2G2D: Holiday retail sales "catastrophic"

[siamesedreamer]

The fallout from the horrific holiday season for retailers has begun, with the operator of an online toy seller filing for bankruptcy protection and more stores are expected to do the same — meaning more empty storefronts and fewer brands on store shelves.

A rash of store closings, which some experts predict will be the most in 35 years, is likely to come across areas from electronics to apparel, shrinking the industry and leading to fewer niche players and suppliers.

The most dramatic pullback in consumer spending in decades could transform the retail landscape, as thousands of stores and whole malls close down. And analysts expect prolonged woes in the industry as the dramatic changes in shopping behavior could linger for another two or three years amid worries about the deteriorating economy and rising layoffs.

"You are going to see a substantial retrenchment in the retail industry," said Rick Chesley, partner in the global bankruptcy and restructuring group at international law firm Paul Hastings. "The downturn has been catastrophic."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28425432/

Pretty much falls in line with what I witnessed from my whole family. I'd guestimate they spent a good 60-70% less than last year, while the wife and I spent upwards of 80% less than last year. Everyone is just completely tapped out in one way or another...

[Flannel Boy]

I blame MAF.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Where are all the deals that these places should be having?

[Flannel Boy]

Where are all the deals that these places should be having?

I believe shoplifting is way up. So people are helping themselves to some discounts.

[Bocsius]

I probably spent more than normal (if you exclude 2005), but I don't buy for many people. I did what I could to help Best Buy this year.

[Van Cruncheon]

the days of faking middle class status with easy credit are over. time to embrace your new upper class overlords, peons!

[Brehvolution]

Chinese mass unemployment on the horizon.  

[ch1nchilla]

This sucks ass. It's already turning my already shitty hometown into more a shitshow, all kinds of stores and good restaurants are closing because the town's 'middle-class' majority can't support them.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

BUT THE GAMEZ INDUSTRY. IT'S NOT EFFECTED RIGHT? RIGHT???

[close]

[AdmiralViscen]

My aunt was still saying last week that the doom and gloom was bullshit, the media is inventing the crisis, and that sales being down 2% is no big deal and happens all the time.

[The Fake Shemp]

No, it's bad out there. It's real bad.  We were told today that our company will be realigning tomorrow, less than twenty-four hours notice.  Which insinuates to me that they're preparing for store closings within the next six months.

[Human Snorenado]

No, it's bad out there. It's real bad.  We were told today that our company will be realigning tomorrow, less than twenty-four hours notice.  Which insinuates to me that they're preparing for store closings within the next six months.

TOLD you to get out of retail.  smh.

[The Fake Shemp]

I'm personally not worried, because I'm being groomed for multi-unit management and I've already been asked to move to another stable position within said company.  My home store is having something of a turnaround, thus continuing my trend of pretty much turning every busted store I go to into a moneymaker.  I personally rocked sales comp last week by like 13% when half the area was down.

That said, job stability is not why I'd want out of retail.  It's just a physical and mental drain.  That's why I'd leave.

[TVC15]

No, it's bad out there. It's real bad.  We were told today that our company will be realigning tomorrow, less than twenty-four hours notice.  Which insinuates to me that they're preparing for store closings within the next six months.

TOLD you to get out of retail.  smh.

And go where?  At the rate things are going, I don't think there are many fields that are safe.  I'm hoping the holiday bomba is the last lurch of the humungadungas as far as immediate disasters go.  Like, I hope there will be some measure of stabilization, at least for a few months.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

No, it's bad out there. It's real bad.  We were told today that our company will be realigning tomorrow, less than twenty-four hours notice.  Which insinuates to me that they're preparing for store closings within the next six months.

TOLD you to get out of retail.  smh.

And go where?  At the rate things are going, I don't think there are many fields that are safe.  I'm hoping the holiday bomba is the last lurch of the humungadungas as far as immediate disasters go.  Like, I hope there will be some measure of stabilization, at least for a few months.

Hopefully the utility industry.

I also hope that this will be the last big disaster.  Now businesses should know precisely where they stand.  The businesses hanging on by a thread, companies that are just a house of cards, and industries based on expendable income will probably suffer the greatest.  I just don't see any more disastrous crashes of any industries after this unless it was due to incompetent leadership that still don't get it.

[TVC15]

Well, actually, the fruition of the holiday disaster will be when people start releasing specific numbers in January.  The damage may already be done now, but the media will shit doom and gloom all over the place and make it seem like the country is doomed.  So this is really the disaster anxiety before the impending disaster.

