Economic woes lead to retail retrenchment

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: MSNBC

Around the country, mall centers are starting to feel the recoil from a rapid expansion in recent years that allowed retailers to aim stores at almost every niche, from shoppers who wanted Talbots clothes for their children to those who craved Bombay’s little wood tables.

Now, consumers who are closing their wallets amid rising gasoline prices and a housing slump are forcing specialty retailers to pare back their brands. While still healthy overall, mall centers in areas hardest hit by the housing downturn — like Paradise Valley — are suffering the most store shutdowns.

Retailers including AnnTaylor Stores Corp., Talbots Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. have closed hundreds of stores so far this year. Gadget seller Sharper Image Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection last month and plans to shutter nearly half of its 184 stores.

That retrenchment, along with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of catalog retailer Lillian Vernon Corp., marks the beginning of a wave of retail bankruptcies that’s expected to go well beyond the home furnishings stores hurt by the housing malaise.

“This is economic Darwinism,” said Dan Ansell, a partner at Greenberg Traurig LLP and chairman of its real estate operations division. “Those retailers and businesses that have a product that is desired by consumers will survive, and those who do not will not.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23548101/

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This is a big part of the death spiral we're in. All of the newly unemployed will now no longer be able to find even $7/hr. jobs in retail.

Those who still don't think that there's going to be a complete economic collapse had better wake up soon.

[Mojambo]

1. Boy we've REALLY seen it here

I work at a small independent magazine and newspaper shop in a mall and the traffic has been WAY down.

Luxuries like magazines and coffee are the first thing to go when gas prices are $3.50 and rising.

I fully expect to be unemployed before this recession ends.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. People talk about the recession "ending",

but how is it going to end if nobody can get a job?

[Mojambo]

3. Maybe after the complete collapse our corporate masters will bring the jobs back from the 3rd world

When we're willing to work for .50 cents an hour of course.

[dbackjon]

4. Same way our last one ended - World War

Drafting millions sure cures the unemployment problem.

Get enough unemployed men, we can take Venezuela for our own!!

[Speck Tater]

5. But WW II was funded by war bonds, in other words,

by borrowing from the savings of the American people. There are no savings of the American people any more. And which country is foolish enough to loan the USA money for another war?

Nope. This time, when the US economy collapses, it will STAY collapsed. Permanently. America will be nothing more than an interesting tourist destination for people from other countries who would like to see Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and the Ruins of New York City. And American citizens will be standing on the streets hawking postcards, or pimping their sisters to the tourists.

[Mojambo]

6. Just great... I don't even have a sister! n/t

[corporatemedia]

7. LMAO...............n/t

[hack89]

10. Every other recession has ended

this will be no different. This is my fourth recession as an adult - they all seem like the end of the world yet basic economics say that in a year or two the economy will grow again.

[bushmeister0]

8. "Those retailers and businesses that have a . . .

" . . . product that is desired by consumers will survive, and those who do not will not."

Imagine that, what a concept. Retailers that sell crap people don't need will sink. Hmmmm . . . profunity.

[catnhatnh]

9. This ain't normal spin...this is a centrifuge....

"This is economic Darwinism"...Yes-and the survivors will sell stuff like food....can you picture picture yourself wandering through K-mart and buying for fun???It's pretty much all over....