When you look at whats happening all around us it feels like we are in a recession here in the US. William Engdahl of Asia Times has an written article today titled “Henry Paulson has lost control“. In this piece he writes about the current state of the economy and ridicules Henry’s assertion that “our banking system is a safe and sound one”. BTW, Henry Paulson is the Secretary of the US Treasury.
Towards the end of the article, he notes the following retail store closures:
“Ann Taylor – 117 stores nationwide.
Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.
Cache, a women’s retailer – 20 to 23 stores this year.
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines -150 stores.
Talbots, J Jill – Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men’s stores plus 22 that are a mix of Talbots women’s and J Jill.
Gap Inc – 85 stores.
Foot Locker – 140 stores.
Wickes Furniture is closing all of its stores after filing for bankruptcy protection.
Levitz, a furniture retailer – 76 in December.
Zales, Piercing Pagoda – 82 stores by July 31 followed by another 23.
Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.
Home Depot – 15 outlets, affecting 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has closed a flagship store.
CompUSA – company closed.
Macy’s – 9.
Movie Gallery, a video rental company – to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to 520 closed last autumn.
Pacific Sunwear – 153 Demo stores closing.
Pep Boys, an auto parts supplier – 33.
Sprint Nextel – 125, with 4,000 employees affected, following 5,000 layoffs last year.
J C Penney, Lowe’s and Office Depot – scaling back.
Ethan Allen Interiors – 12 of 300 stores.
Wilsons the Leather Experts – 158.
Bombay Company – all 384 of its US-based stores.
KB Toys – 356 stores as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
Dillard’s – another six stores this year. “
This list does not include the famous Starbucks stores. In our area, 1 Pep-Boys,few restaurants, 1 Macy’s closed.
Readers – How about in your area? Do you see any store closings?. Do you see signs of recession?
Cheers !!
