Two Gift Retailers File for Bankruptcy - Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp.

[Kadie]

Two Gift Retailers File for Bankruptcy
By MAE ANDERSON, AP Business Writer

Wednesday, February 20, 2008


(02-20) 09:21 PST New York (AP) --

A weak holiday season and a struggling economy led retailers Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp. to file for bankruptcy this week, and analysts predict others could soon follow them as consumer spending worsens.

"You'll see a record number of bankruptcies over the next 50, 100, and 1,000 days," said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the New York-based retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. "Consumers are cash and credit constrained. They're out of purchasing power."

Both Sharper Image, known for its high-tech novelty gadgets, and Lillian Vernon, which sells low-cost gifts and gadgets through its catalog and Web site, have long been plagued with falling sales.

But retailers across the sector have been laying off staff and closing stores as consumers cut back on discretionary spending, faced with weak credit and housing markets and high food and gas prices.


more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/20/financial/f071151S79.DTL&tsp=1

[Hydra]

1. Wow

Here we go- great depression 2.0.

[NightWatcher]

2. both are novelty, plastic garbage. maybe we are developing better taste

ok, or not

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

3. Wow. That's surprising, but I guess it shouldn't be.

They aren't the retailers I would have guessed would be the canaries in the coal mine, but there they are.

There are certain retail districts here that I use to gauge economic flux. More and more empty storefronts showing up.

[alphafemale]

4. The Lillian Vernon catalog is always good for laughs.

Amazing level of tacky.

[Deja Q]

5. Rainbow Foods did the bankrupcy thing years ago... they're still around.

And find me a k-mart that doesn't look or smell like a public toilet.

Plus, anyone with a brain knows Sharper Image sells the same stuff everyone else does... for much higher prices. Always has.

[Warpy]

17. KMart in this town is clean and bright

Wally's is the urinal with merchandise.

[unpossibles]

6. great. So now I must turn to Sky Mall for tacky, over-priced useless junk?!?!

Sorry.

[MissB]

10. .

:rofl:

[liberal N proud]

7. Sharper Image Corp has always been overpriced crap

marketed as high end rich peoples toys.

Most of their stores have been in high end shopping centers

[malaise]

18. I am a victim

You're so right.

[aquart]

20. I love my white noise machine. Love it.

Does this mean the end?

[Midlodemocrat]

21. I love mine, as well. Great product.

[AlCzervik]

8. about a year and half or so ago the sharper image store at Ghirardelli Square

in sf closed, you can manage to sell stuff in a place that gets thousands of visitors then you know times are bad plus some of the stuff at SI was pretty ridiculous.

[pitohui]

9. sharper image over-invested in useless overpriced air filters

haven't seen lillian vernon in years but it used to be gifts only geezers would buy for their unfortunate victims, today's more "hip" older folks probably don't care to shop there

[Warpy]

11. Right on schedule

Xmas sales sucked. The middle class that used to support these places is pretty much gone, their net worth having evaporated along with the price of whatever they're living in. Jobs are still being offshored, the office jobs that were the mainstay of suburbia. The January inventory has been done and now we'll see all the mid tier chains going under. Credit card companies are raising their rates across the board, meaning new toys will now need to be bought with cash or not bought at all.

Around here, the Wally's parking lot was half empty all the way through the shopping season. The Dollar Store's parking lot was jammed. If that doesn't say declining expectations, what does?

People know their jobs aren't safe. They know everything's getting more expensive and that their paychecks aren't going anywhere.

You'd think the GOP would realize that business can survive antiquated equipment, bad management and even lawsuits. What they can't survive is the loss of customers produced by stupid GOP fiscal policy.

It's Harding, Coolidge and Hoover all over again. That party will never let go of its stupid economic ideology.

[LiberalEsto]

15. Yep

Here in "affluent" Montgomery County, Maryland, I've been seeing long lines at the Big Lots and dollar stores. The malls are practically empty. I'm sure the rich folks down in Potomac are still ordering from their Neiman-Marcus catalogs, but the average person is taking a huge hit with rising gas and food prices.

Welcome to the Bush Depression.

[Virginia Dare]

24. And it will get much much worse for retailers..

folks are going to be holding on tight to their money, what little they have, at least until after the election is over. They'll be buying things they only absolutely need as opposed to things they want. I just don't see too many people running out to blow that $600 dollar bonus. Things look pretty bleak.

[OneBlueSky]

12. they both sell junk . . . no big loss, imo . . . n/t

.

[Steven_S]

13. I met Lillian Katz many years ago...

She was admired by women's groups and the business community for starting a business off her kitchen table and turning it into a multi-million dollar business. She also put a lot of people to work in this area. I'm sure she won't be eating cat food, but I feel bad for all the regular folks that will soon be out of work.

[radfringe]

14. that's what happens when you strangle the goose

I'm just waiting for someone to point out the stupidity of supply-side-voodoo-bushonomics

store shelves are packed with supply so how come no one's buying? :shrug:

[grilled onions]

16. Part of The Symptoms....

...the disease will follow. But how many will listen before it's too late? Will people fret over reality shows,watch the chimp and his "netting" concerns over the pond,or are they part of that 19% who have their Scarlett impression down pat "..for after all tommorow is another day" ?????? :crazy:

[aquart]

19. Oh my.

They've been around for decades.

[baldguy]

22. The Sharper Image? OH NO!

Where will I be able to get that combination ionizing pencil sharpener & coffee maker?

[J-Lo Biafra]

23. Though impractical, Sharper Image is a rather Blue company.

Bummer.

[Blue_Tires]

25. sharper image? damn

they used to be the shit back in the 80s...my dad always got their catalog (but never bought anything)...as a kid, i used to love all the glossy, pseudo next-gen stuff...and even as a kid i would mock their exhorbitant pricing

[LeftinOH]

26. Why the sudden drop in demand for robot dogs and monogrammed toilet paper cozies??

Our economy depends on this stuff.

[jtrockville]

27. Does this mean they'll stop sending me catalogs?