More top brands seen disappearing in 2009

[BeatleBoot]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28452746/?GT1=43001


NEW YORK - Shoppers won't be picking up ornate lamps from the Bombay Co. in the coming year. Or investing with Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. No flying to Hawaii on Aloha Airlines or buying ultra-cheap tickets on Skybus, either.

All those names vanished this past year, victims of the economy, the financial meltdown or other factors. Experts say 2009 could mark the end of even more well-known brands as the now-yearlong recession puts more struggling companies on life support.

"I think 2009 is going to be a bloodbath," said Scott Testa, a marketing professor at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "I think it's going to be very, very ugly."

For some companies, 2008 was no beauty. The woes of the nation's retailers began before the year even started. The Bombay Co., known for its home accessories and furnishings, filed for bankruptcy last fall and shuttered the last of its stores in January because of slow sales — an ailment that hurt other companies as the economic downturn turned into a recession.

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[emilyg]

1. In my area Goody's gone.

Macy's parking lot empty. Haverty's went out of business.

[K Gardner]

32. Goody's is once again filingi BK. They quit paying creditors before Christmas and have instructed

remaining open stores to quit selling gift cards or accepting layaways.

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. I'm predicting Nordstroms

will be a big one to go belly up in '09.

[Missy Vixen]

22. Based on what evidence?

Nordstrom is a local company. We take them pretty seriously around here.

Julie

[Tuvok Obama]

25. None

Sales were down 17% last month compared to December 2007, but other than that, I can't find anything negative about Nordstrom, and nothing that indicates it's in trouble.

[oldtime dfl_er]

35. oh sorry!!!

Didn't see your query until just now. I don't have any hard evidence of Nordstrom's going down. Just that their sales, like everyone else, were down this year. And they've been, like Starbucks, aggressively expanding in the last few years. And when I went shopping there the other day, there was no one in there.

so just a hunch, no evidence.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Article was a bit of a tease

Except for Circuit City, no retailers or brands were named that are in danger of shutting down in '09. Anyone here have a hunch what other stores/brands will be closing?

[Idealism]

4. I hear bad things about Dillards

There was a top ten list of likely belly-ups in 09 somewhere, Dillard's ranked second on the list.

[Ilsa]

6. Oh no. They are the only decent clothing

store in many parts of Texas, and the prices are pretty reasonable. I'd hate to lose Dillards.

[SoCalDem]

9. I posted it last week..but forgot where I found it,.,some financial site

I'll look for it again... Dillards was not on the list, but it may not have been a big enough chain to matter to them.. Rite Aid WAS on the list

[Idealism]

10. The list I saw Dillards was #2

That I can assure you :)

[SoCalDem]

11. Found the list...

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-24-08 07:24 PM

Companies That Won’t Make It Through 2009

http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/companies-that.html

Companies That Won’t Make It Through 2009 (HMC)(SIRI)(AIG)(FRE)(FNM)(RAD)(NYT)(NT)(PIR)(CHTR)(HOV)

A lot of fairly well-known public companies either disappeared or went bankrupt this year. Circuit City is on the list. Based on the most recent news GM may get added soon.

24/7 Wall St. looked at some of the largest and most well-known companies, reviewed their SEC filings if they are public, analyst reports, and media observations about their businesses and picked ten that probably won’t be around at the end of next year. That does not mean that their brands will disappear, but these companies will have been dissolved as the world knows them now or working though the court system in the hopes of getting Chapter 11 protection and a chance at survival.

1) Chrysler already says it will be out of business by early next year. But, what does that mean. It is unlikely that its largest shareholder, hedge fund Cerberus, is going to throw good money after bad in an economy where US car sales are dropping 30% compared with 2007 figures. But, the Chrysler brand could be around. So could the brand of its Jeep division. Foreign car companies like VW and Honda (HMC) would love to get well-known operations without the baggage of debt, UAW contracts, and dealer networks. Chrysler still has some popular models including it 300 series cars and it created the minivan. Jeep is regarded as the grandfather of four-wheel drive. Watch Chrysler Motors LLC go away and some of its products move into other hands.

2) Sirius XM (SIRI) has traded under $.10 down from a 52-week high of $3.89. Reuters has reported that "Sirius XM faces some $1.1 billion in debt in 2009. Of that, about $300 million comes due in February." In the current credit environment, that probably won’t happen. There is a theory that falling car sales will undermine the sale of Sirius subscriptions. The company says that it does no better than break-even in the first year it gets a new customer though GM. But, a shrinking subscriber based is not good news for the satellite radio company’s future. Sirius will be out of business, perhaps before mid-year. Who picks up the pieces? The logical choices are a healthy car company like Toyota or a satellite firm like DirecTV.

3) AIG (AIG) may be the biggest mess of all the financial firms that the federal government has bailed out. Uncle Sam has given AIG $153 billion in loans. The theory is that the money gets paid back by the huge insurance company selling assets. Investors don’t seem very sanguine about that. AIG shares trade at $1.60, down from a 52-week high of $60.04. Congress seems less and less enamored of having a lot of money sitting in troubled companies. Watch for the new administration to get frustrated quickly and appoint its own people to auction off AIG divisions. Better to get something back than keep writing AIG checks.

