STORE CLOSINGS AND LAYOFFS
If you have gift cards, hurry up and use them!!
Just passing this along - FYI



Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide A company spokeswoman said the company hasn't revealed which stores will be shuttered. It will let the stores that will close this fiscal year know over the next month

Eddie Bauer to close more stores
Eddie Bauer has already closed 27 shops in the first quarter and plans to close up to two more outlet stores by the end of the year.

Cache closing stores
Women's retailer Cache announced that it is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide The owner of retailers Lane Bryant , Fashion Bug , Catherines Plus Sizes will close about 150 underperforming stores this year.
The company hasn't provided a list of specific store closures and can't say when it will offer that info, spokeswoman Brooke Perry said today.

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores
About a month ago, Talbots announced that it will be shuttering all 78 of its kids and men's stores. Now the company says it will close another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill , another chain it owns. The closures will occur this fiscal year, according to a company press release.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores
In addition to its namesake chain, Gap also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic . The company said the closures - all planned for fiscal 2008 - will be weighted toward the Gap brand.

Foot Locker to close 140 stores
In the company press release and during its conference call with analysts today, it did not specify where the future store closures - all planned in fiscal 2008 - will be. The company could not be immediately reached for comment

Wickes is going out of business
Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores, Wickes, a 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Goodbye Levitz / BOMBAY - closed already
The furniture retailer, which is going out of business. Levitz first announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910 when Richard Levitz opened his first furniture store in Lebanon , PA. In the 1960s, the warehouse/showroom concept brought Levitz to the forefront of the furniture industry. The local Levitz closures will follow the shutdown of Bombay .

Zales, Piercing Pagoda closing stores
The owner of Zales and Piercing Pagoda previously said it plans to close 82 stores by July 31. Today, it announced that it is closing another 23 underperforming stores. The company said it's n ot pro viding a list of specific store closures. Of the 105 locations planned for closure, 50 are kiosks and 55 are stores.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores The Walt Disney Company announced it acquired about 220 Disney Stores from subsidiaries of The Children's Place Retail Stores. The exact number of stores acquired will depend on negotiations with landlords. Those subsidiaries of Children's Place filed for bankruptcy protection in late March. Walt Disney in the news release said it has also obtained the
right to close about 98 Disney Stores in the U.S. The press release didn't list those stores.

Home Depot store closings (E. Brunswick, Rt 18 just put up their closing sign)
ATLANTA - Nearly 7+ months after its chief executive said there were no plans to cut the number of its core retail stores, The Home Depot Inc. announced Thursday that it is shuttering 15 of them amid a slumping U.S. economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. Its shares rose almost 5 percent. The Atlanta-based company said the underperforming U.S.stores being closed represent less than 1 percent of its existing stores. They will be shuttered within the next two months.

CompUSA (CLOSED) clarifies details on store closings Any extended warranties purchased for products through CompUSA will be honored by a third-party provider, Assurant Solutions. Gift cards, rain checks, and rebates purchased prior to December 12 can be redeemed at any time during the final sale. For those who have a gadget currently in for service with CompUSA, the repair will be completed and the gadget will be returned to owners.
http://www.news.com/8301-...4177-7html


Macy's - 9 stores

Movie Gallery - 160 stores as part of reorganization plan to exit
bankruptcyThe video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery
and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental
chain closed last fall.

Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores

Pep Boys - 33 stores

Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse appears to have inherited a company bleeding subscribers by the thousands, and will now officially be dropping the ax on
4,000 employees and 125 retail locations. Amid the loss of 639,000 postpaid customers in the fourth quarter, Sprint will be cutting a total of 6.7% of its work force (following the 5,000 layoffs last year) and 8% of company-owned brick-and-mortar stores, while remaining mute on other rumors that it will consolidate its headquarters in Kansas Sprint Nextel shares are down $2.89, or nearly 25%, at the time of this writing.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are scaling back

Ethan Allen Interiors: The company announced plans to close 12 of 300+
stores in an effort to cut costs.

Wilsons the Leather Experts - 158 stores

Pacific Sunwear will close its 154 Demo stores after a review of strategic alternatives for the urban-apparel brand. Seventy-four underperforming Demo stores closed last May.

