22 Retailers Closing Stores

[nivek]

As latest Sears closes in New York area, just 12 remain - so, just what went WRONG at 138-year-old retailer that was once the world's biggest?​

Sears' last remaining store in the New York area is shutting its doors - in another blow for the once-legendary retailer.

A store in Jersey City, just over the Hudson river from Manhattan, announced a 70 percent off closing sale in a Facebook post - ending 40-years in the Newport Centre Mall.

At its peak, the 138-year-old department store was not just the biggest retailer in the US - but the world. It boasted over 4,000 stores as recently as 2012.

But the vast majority have now shuttered since the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2018.

Sears previously had 11 locations in New Jersey alone, but now has only a dozen across the whole country. The closest location for New York and New Jersey shoppers is now over 200 miles away in Braintree, Massachusetts.

The company, which was established in 1886 by railroad station agent Richard Sears, is now owned by Transformco, a retail company headed by hedge fund operator Eddie Lampert.

(More on the link)

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[pigfarmer]

Sitting here wearing my Craftsman insulated shirt I didn't know there were ANY Sears left, thought that was over with a while ago. Sad. That one I actually miss.

 

[pigfarmer]

I have never been a fan of Walmart for many reasons and by extension have had little use for Sam's Club, or BJs for that matter. But, since the economy is booming so well (we've been told) it finally prompted my wife and I - dedicated DINKS - to do some comparison shopping. We don't go through that much as it's just the two of us and the need just wasn't there but watching prices soar and quantity reduce the way they have been, added with the fact that I have more free time in my life that ever before, we made the rounds.

The BJs near here is dilapidated and had me wondering when my last tetanus shot was. Sam's Club is beautiful to behold and very well maintained but to the uninitiated I saw fully 20% of the store, right in the middle, stocked with absolute garbage. Literally entirely made of pallet after pallet of snack foods and junk. Also, we're not shopping there for clothing, furniture, electronics or anything so probably half of those huge stores are of no interest. If I were raising a family on budget, absolutely - but I'd still be aghast at the **** people eat and spend $$ on.

By comparing unit cost BJs actually is cheaper, then Sam's after that. Walmart won the prize because once I had a look at membership costs and what we actually buy, Walmart is doing fine by us and surprisingly our local supermarket comes in ahead of the big chains on some things. You have to really look, which is what we did. Basically, the cost savings of a membership club could be realized by skipping one, two at most trips to the diner. So WallyWorld it is maybe twice a month for bulk items.

Walmartians. Now, this is an old cliche but not necessarily to me. The spectacle's the thing, you see, I found yesterday to be highly entertaining. There are enough memes out there and you don't need me to burden this thread with more but there is a phenomenon I noticed.

No matter how big the store is human beings mill around like cattle. Our local green grocer is tiny by design, makes it quant, and I imagine an aerial view of what goes on inside would look like a slide full of contaminated water under a microscope. Make that exponentially bigger, make the aisle wide enough to drive a semi truck through and you still have people that can block it. Big, fat lumbering asses swinging arms and coats and walking slooooooowly side by side completely oblivious. I read that somewhere is Asia they have 'pushers' on subway platforms to pack people into train cars. Great idea here except they'd need an attachment for a fork truck to do that.

Americans in 2024 by and large are fat bastards.

 

[The shadow]

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2024/04/02/ge-vernova-first-day-of-trading.html.
The grand daddy of them all is gone

 

[pigfarmer]

We went into Macy's yesterday in what's left of the local mall. Shopping for mattresses. They start at $1800 and go waaaay up from there. I was looking at all the inventory they have and couldn't help but think it'll still be sitting there when they close the store and mall finally.

 

[nivek]

Macy's..... the local mall.

Macy's left the closest mall to me back in 2021, I used to shop there infrequently...The local health organization 'Novant Health' took over the old Macy's store there for reasons unknown to me...The mall still has JC Penny's, Dillard's, and Belk's as the remaining larger stores...Sears used to be there too many moons ago and that space has been used by a bank ever since Sears closed down...

...

 

[nivek]

We went into Macy's yesterday in what's left of the local mall. Shopping for mattresses. They start at $1800 and go waaaay up from there. I was looking at all the inventory they have and couldn't help but think it'll still be sitting there when they close the store and mall finally.