[Van Cruncheon]

the holiday heaves were anticipated -- they aren't a surprise to anyone except maybe the media. like i've said a zillion times, the last two quarters of FY09 are gonna rape souls, but things should tick up decently come july.

[Van Cruncheon]

Well, actually, the fruition of the holiday disaster will be when people start releasing specific numbers in January.  The damage may already be done now, but the media will shit doom and gloom all over the place and make it seem like the country is doomed.  So this is really the disaster anxiety before the impending disaster.

yeah, the media is gonna piss and wail for most of january as the numbers roll in. it's gonna get obnoxious FAST

[demi]

I will pay Willco for private cam videos. Just a thought. We could make a site. There's a market out there for people like you, Willco. We can make this work.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Warren Buffett speculates that this recession will last until 2010.

Well, actually, the fruition of the holiday disaster will be when people start releasing specific numbers in January.  The damage may already be done now, but the media will shit doom and gloom all over the place and make it seem like the country is doomed.  So this is really the disaster anxiety before the impending disaster.

True and knowing the media, it will be oversensationalized to the point where you'd think it was worse than The Great Depression.  This next year will be interesting, that's for sure.

[Van Cruncheon]

yes, but recovery will start with fy10 in june.

[The Fake Shemp]

Recovery will start once the middle class revolts against the upper class overlords~!!@134!!

[Van Cruncheon]

god how i wish

[The Fake Shemp]

Blood for credit!  BLOOD FOR CREDIT!

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Depends on if the middle class are able to watch TV or not.

[Bocsius]

Once everyone is unemployed, that's when recovery begins. There will be no one left to fire.

[Kestastrophe]

This article doesn't explain why we had our first shopping related fatality

[The Fake Shemp]

Because the capitalist dogs must pay their debt in blood!

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I have to admit that I'm excited at the slim prospects of a large scale upheaval.

[siamesedreamer]

The problem is unemployment. We're not even close to approaching the bottom there.

Plus employment is always a lagging indicator. The last two recessions it took two years before it caught up with GDP growth. So even if things start to turn around in the second half of 2009 (which is extreme wishful thinking IMO), we could be looking at well into 2011 before employment starts to improve.

2009 will make 2008 look like a picnic. There are so many things going against us:

- continuing home devaluation
- skyrocketing unemployment
- tapped out consumers
- difficult borrowing environment

Throw in forthcoming things like:

- trillions in cut credit limits
- massive inflationary pressures
- a bubble in the bond markets
- another foreclosure wave just as large as the current one (ratcheting up around late 2010)
- states and municipalities declaring bankruptcy

Its fugly. Things are going to get a lot worse. And its going to take a long time for all this to completely play out.

[ToxicAdam]

Yea it sucks. Wait until all these lack of tax revenues start to hit the government for multiple quarters. They will have to bleed some jobs. Just waves and waves of shit.

Maybe it's not too late to change professions and get into the medical field. The baby boomers will be the only one with pensions (ie steady income) and will need to have their asses wiped as they lose their faculties. Plus, with the new Obama-care coming around the corner .. companies can bilk the tax payers and remain profitable.

[Van Cruncheon]

ah, bitter republican tears

your capitalist god has failed

it's okay, you wouldn't have succeeded in a libertarian world regardless. thankfully, your intellectually superior yet still benevolent socialist friends will still share with you!

[Bocsius]

...whatever's left to share.

[Van Cruncheon]

can you farm

[ToxicAdam]

At least I will have Vodka and my DS to keep my occupied while I wait in socialist bread lines.

[Brehvolution]

I just can't wait to be addicted to the anti-cancer drug that is coming out. Yeah, the most common side effect is massive physical addiction. But who cares, right?

Cancer free prescription for a $55 a month co-pay.  

[Flannel Boy]

My aunt was still saying last week that the doom and gloom was bullshit, the media is inventing the crisis, and that sales being down 2% is no big deal and happens all the time.

My dad said the same thing when I was over in the UK.
I went shopping after Christmas and all the clothes stores were having "Everything 50% or less" sales. It was ridiculous. Zavvi, previously known as Virgin, also went into administration while I was over there. The UK is going to be a huge mess next year.

During my cab ride to the airport last week, the cabbie--growing tired of the Indian music he had on--changed the station to some blowhard, right-wing talk show. The show's host claimed that the current economic crisis was caused by the media's negativity, or, at the very least, worsened by it.

[siamesedreamer]

Yea it sucks. Wait until all these lack of tax revenues start to hit the government for multiple quarters. They will have to bleed some jobs. Just waves and waves of shit.

Tonight on CNBC they were talking about a budget deficit as high as $1.5 trillion each of the next two years. That's like 50% higher than they were talking about three weeks ago.

