Store Closings

[jpertello]

US Store Closings - The
Latest Casualty Count
11-16-8

Watchout for these store money cards and gift cards...and credit slips.

Stores that informed the Security Exchange of closing plans between October 2008 and January 2009....


Circuit City stores... most recent (how many?)


Ann Taylor - 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered


Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug, and Catherine's to close 150 store nationwide


Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January


Cache will close all stores


Talbots closing down all stores


J. Jill closing all stores


GAP closing 85 stores


Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January


Wickes Furniture closing down


Levitz closing down remaining stores


Bombay closing remaining stores


Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.


Whitehall closing all stores


Piercing Pagoda closing all stores


Disney closing 98 stores and more after January.


Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )


Macys to close 9 stores after January


Linens and Things closing all stores


Movie Gallery Closing all stores


Pacific Sunware closing stores


Pep Boys Closing 33 stores


Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores


JC Penney closing a number of stores after January


Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.


Wilson Leather closing down all stores


Sharper Image closing down all stores


K B Toys closing 356 stores


LOWES to close down some stores


Dillard's to close some stores.


http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/

[tblue]

1. Left standing: Dollar stores selling goods made in China

Sad state of affairs.

I shop at Big Lots and I try not to buy anything made in China. I look for 'Made in USA' (but I can only hope it means what it says).

[OhioChick]

3. You forgot Walmart, too.

Dollar stores and Walmarts. Ugh.

I always try my best to buy items that are Made in the U.S.A. One of my last purchases came in a box that had an American flag on it. I felt good about the purchase until I came home and inspected the box. There......on the bottom it was printed "Made in China."

Nothing like using an American flag on it for a little deceit.

[jwirr]

8. WalMart is going to be pricing itself out of the market if it doesn't

watch out. Groceries spiked this week.

[salguine]

25. WalMart going under? Geez, that'd be a tragedy, wouldn't it.

[jwirr]

31. One can only hope.

[tblue]

19. Oh, and eBay.

[hlthe2b]

2. Good Lord... Malls will be empty...

The upscale mall closest to me remains fairly full given its positioning, but by my count it will lose at least 7 stores (based on your list) shortly, just lost Sharper Image... And, that will be good compared to other malls with less of a specialty niche and more upscale customer base.

Wow, things are looking bleak. Pretty soon, only the financial management houses and Starbucks may be left, where lots of independent restaurants bars, and one-of-a kind stores formed the walkable shopping district just north of this particular mall. So very sad.

[TomInTib]

5. It is going to get much worse.

A friend of mine works with the biggest retail liquidator in the US. They are sitting on $2.5billion in retail inventory.

They project 20,000 retail doors closing in '09.

I hope mine aren't two of them.

[katty]

32. the malls will practically be ghost towns

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Wow. Some of those names are really surprising...

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. And yet there are all kinds of big box stores going up in a town near us. I have

been predicting for ages that many of them will never open, or open only just to close their doors shortly after.

[morillon]

7. A good many of these closings were announced months ago.

For example, Home Depot announced those store closings six months ago. They overbuilt in certain areas, and the stores in question were underperforming. Given how many stores they have in the U.S., 15 is less than one percent. These closings are not cause for alarm, IMO. Believe me, if HD goes out of business, there won't be ANYTHING left. We'll be buying stuff from each other at swap meets and digging crap out of dumpsters.

Circuit City, on the other hand, is closing all its stores in certain cities. Atlanta is one of them. They also announced plans to file for bankruptcy this past week. That's MUCH more recent and catastrophic news.

[mzmolly]

9. J Jill?!

Not that I can afford to shop their often, but :cry: I guess we'll know where to seek sales over the holidays. Ugh, such a shame that the "unregulated free market" mentality is so short sighted.

[fudge stripe cookays]

23. I love that place.

:cry:

I used to be able to shop there AND Talbot's (great jackets). Nobody can afford to shop at either now. Now, I gotta hope that there are enough Lane Bryants to keep me clothed this winter.

And I hope Coldwater Creek makes it.

[girl gone mad]

10. What are we going to do with all of those malls..

and strip malls?

I suppose some of them could be turned into schools.

I was thinking about this the other day looking at an old Taco Bueno near my house that is now a Sushi place but still has the signature pueblo appearance. There is also a Lutheran High School not too far from here in a building that used to be a car dealership.

I guess another option would be for the government to take over some of them and give good leases to small businesses. I'd like to expand my business, but high commercial RE rates have been the one major obstacle.

[enid602]

11. thanks

Thanks. Now I know what to get people I don´t like this Christmas. Do the closed stores offer discounts on gift certificates?

[phusion]

12. Also Mervyns

I think they are going out of business, closing all stores.

One of the largest malls here in New Mexico said it's having financial troubles and might not be able to keep its doors open.

[Alameda]

14. Here too, they had some nice bargains.

Are we only going to be left with a few outlets?

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. They left Texas completely a few years ago.

I didn't miss them that much. I shopped there a bit in the 80s, but hadn't found much I liked in the 90s.

[w4rma]

13. Where are their bailouts? (nt)

[Alameda]

15. the link doesn't work, not for me anyway...

CompUSA is not in this list, nor is Mervins. It's really distressing.