Back in January this year we were at a Macy's in Charlotte NC and I noticed their prices are way up there...I bought a couple shirts that were on-sale and still forked over close to 200 bones...Loved the shirts and how they fit or else I would have passed...

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[The shadow]

As of February, 2024, there are 12 Kmart stores in the United States. These stores are located in 8 states and territories and 11 cities.
The state with the most Kmart locations is U.S. Virgin Islands, with 3 stores. This is about 25% of all Kmart locations in the United States.
The city with the most Kmart locations is St Thomas, with 2 locations. This is about 17% of all Kmart locations in the United States.
And:
As of February, 2024, there are 13 Sears stores in the United States. These stores are located in 7 states and territories and 11 cities. The state with the most Sears locations is California, with 4 stores. This is about 31% of all Sears locations in the United States

 

[Dejan Corovic]

The retail apocalypse in full swing: Gymboree closes 800 stores, Shopko 105, Payless 2300, Charlotte Russe 400. What’s behind it? Some blame Amazon or changing taste, but the real culprit is private equity. We’ll explain how PE makes money as these businesses fail.


Private Equity Pillage details the business model that allows private equity firms to bankrupt chains, throw workers out of jobs, stiff vendors and still make a profit, in the context of grocery stores. 2/12 https://cepr.shorthandstories.com/private-equity-pillage/index.html …

Here’s an overview of the business model. Private equity firms have rigged the process so they can extract profits not only from their investors (often public pension funds) but also from the companies that it “invests” in. Here's how:

Investors, using money from public employees' pensions for example, put their $$$ in a particular private equity fund. Right off the bat, the private equity firm makes a profit because they collect management fees for just accepting the money.

The traditional story is that private equity firms invest in already distressed companies. Yet more and more they are healthy, proven companies that the PE firm then forces to take on debt (which the company now pays interest on). This erodes its ability to stay competitive.

On top of the new financial pressures a company faces from this debt, it *also* pays monitoring fees to the PE firm. It may need to sell assets too, like real estate, and then pay rent to occupy the buildings it once owned. Where do the proceeds go? Usually, the PE firm.

With all this money being siphoned off from the company, it is in a much more difficult position to compete.

Case in point: Albertsons, the 2nd largest grocer, struggles to compete, unlike Kroger's (the largest). The difference? Albertsons is owned by PE firm Cerberus and lacks $$$ to invest in multi-modal retailing. Kroger's can do all that Amazon-owned Whole Foods does & more.

Now in a precarious situation, the company might liquidate, restructure, or be sold. None might be the PE firm's most desirable outcome, but financial engineering usually ensures that it comes out on top (and it might be first in line to divvy up assets).

Even if the PE firm doesn't make money from the bankruptcy, it has made money throughout the entire process via fees on its investors and the company it acquired, as well as from the assets the company sold off. The losers? Workers, investors like pension funds, vendors.

But common sense reforms can help. These could be limiting the debt an acquired company can take on, being transparent about fees, limiting payments to PE firms in the aftermath of a buyout, making PE firms joint employers, and protecting workers if a company goes bust.


Private equity gets away with all of this because of loopholes in current law. But that doesn’t mean what they are doing makes sense for either workers or the economy. We need reforms that center workers and others taken advantage of in the current PE model.

If I may add to this:


View: https://youtu.be/PLEZiSZVw

 

[pigfarmer]

Macy's

As it turned out we got exactly what we needed at exactly the right price in a small franchise and it was less than half the price. Half the price for the two mattresses we bought combined as compared to what Macy's is asking for just one.

I just bought some shirts, shoes, jeans for decent prices and never had to get up much less drive to a store and hope they have my size, which they never do. New business model, inevitably the old one will wither on the vine and that's what those empty malls represent. Sad to see major names like Sears fail to keep up. In that case it died a death of incompetency.

I am wondering if Big Box Home Improvement will ever face a challenge to their current model. If so they're screwed as their online ordering/pickup systems leave something to be desired. Reminds me of a water pipeline leading from a mountain lake to a big village. When times are good and there's plenty of water nobody cares of the pipeline leaks like a sieve. When it starts to dry up and actual skilled maintenance has to go into the thing, that's when there's trouble.

Frankly, for what I am doing around here this Spring the local farm and lumber yard will work just fine, no Big Box required.