

Smucker’s retail prices for its entire food portfolio were 16% higher than the same 2010 period as it sought to blunt surging prices for unroasted green coffee beans, peanuts, sugars and cooking oils.

And, oh what the fuck, three strikes and you're out:

Heinz said volumes fell 2% in North America after it raised prices for ketchup, Ore-Ida frozen french fries and Classico pasta sauces.

Love that bit of laughable advice the reporter gives to General Mills. The company can't cut prices because of rising commodities costs, and increased advertising will have no effect on people who have no money to spend and have exhausted all of their credit.

All of this absurdity, of course, would be laughable were the implications not so dire.


Bonus: "From the promise that healed us...to the lies that I said. Oh, it's a strange day..in such a lonely way"

Abercrombie & Fitch to Close 180 Stores

Every once in awhile I get a brain cramp. For instance, when I initially saw this story about clothing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch closing 180 stores, I was thinking I had already done a previous post on the company. Then, thanks to a little reminder note from regular reader ReddDogg, dang if didn't go back to double check only to find that my middle age Alzheimer's has been sneaking up on me.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the scoop from The Columbus Dispatch:

Abercrombie & Fitch plans to close 180 stores in the United States over the next three years as part of a strategy to focus on higher-tier markets, both domestically and overseas, said Jonathan Ramsden, chief financial officer at Abercrombie.

When finished, Abercrombie will have closed more than 300 stores, which includes the 135 stores that were closed the past two years.

While the company has not announced specific stores that will be shuttered, Ramsden said they have tended to close more abercrombie kids and Abercrombie & Fitch stores than Hollister stores. The closings will be based on store performance.

In past calls with analysts, Abercrombie officials have indicated that such closings benefit the company by reinforcing its exclusive image.

Thus Abercrombie joins a growing list of retailers, including Sears, JC Penney, The Gap, Espirit and Pacific Sunwear which have announced major store closings recently.

So was their some Corporate FlackSpeak to go with this article? You bet your sullen little mallrat's hoodie pullover there was:

“By closing more of these lower-tier, underperforming stores, we'll be able to lift up the entire brand, particularly A&F,” Ramsden said.

Almost all of the closings will be in the United States. The chain plans to continue to open “ highly profitable stores in Europe beyond that, in Asia and other new markets,” said CEO Mike Jeffries.

Yep--nothing 'lifts up an entire brand" quite like a bunch of empty storefronts. And I know I didn't go to business school and I'm just a loser with a Poly Sci degree rather than a fancy MBA, but even I know that opening new stores on a continent currently spiraling into a deep recession is a really bad fucking idea.


Bonus: "Your little hoodrat friend has been calling me again"

Recession, High Commodity Prices Hurting...the Gum Ball Machine Industry?

Okay, it's guilty pleasure confession time. I am one of those not fully mature adults who from time to time cannot resist when passing by a gumball machine. If I've got a quarter in my pocket when it happens, that sucker is as good as spent. I guess the childhood nostalgia rush that comes with the momentary sugar high is what causes me to do it.

Thinking about it though, I guess I haven't noticed as many gum ball machines around in recent years. This article from the Los Angeles Times explains why:

Amid shifts in the gum industry, a bit of Americana might be going away — the colorful gum balls once sold for a penny from machines at drugstores, arcades and supermarkets.

The main problem with the classic, round gum balls is that although they're available in many flavors and colors, almost all of them have one thing in common — a heavy dose of sugar. Long the scourge of dentists, this product has come in for a drubbing at a time when child obesity has focused attention on sweets.

"More gum ball operators are finding it harder to make a living," said Spencer Williams, president of Gumball.com, an Irvine gum, candy and vending machine wholesaler.

The struggles in the gum ball business mirror the challenges facing the entire chewing gum industry. The amount of all gum sold in the U.S. was expected to be static in 2011 compared with the previous year, according to a September report from research group Euromonitor International. Overall revenue was expected to rise slightly.

Many gum ball machines aren't even being used for gum balls anymore.

Williams said that about 45% of the gum ball machines operated by his clients now dispense small toys. Only about 27% dole out gum balls, with the rest stocked with candy and other items.

Research figures on gum balls are hard to come by, but Richard Ackerberg — whose American Gumball Machine Co. in Marina del Rey sells the machines to vendors — said he has seen the decline firsthand.

Although machine sales are still strong — mostly to entrepreneurs hoping to use them for part-time income — each unit is now pulling in only about half the money it did a decade ago, Ackerberg said.

"The industry has tried many different things — sugar-free gum balls, organic versions — but those have over and over again been unsuccessful," Ackerberg said. "We've tried to elevate the taste, and quite frankly, it hasn't changed anything. Customers still don't want it."

Add the rising price of sugar to those woes.

Unlike more technologically advanced vending machines for which prices can be easily adjusted, old-fashioned gum ball machines usually accept only one kind of coin — once a penny, now typically a quarter. And that makes it tough to implement incremental price hikes.

I must say, the very idea of a sugarless gumball fills me with profound loathing. The real problem here, of course, is that the industry needs to raise prices, but very few people carry half-dollar or dollar coins around with them. So they are kind of (ahem) stuck, so to speak.

But gum ball machines are not the only part of the industry that is hurting:

But gum ball sellers aren't the only ones in a rut. Chewing gum makers are also trying to boost sales.

