Stores, entire chains will close in '09: analysts say

[ensho]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1353883,CST-FIN-retail30.article


-snip-

Four retail analysts -- Britt Beemer, Howard Davidowitz, Larry Freed and Michael Niemira -- believe retail names will be wiped off the map and thousands of stores will close in the new year.

Davidowitz estimates retailers will shutter 12,000 money-losing stores in 2009; Beemer predicted that half of today's retailers will be in big trouble -- perhaps at risk of shutting down -- next year; Freed believes 20 to 40 retail chains will go out of business in the first three months of the new year, and Niemira predicts 73,000 retail locations will close in the first half of 2009.
-snip-
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[earthside]

1. Oh, So That is Why the Dow is Rallying ...

:sarcasm:

... and yet the talking heads on CNBC and the politicians wonder why average Americans are cynical and have so much contempt for Wall Street.

[alfredo]

4. More money concentrated in fewer hands, is the end game of capitalism.

[SpiralHawk]

2. The putrid fruit of republiconomics

new pic

[alfredo]

3. that is when the persimmon is edible. Try eating one that isn't over ripe.

[exboyfil]

5. Retailers and retail chains have been going out of business

for a very long time.

With modern technology the retail industry is becoming the logistics industry. Companies who best figure out how to get the goods demanded to the demand location at the lowest price will be the winners. The rest will lose.

I think companies like Wal-Mart and Target are a transitional stage to technologies which will completely eliminate the middle man combined with very sophisticated logistics systems.

Sales people who offer service along with the sale may survive somewhat longer, but I would think manufacturers will work to grab that income stream as well by creating more virtual buying opportunities (VR simulatons of a car for example).