Merry Chirstmas Economy!

[tharpdevenport]

I saw this printed out and hung some place today, so I had found it online:

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be
worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as "Bankrupcy Planning." Below is a partial list of stores that you need to
be cautious about.

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores, more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Some people claimed there were some inaccuracies in the article, so I researched the first 15.:

CC did file Chapter 11, and they are closing 155 stores (there one here in my city is one of those). Couldn't find an exact number of lost jobs, but the word is "thousands".

Ann Taylor is closing 117 stores, from 2008 to 2010. 200 jobs LOST.

Lane Bryant is closing 150, with 300+ jobs LOST.

Eddie Bauer has increased it from 27 to 60 closings. 900 jobs LOST.

Cache is closing 29, at this time (which is an increase from the last word of 23).

Talbots -- 78 stores, 800+ jobs LOST.

J. Jill -- all stores. Couldn't find a figure on jobs lost.

Pacific Sunwear -- 74 closings. I assuming the jobs lost, since they are part of Talbots, is part of the 800+.

GAP -- 550 jobs LOST. Didn't find the store numbers.

Footlocker -- On top these 140 closing (with more to follow), they closed 274 stores last year. Unless they pull out of this, Footlocker will probably file for Chapter 11 and close all stores from 2009's end.

Wickes Furniture -- this is the first one that is a little misleading. The closed all stores because of a court rulling, since they went for Chapter 11 and the court liquidated their assets.

Levitz -- all stores, since 2007 it started closing. 1,000+ jobs LOST.

Bombay -- closing all stores in the U.S., but the Canadian stores are remaining open.

Zales -- true as well. Approx. 500 will be lost.

Whitehall -- all stores, which is 373. Which means, assuming four employees per stores (a manager, two employees and an assistant manager) would make 1,492 jobs LOST.



Though it's not on the list, DHL is closing completely in the U.S., losing 9,500 jobs.
Sprint is cutting 125 jobs, losing 4,000 jobs.
Winn-Dixie has closed over half it's stores and elimminated 30,000+ employess from now back to 2004 and each year it keeps getting worse, one can only asume more closings are coming in 2009.

 

[ALF]

Holy shit!!

Merry Christmas everyone. Hold you and yours tight and enjoy what you have. Next year has got to be better than this one tanked out to be.

 

[Kestra]

Thanks for the heads up and the research you did yourself.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Got a link to the original article? I need to send that to someone.

 

[Admiral Bear]

DHL is closing completely in the U.S., losing 9,500 jobs.

Oh my!

For anyone in the UK, there are persistent rumours regarding the short term health of Currys, PC World, Clintons, and JJB Sports.

Not that I want to spread fear and panic. It's only what I've read.

 

[shrantastic]

Ann Taylor is closing 117 stores, from 2008 to 2010. 200 jobs LOST.

Eddie Bauer has increased it from 27 to 60 closings. 900 jobs LOST.

Talbots -- 78 stores, 800+ jobs LOST.

J. Jill -- all stores. Couldn't find a figure on jobs lost.

But- I love finding these brands at the thrift! (seriously though, what I really hate is all the retail jobs lost)

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

OH NO!

Linens and Things closing all stores

Did anyone ever shop there? It always struck me as a sub-par Bed Bath & Beyond.

 

[John Clark]

I haven't seen many of those shops in the UK, but as Admiral Bear mentioned, we have our issues too

One that does surprise me on that list is DHL. We use them a lot at work (More than any of the other freight companies). Wonder if they'll be affected here.

 

[jkladis]

This is just the reflection of a trend we're all aware of. I doubt it's the end of consumerism. Maybe in its current form.

Every civilization has a pastime. Maybe ours will no longer be stimulation through buying.

 

[Admiral Bear]

This is just the reflection of a trend we're all aware of. I doubt it's the end of consumerism. Maybe in its current form.

Every civilization has a pastime. Maybe ours will no longer be stimulation through buying.

Consumerism at a certain level is key to the success of any economy, but if anything comes out of the current global recession/depression, I hope it's the death of the wanton hedonistic greed which has been forced on us as a way of life by governments, banks and retailers, and which will now blight us and future generations for decades.

 

[gh4chiefs]

This is just the reflection of a trend we're all aware of. I doubt it's the end of consumerism. Maybe in its current form.

Every civilization has a pastime. Maybe ours will no longer be stimulation through buying.

It's called the "business cycle" folks. Yes this one may be the worst one since the 30's. (As bad as it is, we're still no where near that level.) Eventually "consumerism" will come back. We consume things to live, survive, and ultimately enjoy life. We do that by nature. We may have to put it on hold for awhile, but eventually it will come back.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Yes, it may be a cycle and we may rebound back, but it will take a long time, and in the mean time 1.5 million people lost their job this year -- that' a lot of people who need to pay bills, get cloths, and eat. They can't wait for the cycle to circle back and correct itself.

While Googling the information, about three sites had the article, one of them was AOL Money as I recall. But my numbers are more up-to-date from searching, than the article.

 

[Holdfast]

This is just the reflection of a trend we're all aware of. I doubt it's the end of consumerism. Maybe in its current form.

Every civilization has a pastime. Maybe ours will no longer be stimulation through buying.

It's called the "business cycle" folks. Yes this one may be the worst one since the 30's. (As bad as it is, we're still no where near that level.) Eventually "consumerism" will come back. We consume things to live, survive, and ultimately enjoy life. We do that by nature. We may have to put it on hold for awhile, but eventually it will come back.

+1

 

[gh4chiefs]

Yes, it may be a cycle and we may rebound back, but it will take a long time, and in the mean time 1.5 million people lost their job this year -- that' a lot of people who need to pay bills, get cloths, and eat. They can't wait for the cycle to circle back and correct itself.

Well just for the record, I was strictly responding the comment about "death of consumerism." I'm not making light of people losing their jobs.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

One that does surprise me on that list is DHL. We use them a lot at work (More than any of the other freight companies). Wonder if they'll be affected here.

I doubt it...DHL was stupid to try and get into the US market with such a strong presence from the US Post Office AND where both FedEx and UPS originated.

 

[Thena]

Just as an FYI on J. Jill, the chain is for sale by its corporate parent but may not necessarily be closing down. [Link]

Talbots Inc. at Hingham and Massachusetts has confirmed that the unidentified e-mail, claiming that the retailers have planned to shutdown all its J. Jill and Talbots stores, is completely a hoax, as reported by patriotledger on November 20, 2008. The tagline "Talbots closing all stores" is making its appearance among the top 100 search items on the "Hot List" of Google Trends.

 

[drychlick]

thank you for the hand up! merry christmas

 

[RoJoHen]

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

OH NO!

My mall experience will never be the same again!