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America's 'Retail Apocalypse' Is Really Just Beginning (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The so-called retail apocalypse has become so ingrained in the U.S. that it now has the distinction of its own Wikipedia entry. The industry's response to that kind of doomsday description has included blaming the media for hyping the troubles of a few well-known chains as proof of a systemic meltdown. There is some truth to that. In the U.S., retailers announced more than 3,000 store openings in the first three quarters of this year. But chains also said 6,800 would close. And this comes when there's sky-high consumer confidence, unemployment is historically low and the U.S. economy keeps growing. Those are normally all ingredients for a retail boom, yet more chains are filing for bankruptcy and rated distressed than during the financial crisis. That's caused an increase in the number of delinquent loan payments by malls and shopping centers. The reason isn't as simple as Amazon.com Inc. taking market share or twenty-somethings spending more on experiences than things. The root cause is that many of these long-standing chains are overloaded with debt -- often from leveraged buyouts led by private equity firms. There are billions in borrowings on the balance sheets of troubled retailers, and sustaining that load is only going to become harder -- even for healthy chains. The debt coming due, along with America's over-stored suburbs and the continued gains of online shopping, has all the makings of a disaster. The spillover will likely flow far and wide across the U.S. economy. There will be displaced low-income workers, shrinking local tax bases and investor losses on stocks, bonds and real estate. If today is considered a retail apocalypse, then what's coming next could truly be scary.
"You compared prices in foreign countries not on par with labor in your own."
the labor was foreign either way. only the middlemen and executives were American.
"You subverted Tariffs that would have protected domestic value to an appreciable degree."
He made no mention of avoiding tariffs, taxes, or import duties. Only that he bought directly from the source, which is perfectly legal to do.
"You bought something of casual or leisurely nature, ignoring the state of the arts locally around."
he's not buying a Chinese knockoff of something. He's buying the actual product. Just skipping the middlemen.
i could live a little longer in this prison
Don't forget that Costco at least also pays a living wage, with the lowest paid workers making about $35K/year plus medical, dental, and vision benefits, and a 401k match.
Costco is definitely not the cheapest game in town for much of what they sell, but like you say, you CAN get in and out of there FAST with a month's worth of supplies, and not have to make 10 stops across town to get it all. That kind of convenience is worth quite a bit.
They are dead in Canada, finished, no more Sears.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
There are already a few businesses called S-Mart. Hell, I pass one (a convenience store) on my way to work every day.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Retail itself, traditional retail anyway, is one of its own four horsemen. It can't get out of its own way because the people who run it aren't capable of thinking in a way that will save them from what is happening.
I found something I needed and what seemed like the only reasonable way to get it was via Walmart's order-online-pick-up-in-store system. So I ordered and 5 days later I get an email saying it was ready to pick up. Slow, but not a deal breaker. The email directed me to 'follow the orange signs to the pick up area'.
So I drive to the store and see orange signs and follow them. I come to a parking lot where signs directed me to call a number and someone would be out. It turns out that that area was for online ordered groceries only, and the person on the phone had no idea where to pick up non-grocery items.
I decided a graphic in the email was a map to some location inside the store, so I park and go in and awesome there is an area with an orange sign, a few ragged chairs, and a kiosk. Something about scanning a QR code but the scanner didn't work, and instead I typed my order number into the kiosk. My name appeared in a queue on the screen and the screen assured me someone would be along.
After 5 minutes or so a typically disinterested retail employee came out with a single box that weight about 1 LB and asked me to sign.
Me: This can't be it, my order is probably in several boxes and weighs about 300 LB
Her: No
Me: Yes look at the confirmation on my phone
Her: I will go look in the back
15 minutes later she appears with a cart with several boxes. I glance through them, one is missing. She says she can call corporate Walmart tomorrow and see if they can find it but she is sure without a second pass through the back she didn't miss it. I realize she just wants me to leave so she can go on break, and I really need this stuff now, so I sign anyway.
On the way home while sitting at a stoplight I order the missing part using my Amazon app and someone drops it on my porch the next day.
I wrote all that to say that the level of thinking that designed the Walmart process cannot compete with Amazon. It can't, it has 0 chance. It might keep obliteration at bay for a few years, but it will lose eventually. The only way traditional retail could compete would be to hire all new people, burn down all their stores, and start over. It can't win on convenience, it can't win on speed, it can't win on experience. It is a monoculture of price reduction and now that an alternative has appeared that can beat it in that area, it can't change quickly enough to survive.
I'd like to know where you get 'double digits' from. BLS tracks a much broader measure of unemployment, U6, in addition to the headline figure. That measure is: "Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers". The most recent figure for that is 7.9%. Much higher than the most frequently reported measure, but not 'doubld digits'.
It was 6800 stores, not 6800 people, and many of the ones being mentioned were department stores (e.g. Macy’s, J.C. Penny, etc.) that could easily be employing hundreds of people apiece, so we’re not talking about just 6000 people. Even places like American Apparel, which is closing all 110 of its remaining stores, averaged about 22 employees per store. The Mom & Pop place my wife works (which is thankfully doing quite well, since they depend more on service than sales) only has two people in the front at any given time, but between people in the back, support staff, and people not scheduled to work on any given day, they actually employ around 10 people, which you’d never realize by just walking in.
And the trend towards closures has been rising in recent years. The linked Wikipedia article mentions that between 25% and 50% of America’s 1200 malls are expected to close within the next five to six years. Sears has closed nearly 2000 stores in the last few years. Kmart has closed about 1500 in the last decade, with more to go.
Suggesting it’s just 6000 people is a gross underestimation.
https://www.thebalance.com/wha...
Near as makes no difference to 10%
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
A follower of the philosophies of Ayn Rand, which, when you apply some very basic critical thinking skills, fall apart rather fast, and which should be grown out of by teenage to young adult years.
They appeal well to the narcissist, because they stroke his or her ego by saying that they're more important to the driving of the economy than the workers who support them, and that the poors would be successful if only they weren't so damn lazy. But reality tends to be the opposite, with those worse off usually working their tails off to their own detriment, since it then blocks them from seeing, or at least believing that there's an easier way to handle something, since they are denied the time, network, or effort to improve themselves.
For more specific details, just Google the problems with objectivism or libertarianism, since it doesn't pay to rehash everything wrong with it as a system, when it's been done so much before.
Sounds like you're giving up after the first attempt.
Can you really blame them when the experience was that much of a hassle compared to having it shipped directly to their home?
Because he ruined the entire company via libertarian business policies. Internal departments were told to compete against each other, leading coworkers to undermine each other.