Columbus bracing for retail job losses

[AngryOldDem]

This story was featured on CNN's news crawler Tuesday morning. Took awhile, but I finally found it on the CNNMoney site.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/10/news/economy/columbus_retailjobs/index.htm?source=aol_quote

Relevant snips:

<<NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As U.S. job growth hits the skids, a shrinking labor market means one thing for the nervous retail workers who reside in Columbus, Ohio: Their jobs are on shaky ground.

According to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce's "Blue Chip Economic Forecast" released in January, total jobs in the greater Columbus area are expected to grow at an anemic 0.4% this year, or just 3,500 jobs, after a not much better 0.5% growth rate in 2007.

Over the past 12 months, Macy's has cut 640 jobs in Columbus and Meijer Stores has eliminated 662 positions. Limited Brands (LTD, Fortune 500), which operates Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works chains, has trimmed 500 positions.

Retail-related jobs in Columbus are forecast to decline by 2.1%, or about 2,100 jobs, on top of about 2,000 industry jobs that were lost last year.<<

According to the Chamber of Commerce, 17% of retail jobs has been lost since 2001. I've been wondering how Columbus has been faring with the closures of a lot of Macy's stores, as well as Lane Bryant going under. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of us here in the hinterlands have always seen Columbus as an economically stable and viable city.

[Riley133]

1. This is somewhat misleading and here's why

As I understand it some of these stores, such as Meijer, are closing their city stores only to rebuild brand new stores out in the suburbs and the laid off employees will be the first to be offered jobs in the new stores.

To me, Columbus is still thriving. New retail is being built - even upscale.

[MeDeMax]

2. did you check the label on the kool-aid you are drinking ?

It may have some toxic components, that's what happened at Bear Stearns.

As long as they pretended that everything reported by Fox News about the economy was true they were doing okay, but somewhere along the line they started believing it too, that's when they drank their own kool-aid and the company collapsed.

Can you corroborate your story with verifiable sources ? Please ?


ps: I just watched 2-1/2 hours of Frontline Report Bush's War & I am bit riled up, your post sounds like a talking point out of Fox News

[AngryOldDem]

3. And even if these stores/jobs are being relocated...

...it is still bad news for the city. Dayton is an excellent case in point.

Dayton has three malls within 20 miles of the city center. When the first mall opened, nearly 35 years ago, it was the death knell for downtown, which had two thriving department stores that helped support other businesses and made downtown THE place to go to shop. Then the mall opened south of town, which was one harbinger of changing demographics -- Dayton's population began to shift south -- and these department stores had no choice but to relocate although they tried to hold on downtown as long as they could. Downtown became a shell, and that radiated out to the rest of the city.

Both stores had local roots. One, Rike's, was later bought out by Federated, and underwent three changes of management (and store name) in about 20 years, and is now Macy's. The other, Elder-Beerman, hung on by the skin of its teeth throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, closing several stores including its large downtown location, before being bought out by Bon-Ton. My point is that even though these stores may still have some presence in a community, that does not always translate into economic stability. I wonder how long Dayton's shaky economy will be able to support three malls, two of which are "upscale." What happens then? I can see Macy's pulling out of Dayton altogether at some point, as it has in other medium-sized markets.

Also, Columbus not only has department stores -- a lot of catalog and other store-related business services are based there and those jobs can be pulled in a heartbeat, regardless of whether or not the stores themselves are still there. And if people in the support roles lose their jobs, it really is immaterial whether or not these stores are still anywhere in the Columbus metro area. The jobs are gone.

[MeDeMax]

4. lets face it AOD, in this era of etailing

talk about retail relocation is basically bs.

Most retailers are trying to hang on their brand identity as they figure how to make, show & ship from China, India & Mexico.

Its pretty bad out there.

Ironically, as the treasury floods the market with printed currency to stem the credit crunch the weakening dollar is starting to reverse trends of the past decade. It is becoming increasingly expensive to outsource as the dollar weakens.