[southernyankeebelle]

16. Time to make home made stuff

I got Rosie's new book "Crafty you". I went to the dollar tree and bought small wooden boxes $1.00 ea, and bought paint brush, stickers and paint. I let my 2 yr old granddaughter paint the boxes. When she finished and they dried I went behind her when she wasn't with me and painted the one more time. The boxes look great and they will be christmas gifts. They can put hairs pins, paper clips, or even their rosaries in the boxes. They really came out nice. The book Crafty You had a lot of good suggestions that kids could make and not expensive. Go on line also looking up Crafty You.com. It is worth the time. My granddaughter can't wait to come over to work on projects. Also people like getting hand made gifts. Another thing is good is baked goods. Homemade is the greatest gift of all. Try it. Plus it is a whole lot cheaper.

[TripleKatPad]

17. And when the Big 3 auto companies go down to boot

Expect a rapid collpase to chaos. I wish I didn't see it that way, but I do.

[KoKo]

18. Your post is more Alarmist than needed to be...Talbott and some others NOT closing ALL STORES...

If one Googles all on your list ...there are some stores that are NOT in the dire straights ...i.e. CLOSING ALL STORES that you say.

Please don't include some stores on your list that could panic folks here that are confusing "closing some branches like Mens and Kids or some new venture they did in the last few years" that didn't pan out.

Talbot's is NOT closing ALL STORES!

[MattSh]

20. What's up with your link???

It takes me to some Microsoft link. This one...

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/possibilities/products/default.aspx?ocid=ftp_wmg_wl_155

Probably trying to get me to install something on my Mac.

[jpertello]

21. sorry. I'll find the original source.

http://www.topix.com/forum/source/evening-sun/T8R0IPU260KR7BE5E

[jpertello]

22. checked out on Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp

The bottom line advice is: DON'T buy gift cards this year! I work in malls every weekend all over the NY tri-state area. I've seen "dead ends" in malls (a wing where most stores are closed) like in Colonie Center , near Albany NY in which The LL Bean wing is mostly shut down. There are malls with plenty of unrented space which they are offering for incredibly low rents (I was offered a 600 sq ft store for $1300!!!). If you wander into a Kids Gap store it is empty. Likewise most stores in malls. JC Penney is still doing very well running great sales nationwide. Macy's has many loser stores. The walk-in hairdressers in the malls are doing very badly. Go up to the food courts. The line is longest for BK, McD's and Wendy's. Take at peek at what the person in front of you just ordered. It was probably $ menu stuff. The other food chains in the food court are hurting. The local diner near where I live is empty most of the time. The merchants I've questioned about this downturn in the town lament that NO ONE is shopping and they probably won't meet their rent in 2009.

On the other hand, may I add that malls in general make me ill. I observe people gazing in wonder up at a giant gaudy Christmas tree like it was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Malls have become the modern poor replacement of cathedrals, museums, libraries and other institutions where parents & children SHOULD be spending their weekends.

[AsahinaKimi]

26. Many of them are all stores in Malls...

I would imagine a lot of Shopping Malls will have many open spaces for lease..
One wonders what will take their place and if Malls will continue to
exsist? I was so shocked when Tower Records went out of Business..they were
in San Francisco for quite a few years..

Just don't close my Panda Express!!!

[DangerousRhythm]

33. Tower Records

I used to hang out around the Tower Records in Greenwich Village in NYC whenever I could back in the late 80s and early 90s. I was shocked to hear they'd gone out of business because I got so much of my CD collection there back then and they seemed such an institution, y'know?

[lanlady]

27. OMG J. Jll?

I'd heard about Ann Taylor but not J. Jill. Damn, what a shame! I love their clothes. And Talbot's and Lane Bryant... pretty soon there will be no place for we middle-aged women to shop.

[thesquanderer]

28. Domain

Here's another, not that long ago... Domain closed their last of their 27 stores in March.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0811/gallery.victims_of_the_crash.smb/index.html

[AsahinaKimi]

29. Also..

Robinsons May went out of business not too long ago...

It was expensive but I enjoyed shopping there.

[OwnedByFerrets]

30. Sharper Image is NOT going to honor over 66 million in

gift cards this year. DO NOT give gift cards. They are a huge ripoff, no matter HOW convenient they seem.

[sledgehammer]

34. Some of the info in the list might not be correct...

J. Jill is not closing all its stores, rather it is up for sale. And there's no mention of Talbots shutting all its stores:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/11/07/talbots_is_seeking_a_buyer_for_j_jill/

This list seems more accurate:

http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2008/11/12/news/doc4914806667865596217648.txt

Either way, a dismal situation for retail. And I think it will only get worse after the holiday sales numbers come in.

[tomreedtoon]

35. Does anybody shop at mall stores any more?

I stop into a local mall to pay off some of my Sears charge and maybe eat in the food mart. Sometimes a friend insists we go into the FYE (F*** You Electronics) to look at DVD's, or to the mini-bookstore to shop for books. Nothing else.

I don't shop for pretentious clothes, jewelry or full retail priced electronics. And even teens know that Hot Topic is NOT Punk Rock. The only people I see in the mall are seniors getting air-conditioned walking space, and teens hanging out in the food court.

It wasn't always that way. Ages ago, malls had specialty stores. I remember going quite often to a tie store (I thought wearing a tie with a shirt made me more attractive; I didn't realize it cuts off blood to the brain and makes you stupid enough to be a GM executive.) When the male peacock trend went away, so did the store.

But the mall stores have the same junk you can get at Wal-Mart, only priced higher. I'm sorry, but it's all the same crap. The only thing you get in a mall you can't get in a real store is ego stroking.

[fasttense]

36. Thanks for the warning. I wont buy my nieces and nephews gift cards

at those stores this year.

People better be looking at their insurance policies too. Insurance is only as good as the company you buy it from.