Payless seeks bankruptcy court protection, 400 stores to close

[Eugene]

Source: USA Today

Payless seeks bankruptcy court protection, 400 stores to close

Kevin McCoy , USA TODAY Published 4:56 p.m. ET April 4, 2017 | Updated 41 minutes ago

Discount footwear chain Payless ShoeSource sought bankruptcy court protection Tuesday, announcing it will close 400 stores after facing bruising competition from online retailers and other setbacks.

The chain said that under a reorganization plan, it will shed debt, attract new capital, boost its e-commerce efforts and emerge stronger and more competitive.

Coming amid a wave of other retail sector bankruptcies and hundreds of store closings, Payless filed a Chapter 11 reorganization petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Missouri that said the company has as much as $1 billion in assets and up to $10 billion in liabilities, along with more than 100,000 creditors.

An announcement by the privately-held company said Payless would "optimize its store footprint, with the immediate closure of nearly 400 underperforming locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico." The company currently operates about 4,400 stores in 30 countries, including the U.S.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/04/payless-seeks-bankruptcy-court-protection-400-stores-close/100036358/

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Retail is taking a beating under der Trumpenfuhrer....

[trc]

2. Obama's fault, bigly. After all, jobs are only created under 45, not lost like a loser.

In reality this has nothing to do with either Obama or dufusmctrumperston, but 45 claims every job saved or created so he can take the loss as well.

[Warpy]

3. It has been taking a beating a lot longer than that

It survived Bush the smarter, started to go south under Clinton, went way south at the end of Stupid's reign, and has continued to suffer during 8 years of Obama. A lot of people didn't notice, mergers and megamergers put bandaids on companies that were hemorrhaging profit. However, during the last 8 years, malls have been abandoned and closed, strip malls are starting to look like meth mouth with all the blank storeftonts, and in my part of town, some strip malls have been bulldozed and are piles of rubble waiting to be carted away by someone who wants to develop the property---and have been for five years or so.

Online purchases aren't killing retail. Having the purchasing power of ordinary workers fall too far is killing retail. Retail therapy isn't possible for most of us, not any more, and with another GOP in office, we're spending down on things we need like food, housing and replacement clothing.

It's no wonder Payless is going under. They expanded too quickly and made their profit on cheaply made but trendy looking shoes. Shes have to be sturdier these days and fashion be damned.

If the retail giants want to stay in business, they'd better start pushing for a higher minimum wage, probably while howling about it in the press. Only higher wages will spur the kind of demand that has a chance of keeping them in business.

The 0.1% has killed the goose that laid all their golden eggs, consumer demand. It's starting to show rather starkly. I just wonder how much worse it will get before they notice to the point of allowing something to be done about it.

[gay texan]

4. that sucks..... n/t