Connecticut’s ‘Rodeo Drive’ Abandoned as Hedge Funds Collapse

[marmar]

Connecticut’s ‘Rodeo Drive’ Abandoned as Hedge Funds Collapse
By Allison Abell Schwartz and Matt Townsend


March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Finding a parking spot for your Mercedes or BMW on Greenwich Avenue, the main shopping strip of the U.S. hedge-fund capital, used to be a challenge. Not anymore.

With the recession hammering retail sales, empty curbside spaces abound along the suburban Connecticut thoroughfare, known as the Rodeo Drive of the northeast, and “For Rent” signs decorate vacant storefronts. Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Borders have all closed their Greenwich Avenue locations.

As banks and hedge funds cut jobs or close down in the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, Greenwich merchants are suffering sales declines. Some stores are simply packing it in. Many are renegotiating rents, cutting inventory or offering cheaper products.

“We never used to have one day with no sales,” said May Lai Ku, the manager of Cochni, a woman’s clothing store on the avenue. “Now that happens three to four times a month.”

Ku, 46, said her store had about $40,000 in sales in January 2008. This year, it will take about three months to make the same amount, with almost everything in the store discounted as much as 80 percent, she said.

Hedge funds may cut 20,000 workers worldwide this year, a record 14 percent of the industry’s jobs, as investment losses and client withdrawals erode fees, according to estimates by New York-based Options Group, an executive-search firm.

Greenwich, a town of about 62,000 located around an hour’s drive northeast of Manhattan, is home to more than 100 hedge funds. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=arOzIUvhbr1o&refer=home

[Warpy]

1. What's amazing to me is how many high income people

didn't save a dime. In fact, many of them used that expectation of a permanent high income to leverage the kind of debt that would allow them a movie star lifestyle.

Well, I guess they'll have to live on their memories.

In the meantime, I sincerely hope Ms. Ku had the brains to save.

[cali]

2. Quite a few lived way, way beyond their means, indulging in orgies of spending

tough shit for them.

[Hugin]

3. The evidence has been there for years.

In the reports of personal spending exceeding income and charts of a negative savings rate.

:scared:

[Turbineguy]

4. They are as good with their own money

as they are with your retirement fund.