Sharper Image: The company recently filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that 90 of its 184 stores are closing. The retailer will still operate 94 stores to pay off debts, but 90 of these stores have performed poorly and also may close.

Bombay Company: (Freehold Mall store closed) The company unveiled plans to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores. The company's online storefront has discontinued operations.

KB Toys posted a list of 356 stores that it is closing around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. To see the list of store closings, go to the KB Toys Information web site, and click on Press Information

Dillard's to Close More Stores
Dillard's Inc. said it will continue to focus on closing underperforming stores, reducing expenses and improving its merchandise in 2008. At the company's annual shareholder meeting, CEO William Dillard II said the company will close another six underperforming stores this year.

Between Amazon, eBay and craigslist, I don't know how anybody stays in business anymore.

good riddance!!

violator said:

at least those above mentioned are somehow connected back to small business.

Im getting tired of ebay too.
Craigslist is the way to go to sell things now IMO.

Disposable income is continuing 2 take a dive. We can all thank the GAS prices 4 this and just plain old mis-management.

horatio said:

Not a totally unexpected response...

Graycap23 said:

Interesting

here they are building 2 new ones within 60 miles of each other

Wickes closed in Texas 4-5 years ago. I hated it too cuz they always had a wonderful selection of black art. I had no idea they were still open in other states.

violator said:

i just heard on the news a moment ago that amazon had reported some huge jump in sales in the past 6 months

And the talking heads keep telling us we're not in a recession? I bet all of those folks out of a job would beg to differ.

Just down the street from my work there is a record store called "Morning Glory Music" after 36 years in the same prime location on our most central street in Santa Barbara, they are now closing because they can not stay afloat with itunes,ebay, online music sales etc. Sad day really, I remember going in as a child to buy my 45's for 99 cents each.

Not Banana Republic!!!

hmmm....not good to see so many stores closing!!! some of those i liked, such as bombay....bad news for all those losing their jobs too!

i've been hearing rumblings about macy's going down for several months now. their takeover of marshall fields doesn't seem like the most successful move in retail history.

Not Zales!!!

i miss zayre. anyone remember zayre?

or ayr-way?



god, i'm old.

ThreadBare said:

Yeah, they need to get gone with all them cloudy ass diamonds.

Anxiety said:

They also took over all the Foley's department stores down here. Really bad move since many malls in the area already had a Macy's AND a Foley's so for a time both operated simultaneously at several malls until they decided which to close. Bunch of corporate geniuses right there.

SCNDLS said:

You gotta dig through the loose ones that the traveling Zales folks bring with them for shows, not the ones they have on display on normal days...

Um, er... that's what I hear, at least... as I, er, recall...

There goes my CompUSA warantees.

I'm wondering if Ann Taylor will have some kind of blowout sale, they have cute dresses for certain occasions

Hope they don't close my Macys... ain't been to Gap in a while... the rest can GO

CalhounSq said:

i hope they close macys so i can buy out the kitchen department when everything's 90% off!

Anxiety said:

id rather dig through their warehouses full of high-end designer decorative arts- displays, tables, lamps, lounge chairs etc. they use to furnish their stores. They dont let go of anything over the decades.

horatio said:

i did notice that when one of the other big chicago department stores went under. the stuff they were selling in the basement was quite a history exhibit.

that reminds me, i got to go through an old Marshall Fields building this guy bought. It operated mostly in the 50-70's. This is when they used to do full blown interior design on sight and had stock piles of the most expensive fabrics for interiors. On the upper floor was literally two mountains of upholstery fabric for furniture and walls. Tons of vintage Jack Lenor Larsen fabric, and other bizarre weaves. I had a field day!

ThreadBare said:

Uh uhhh, see. . . why do you know this??? They still have a lower grade of diamonds than say a Bailey, Banks, & Biddle which Zales also owns. One of my consulting projects was to write Zale Inc's Vendor Manual which specified the quality of diamonds Zales bought for each store and what Zale would pay for 'em. They really are a mess.

What is happening in the world?

who would shop at a place called Dillard's, anyways?

magnificentsynthesizer said:

Ummmmm. . . Dillard's is the bomb. It's a more upscale version of Macy's.

SCNDLS said:

William Dillard II said the company will close another six underperforming stores this year

William Dillard The Second!!! HA-HA