"We're certainly not satisfied with our gum results," said Irene Rosenfeld, chief executive of Kraft Foods Inc., one of the country's top gum producers. In a conference call with food industry analysts in August, she blamed the slide on "the decline of pocket money among teens, our biggest consumer segment," as well as on disappointing sales of some new products.

Kraft — whose brands include Dentyne, Trident and Stride through its Cadbury subsidiary — said its North American gum and candy division suffered a double-digit revenue tumble midway through 2011.

Mars Inc., the top gum manufacturer in the U.S., owns Wrigley and its brands, which include Doublemint and Extra. As a privately held company, it doesn't publicly disclose much about its business.

Vic Mehren, a senior marketing director for Wrigley, said that keeping gum desirable for consumers is an industrywide challenge.

"Gum is a discretionary purchase, an impulse purchase," Mehren said. "We need to evolve along with how consumers' lifestyles are evolving. We need to be bringing new reasons for people to be chewing gum."

It's still early, but that last paragraph is likely to make my list of the 10 dumbest utterances from a Corporate Flack for 2012. Chewing gum isn't a "lifestyle choice," Mr. Mehren...it's a cheap way to pass the time and soothe your sweet tooth. If gum isn't cheap any more, your industry is doomed. Nobody is going to pay five bucks for a pack of Doublemint. Those are the facts, and there is no use crying about it.


Bonus: speaking of which, the new Doublemint commercial with a surprise ending (warning: NSFW)

Albuquerque's Old Town Sees More Than 20 Businesses Shut Down in the Last Year

The other day I read an article on a DC-based progressive news blog which laughably contended that the economic recovery is really starting to gain steam--presumably to advocate for the reelection of our great and glorious "leader," President Hopey-Changey. Politcal reporters who spew such nonsense need to start spending more time out in the real word, say, downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here is a local New Mexico television station with the story:

Albuquerque's Old Town looks more like a ghost town as more than 20 businesses have either closed or have moved out in the past year.

Business owners say the economy is hitting them hard, most report discouraging sales last year and say it's been extremely tough to stay afloat.

La Hacienda is closing its doors; the famous New Mexican restaurant has been open for more than 60 years and The Memories in Old Town Gallery is also going out of business.

And yet, hope still springs eternal, even when it doesn't make any sense at all:

"Old town is the heart of Albuquerque," said Karen Aceves, the owner of the Old Town Basket Store. "We may be beating a little slow right now but Old Town's heart will never stop beating."

She and her husband have owned their business for nearly 40 years. Aceves admits the situation looks bad right now, but she hopes the closures will breathe new life into the area.

That really is the most pathetic quote I think I've read yet from someone who believes that the economy just HAS to get better, because it always has in the past. They say it's darkest right before the dawn. But it's also darkest just before the last flickering light fades out forever.


Bonus: "Well they say...that Sante Fe...is less than 90 miles away"

Just in Time for Valentine's Day: Big Box Stores Driving Small Florists Out of Business

Planning to get a nice bouquet for your sweetie this Valentine's Day? If so, as it turns out, you'll have far fewer options for doing so than ever before. Here is a Roanoke, Virginia, television station with the story:

The floral industry isn't exactly blooming these days.

According to the Society of American Florists, there were 25,617 floral shops in America in 1998.

By 2009, that number dropped to 17,493, a difference of 8,493.

It is estimated another 4,000 floral shops will close nationwide in the next two years.

We're told 3 floral shops have gone out of business in Roanoke in the past year.

Floral shops say the downturn in the economy, increased competition from the internet, and big box chains are the reasons for so many closures.

Stores like Walmart and Kroger can sell flowers at cheaper prices because they buy so much volume.

Jim Taetz owns Crystal Orchid Flower Shoppe in downtown Roanoke. He told News 7, "You don't compete. If you compete with them you are going to go out of business."

I'm not going to say that the reasons highlighted in the story for the decline of florist shops aren't at least partially accurate. Certainly the trends cited above were a huge factor, especially leading up to 2009. But since then, it is more likely that the ongoing slow motion crash of the economy is an even bigger reason why so many of these shops are going under. In fact, we lost the local florist shop that was within walking distance of my house about a year ago.

Ladies, please don't get mad at me, but flower bouquets are a true luxury item that can easily be done without by anyone who is trying to economize because their wages were cut or they lost their job. Think about it, the dozen roses your honey-bunny gives you today will last a week if you're lucky. Florists, who were already swimming upstream in the peak oil era now face a cascading waterfall looming in their path.


Bonus: "I come to you with empty hands...I guess I forgot again"

Xpedx Closing All U.S. Stores

I've never seen a chain of retail stores go under quite so quietly. Here is the lowdown from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

Ohio-based packaging and printing supplies company Xpedx is closing its stores nationwide.

Xpedx has one local store, at 725 South Ave. The stores specialize in providing supplies such as paper to smaller print shops.

The company announced the move earlier this month on its Facebook page. It does not give a time frame for the move. But according to Xpedx, it will replace its stores with a greater focus on its distribution network and with “mini-merchant” locations in some markets.

The move comes atop Xpedx’s closing last year of its Canadian operations as it focused more on the U.S. and Mexican markets.

Xpedx is part of International Paper Co.

And that was it. A Google search did not reveal any other news stories about this chain going under. Near as I could tell from the company's website, they have about 65 or so stores nationwide under both the Xpedx and Arvey brand names. Looks like closing their Canadian operations last year didn't do anything to help their bottom line.


Bonus: Xpedx is now a late paper company