[Flannel Boy]

Don't all flood Canada at once.

[TVC15]

Don't all flood Canada at once.

Why would we go to Canada?  You'd just have your Boogies escort us out of your country, what with us all carrying pistols and gambling gear.

[Flannel Boy]

Don't all flood Canada at once.

Why would we go to Canada?  You'd just have your Boogies escort us out of your country, what with us all carrying pistols and gambling gear.

HAHA, you remembered the commercial.

[TVC15]

GOD DAMNIT THE CANADIAN HERITAGE COMMERCIALS WORKED.

I remember that one, the Marshal McLuhan one, the uh, underground railroad one, the basketball one, and one with orphans or something.

[Flannel Boy]

GOD DAMNIT THE CANADIAN HERITAGE COMMERCIALS WORKED.

I remember that one, the Marshal McLuhan one, the uh, underground railroad one, the basketball one, and one with orphans or something.

 

In one sentence, you pretty much summed up Canada's entire history

[Great Rumbler]

The area where I live in is still going retail crazy, especially as you get closer to Dallas. I'm not sure how all this will affect that, but in Allen they're laying foundations for dozens of stores in just one spot along I-75.

[TVC15]

Are there any more requirements to becoming a Canadian citizen other than knowing the facts about these heritage commercials?  Do I have to watch Corner Gas or anything?  Because I'll take 2G2D over that.

[CurseoftheGods]

Don't all flood Canada at once.

Why would we go to Canada?  You'd just have your Boogies escort us out of your country, what with us all carrying pistols and gambling gear.

[Flannel Boy]

Are there any more requirements to becoming a Canadian citizen other than knowing the facts about these heritage commercials?  Do I have to watch Corner Gas or anything?  Because I'll take 2G2D over that.

You have to listen to Rush's discography, read all of Margaret Atwood's books, and eat a bucket of poutine.

[TVC15]

Hmmm, I hate Rush but I love Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, so I have the music requirement basically covered, if equivalencies are accepted.  I've only read 2 Atwood books, but I've read four books by Robertson Davies (and I think I'd like to read more).  As far as the poutine goes, I have little doubt that poutine would make me toilet tantrum, bad.  I will, however, turn on my webcam and enter a video chat with you, where I rake the ancient solidified gallon of milk out of my freezer, put it in a big tupperware container, nuke it for 30 seconds to soften it up, and then proceed to rub it all over my hot and naked body.

[Flannel Boy]

I don't know about Canada, but that will get you into Germany or Japan.

[Oblivion]

During my cab ride to the airport last week, the cabbie--growing tired of the Indian music he had on--changed the station to some blowhard, right-wing talk show. The show's host claimed that the current economic crisis was caused by the media's negativity, or, at the very least, worsened by it.

Actually, I think there's some truth to that.

[Bocsius]

But right wing radio has said that about every downturn in recent history.

Of course, that all changes when this officially becomes the Obama Recession on January 20.

[TVC15]

During my cab ride to the airport last week, the cabbie--growing tired of the Indian music he had on--changed the station to some blowhard, right-wing talk show. The show's host claimed that the current economic crisis was caused by the media's negativity, or, at the very least, worsened by it.

Actually, I think there's some truth to that.

Yeah, I think the media worsening it bit is true to a certain extent.  Like, when those bad exact sales numbers hit in January, the newspapers and radio stations and tv shows will all be trying their hardest to come up with the most ludicrous and eye catching doomsday headline.  Rather than trying to present things in a rational and formal manner, they will be selling caricatures to the masses, and they might make decisions based off such garbage.  But no, as shitty as the media is, they did not cause this.

[Oblivion]

During my cab ride to the airport last week, the cabbie--growing tired of the Indian music he had on--changed the station to some blowhard, right-wing talk show. The show's host claimed that the current economic crisis was caused by the media's negativity, or, at the very least, worsened by it.

Actually, I think there's some truth to that.

Yeah, I think the media worsening it bit is true to a certain extent.  Like, when those bad exact sales numbers hit in January, the newspapers and radio stations and tv shows will all be trying their hardest to come up with the most ludicrous and eye catching doomsday headline.  Rather than trying to present things in a rational and formal manner, they will be selling caricatures to the masses, and they might make decisions based off such garbage.  But no, as shitty as the media is, they did not cause this.

Oh yeah, I definitely agree about the causing part (I mean, I agree with you not the radio guy), and was referring to the exacerbation. When the media makes some gloom and doom headline, the average joe most likely panics and cuts down their spending, which ends up only making things worse, repeat, etc.