Is The Economy REALLY Getting Better: First Sears, Blockbuster, A&P and K-Mart, Now Food Lion Supermarkets (unemployment rate, illegal aliens)

[LauraC]

"The following list represents the 126 store closings across the Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food banners."

http://d1pmybhtyfsbgv.cloudfront.net...2-1-2948-0.pdf

"This list represents 80 of the 100 to 120 store closings that were announced in the December 27, 2011 Sears Holdings press release. Additional updates will be posted to Sears Holdings Newsroom as they become available."

Closings Announced in December 2011

Note: Sears stores at the top of the chart/K-Mart Stores at the bottom of the chart.

"January 9, 2012 - The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc. (A&P) today announced that it has filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York seeking approval to close 14 stores in four states."

The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company / Press Room (http://www.aptea.com/pressRoom_article.asp?id=245 - broken link)

Afffected stores are here and include Pathmark and Waldbaum's:

Lease Cancellations: A&P Closing 14 More NE Stores - CoStar Group


January 10, 2012 "Blockbuster was sold to Dish Network in a bankruptcy auction last year and the company announced it was closing nearly 1,000 stores nationwide."

Blockbuster closing Kalamazoo stores | kalamazoo, stores, blockbuster - WWMT NEWSCHANNEL 3


Which group of unemployed people do you think will be hardest hit by large numbers of store closings? Which group is competing with illegal aliens for jobs? (I think this is why legalization is not on the table anymore but after the election...who knows?)

These are the December 2011 unemployment rates, the latest available.


From the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Unemployment Rates Based on Educational Attainment - Age 25 and Older :

Less than a high school diploma: 13.8 percent
High School diploma: 8.7 percent
Some College or Associates degree: 7.7 percent
Bachelor's degree and higher: 4.1 percent

For more details:

Table A-4. Employment status of the civilian population 25 years and over by educational attainment

Unemployment Rates By Sex, Age and Race ]:


White Men, 20 years and older: 7.5 percent
White Women, 20 years and older: 6.8 percent
Both white sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 20.3 percent
Overall white: 7.5 percent

Black Men, 20 years and older: 15.7 percent
Black Women, 20 years and older: 13.9 percent
Both black sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 42.1 percent
Overall black: 15.8%

Hispanic/Latino Men, 20 years and older: 10.5 percent
Hispanic/Latino Women, 20 years and older: 10.3 percent
Both hispanic/latino sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 26.3 percent
Overall hispanic/latino: 11.0 percent

Note: Only the overall Hispanic/Latino percent is seasonally adjusted, not the age and sex numbers.

Note: While not seasonally adjusted, nor broken down by age or sex, the overall Asian unemployment rate is 6.8 percent.

For more details:

Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age

Table A-3. Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age

[HappyTexan]

Nah..these are just one off companies. The really important ones will get government money to keep them afloat so they can show profits at the end of the quarter.

We're not in a depression and it hasn't been nearly 5 years since the bottom fell out.
It's all over now. Unemployment is down, many jobs created last month, record CC spending.

Put all the stories together and you don't know what the heck is happening.
And I think that's exactly where they want to keep us..not knowing the truth.

[Mathguy]

Those were dinosaurs on the way out regardless of how the economy was performing.

Blockbuster in particular got it's teeth kicked in by bad management decisions and then Netflix and Redbox along with internet content. I used to be a blockbuster subscriber and they sucked so bad I went to netflix years ago and never looked back.

[Memphis1979]

Weak economic times weed out the meek.

Many of the companies you listed failed to adapt to a changing market place sooner. Blockbuster should have seen the netflix writing on the wall long before they started doing anything about it.

[waterboy7375]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Those were dinosaurs on the way out regardless of how the economy was performing.

Blockbuster in particular got it's teeth kicked in by bad management decisions and then Netflix and Redbox along with internet content. I used to be a blockbuster subscriber and they sucked so bad I went to netflix years ago and never looked back.

Exactly, the video store has gone the route of the buggywhip manufacturer.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Memphis1979

Weak economic times weed out the meek.

Many of the companies you listed failed to adapt to a changing market place sooner. Blockbuster should have seen the netflix writing on the wall long before they started doing anything about it.

Now we should allow that to happen across all industries.
The strong survive and the weak fall by the wayside.
That's how you fix economic problems..the debt ridden go out of business.
Customers then move to the more financially stable ones which gain more stability. That is the natural business cycle.

But we have a hodgepodge here with the USG backing some companies that should be allowed to go belly up and let the stronger ones take over that customer base making them even stronger financially.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Memphis1979

Weak economic times weed out the meek.

Many of the companies you listed failed to adapt to a changing market place sooner. Blockbuster should have seen the netflix writing on the wall long before they started doing anything about it.

What's a weaker marketplace for supermarkets? All of these closings are being announced between December and now. Is there some advantage to doing it at the end of the year/beginning of the year?

Who works at Blockbuster? Who works at K-Mart? Who works in supermarkets? I don't think they are people with college degrees.

These aren't just stores going down. These are employees going down with them and by the looks of the unemployment statisitics I posted, the people hit hardest by unemployment are probably represented the greatest when supermarket and retail stores go under.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Blockbuster and Kodak have a lot in common in that apathy did them in; management who did not understand, or leadership who failed to kee up to date and anticipate technology that was coming down the road, yet plain to see already. Blackberry almost suffered the same fate, and still might down the road, they were too late to get into the smartphones.

Food Lion on the other hand did itself in. Taking old, expired meats, washing them with bleach, and putting a new date on it had something to do with it.... that and Dateline and 20/20 hit pieces.

[buzzards27]

Businesses closing and new ones appearing has been a fact of life for a long time. Anyone remember any of these retailers that are gone?

Builders Square

Gold Circle

Clarkins

Uncle Bills

Federals

Higbees

Montgomery Ward

Woolworths

Circuit City

Sun Appliances

Lazarus

Halles

Best Products

Hills

Kresge

Kauffmans

Jupiter

Cook United

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by LauraC

What's a weaker marketplace for supermarkets? All of these closings are being announced between December and now. Is there some advantage to doing it at the end of the year/beginning of the year?

Who works at Blockbuster? Who works at K-Mart? Who works in supermarkets? I don't think they are people with college degrees.

These aren't just stores going down. These are employees going down with them and by the looks of the unemployment statisitics I posted, the people hit hardest by unemployment are probably represented the greatest when supermarket and retail stores go under.

If the stores are not making profits there's not much more you can do to "save the employees".
A&P never modernized it's stores and lost customers. The original owners gave up and sold out decades ago to a foreign company who also didn't know how to modernize. Deep in debt is A&P.