(after we GAVE them 150Billion? WTF!)

snip

[blue_onyx]

5. A few I think could go

Kmart, Office Max, Office Depot, and Rite Aid. Those are the ones that come to mind right now. I sure there are plenty of other stores in danger that I'm just not thinking of right now.

[Donnachaidh]

8. Rite Aid swallowed up the only DECENT pharmacy in my area - Eckhard's

They took out all the decent shelving and brought in TACKY cheesy shelving and turned a decent set up into a cheap looking dollar store with HIGHER prices than the previous pharmacy.

I'll hold a party when RiteAid closes.

[1monster]

14. And Eckerds swallowed up the best (and biggest) pharmacy in the country (along with RiteAid)

in the early nineties.

I know. I worked for Revco when they hired a bunch of upper executives from Eckerds who then proceeded (along with the founder) to run the company into the ground with a buy back of stock (funded with junk bonds) and into bankruptcy and liquidation.

Eckerds bought out the store I worked in.

They were a crappy company in those days.

They took over on a weekend and no one from Eckerds showed up to take the transfer of the store.

On Monday, they came in and told us: "We at Eckerds believe that everyone is a thief and if you haven't stolen yet, it is because you haven't had the opportunity."

Lovely company. They proved it of themselves by cheating employees out of overtime pay they deserved, raising prices to double what they were for Revco and a miriad of other ways...

Never did like them. They changed hands several times since then so maybe they became a better company since I worked for them.

(By the way, by one year from the time Eckerds took over our store, all employees with dependent children were fired or harassed to the point that they quit. One young lady who loved working was so harassed that she took off her Eckerds apron nad walked out... At two monnths pregnant, I was the first fired along with another young woman who was on maternity leave when Eckerds took over.

Those without dependent children were still there a year after that.)

[yardwork]

18. I'm not surprised. Eckerds was pretty lousy around here, but Rite-Aid is even worse.

It's been a steady downward trend.

[blue_onyx]

15. I wouldn't mind them going either

I believe Rite Aid bought up Perry Drug Stores here in Michigan in the mid-90s. CVS bought Arbor Drug Store here. I guess that's just what the large drug store chains did to enter markets. We have way more Walgreens and CVS stores around here. The one Rite Aid near me is run down and disorganized. I've been there maybe 3 times in the last 5 years. I wouldn't be sad to see Rite Aid go but I don't want to see more people lose their jobs so I hope they make it.

[yardwork]

17. Same here. The Eckerds here was't that great but Rite-Aid is much worse.

Understaffed, understocked, dirty, just a really unpleasant place to shop now.

[virgogal]

7. Blockbuster.

[CatholicEdHead]

16. Best Buy is laying off 4000+ at their Richfield MN headquarters

so if things get really bad they are in trouble 2010-ish.

[Le Taz Hot]

24. A Fresno-based company

that has stores throughout California, Gottschalks, is holding on by a thread and not expected to make it. Too bad because I used to get all my business suits and other professional attire from them. Quality of Nordies or Macys with a J.C. Penney price.

[Double T]

12. These are America's economic end times.

Export your jobs, manufacturing, customer support, technical support, R & D, IT and damn near everything else to foreign workers in foreign nations and YOU effectively end your own economy. Don't let stimulus packages and bailout fool you; temporary band-aids will give short term relief and long term consequences. Save me a spot at the poor farm.

[1monster]

13. Damn! I loved Bombay Company.

[EFerrari]

23. Me, too. Damn.

[BrightKnight]

19. Irrational pessimism

The cable news channels should stop parading doom and gloom talking heads 24 hours a day. I expect a little rain but the sky doesn't have to fall.

[girl gone mad]

21. lol..

Baghdad Bob tried the same tactic.

[Blue Gardener]

27. It isn't just the cable news channels

The doom and gloom is on DU daily.

[Quantess]

20. Commercial Real Estate is taking a major hit from all these folding businesses.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/112600-is-commercial-real-estate-the-next-to-decline

[SoCalDem]

33. We have had an empty Home Base building here for TEN YEARS

It was the anchor-store in a now-dead shopping center..has an enormous parking lot...and the 108,000 sq ft building still sits there...empty..as well as 99% of the smaller stores in the center..IHOP and Yoshinoya have managed to stay afloat, but the others are a parade of grand-openings, followed by "everything must go"s..

[OneBlueSky]

26. I sure hope Obama has a miracle or two up his sleeve . . .

because things are looking pretty bad right now . . .

[Initech]

30. Obama himself said things are going to get worse before they get better.

That is certainly not the sign we need right now. :yoiks:

[Initech]

28. In California we lost Mervyns, not to mention Linens N Things

[blue_onyx]

31. Mervyns closed down in Michigan a few years ago

I wasn't sad to see them go. Their store was run down and they didn't seem to carry clothes I liked. I hadn't been there in 7-8 years before they closed. I knew it would be a matter of time until they closed their remaining stores.

[SoCalDem]

34. and Gottschalks (ptoooey) gobbled up Harris' and then closed the nice store we had

Bullocks folded up like a cheap tent before they even occupied the space in the mall reserved for them.. The Broadway got gobbled up by Robinson's-May, which was gobbled by Macy's, and now there are more clerks than customers most of the times I've been in there..

I'm just glad my shopping days are behind me..everything in most of the stores, looks the same & costs more than the quality dictates.

[mitchtv]

29. Longs Drugs has been sold to CVS

they just refurbished ours, now they are closing, strange