Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That makes no sense with how large the losses reported by Kohl's, Dillard's Bon-Ton, Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and the smaller ones reported by JCP and Belk are. The only ones that really didn't report a loss are Neiman Marcus, Boscov's, and Von Maur.
So increasing retail sales is a good thing? Maybe but a lot of the sales just indicate waste. Nothing is more obvious than the $250 billion/year fashion industry. It is hard to say whether we should call it apparel or fashion. I chose fashion because the bulk of the expenses do not reflect utility but are due to fads and fashion. We rarely throw away our clothing because it is worn out. Instead we are tired of it and it no longer conforms to the current fashion and styles.
You would think we would have learned a lesson in 2008 and we would now be more cautious about overspending and waste. There was merely a brief drop and in fashion sales and then a rapid return. The expenditures are even more deceptive. Clothing prices are very low and continue to decrease. I pay the same $1.25 for fruit of the loom underwear that I paid in 1970. I can buy a heavy weight cotton or blend T shirt for under $2 or for about $4 with a pocket. I pay $15 for jeans or cargo pants and that price has not increased in decades. So it is obvious that we are buying more clothes than ever and throwing them away at a rapid rate.
Maybe it would be a good thing if a few high priced clothing stores went under and we started becoming more careful about how we spend our money.
These industries employ people. They are jobs. They are legitimate industries. They may not be industries you patronize, but they are a certain niche in what is supposedly still a free market.
That makes no sense with how large the losses reported by Kohl's, Dillard's Bon-Ton, Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and the smaller ones reported by JCP and Belk are. The only ones that really didn't report a loss are Neiman Marcus, Boscov's, and Von Maur.
This isn't the "B&M big box retail sales index" it's all retail sales. You are looking at a small niche.
The only store you mentioned that I've been in during the last decade is Sears.
That makes no sense with how large the losses reported by Kohl's, Dillard's Bon-Ton, Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and the smaller ones reported by JCP and Belk are. The only ones that really didn't report a loss are Neiman Marcus, Boscov's, and Von Maur.
Retail sales figures encompass a wide variety of sales from restaurants to online.
From the WSJ article:
"While data from the Commerce Department on Friday showed overall retail sales rose 1.3% in April from a month earlier, the category that includes shopping on Amazon.com Inc. and rival websites and apps grew 2.4%. And in the past year, Internet and catalog sales have grown more than three times as fast as overall sales, up 10.2%. Department-store sales, meanwhile, sank 1.7% over the past 12 months."
Amazon.com and many other online retail places are doing well to excellent; it is the brick and mortar stores like Macy's who are having problems. Worse many are fumbling at their website attempts as well.
Even worse for retail stores with a physical presence they often have had to lower their prices in order to make sales. That is killing their margins.... So yes they will have increased sales but since they sold goods a lower prices they are still losing money.
Just as with bookstores, recording stores, etc... places like Amazon.com are putting physical locations either at a disadvantage or just simply out of business.
.....
Just as with bookstores, recording stores, etc... places like Amazon.com are putting physical locations either at a disadvantage or just simply out of business.
And with good reason. The new model is more efficient provides better products at lower costs. In addition the convenience and breadth of choices cannot be duplicated by even the largest brick and mortar stores. Society gains nothing by the old model.
And with good reason. The new model is more efficient provides better products at lower costs. In addition the convenience and breadth of choices cannot be duplicated by even the largest brick and mortar stores. Society gains nothing by the old model.
Except commercial property taxes, employment in numerous communities, and support services and businesses that service those brick and mortar retailers. When the property taxes from commercial businesses disappear it has to be picked up by residential property taxes to support municipal costs. Most people lose more than they gain.
Except commercial property taxes, employment in numerous communities, and support services and businesses that service those brick and mortar retailers. When the property taxes from commercial businesses disappear it has to be picked up by residential property taxes to support municipal costs. Most people lose more than they gain.
And the horse and buggy industry also employed a lot of people: carriage makers, farriers, vets, feed stores, wheel wrights, harness makers. Let's not forget the era of farming with oxen and a plow. Most of the world's population worked on farms trying to get enough food to feed themselves. At one time we also had an operator physically connecting wires so that we could make a phone call. That would have employed a lot of people except phone calls were just too expensive for routine use.
Some people just don't do well with change. Even positive, labor saving changes scare them and they become worried that the whole world is going to collapse. They cannot imagine what mankind could possibly do without those old inefficient processes. They don't see anything else for people to do except just sit in a corner and die. Even if something new and different arises, they are convinced that everyone else is too stupid to learn to live in a more advanced world.
And with good reason. The new model is more efficient provides better products at lower costs. In addition the convenience and breadth of choices cannot be duplicated by even the largest brick and mortar stores. Society gains nothing by the old model.
If the product itself at the cheapest price possible is all people care about.
There are still some bookstores out there. Barnes and Noble still remains, even though people have pronounced it dead for about 10 years now. They've actually seen their in-store sales rise recently. Barnes & Noble closing far fewer stores even as online sales plummet - Fortune Not to the behemoth level they once were, but sustainable. They made a smart move recently into the vinyl record business and have done a good job in the college textbook business.
Look at Starbucks. If all people cared about was a decent cup of coffee at the cheapest price, there would be no Starbucks.
Online competition is a problem for slow learners in saturated markets, ie: Sears - it sells stuff I can get at any number of other brick and mortar stores, often in the same retail park or mall, as well as online.
That makes no sense with how large the losses reported by Kohl's, Dillard's Bon-Ton, Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and the smaller ones reported by JCP and Belk are. The only ones that really didn't report a loss are Neiman Marcus, Boscov's, and Von Maur.
Their numbers aren't seasonally adjusted, but the census bureau's are. You have to look at the unadjusted numbers and compare them to the past. They just didn't fall off as much as in the past.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
