[the48thronin]

The Fall of the Mall By LEFTLOFT NYTimes

What does a recession look like? Well, here’s one view, as seen through retail sales. The theoretical mall maps below show 27 companies with stores or restaurants in malls across America. (In some cases, these companies own more than one chain of stores.) In the bottom map, the change in the size of the stores is determined by sales in the first quarter of 2009 as compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Color in the bottom map is meant to indicate the depth of the drop — or the height of the rise — in sales. The deeper the red, the steeper the loss.

[shortonoil]

I looks like the day of mega-retail is rapidly coming to an end. Stuck with long term contracts on retail space and large loans that can not be refinanced, many of these outfits will not be able to cut cost fast enough to survive. There doesn’t seem much doubt that retailers and owners of retail space will soon be falling like flies.

Debt free and efficient Mom & Pops will again soon have their day.

[AgentR]

Debt free and efficient Mom & Pops will again soon have their day.

Mom'n'Pops have been slain by Amazon and Co... They just don't know it yet.

[odegaard]

The Fall of the Mall By LEFTLOFT NYTimes
...

+1
Net consumer spending is down of course, but this confirms my theory Americans are cutting back on frivolous un-necessities and instead are spending money on stores that offer a lot of value for the dollar.
The Family Dollar store is picking up extra business but Build-a-Bear is getting slaughtered.

As cute as it may be consumers are no longer eager to spend $30 dressing up a teddy bear.
It was an interesting business concept........while it lasted.
I'm quite sure historians 100 years from now are going to have a really fun time learning about all the crazy shit we spend our money on.
http://www.buildabear.com/

add on:
To clarify my position I have NOTHING against anyone.
I'd MUCH rather have people generating an income in an "unnecessary" industry (like dressing up teddy bears) rather than unemployed and collecting welfare + food stamps from the rest of us.
When PO strikes I think many peak-oilers will Lament the loss of all those "unnecessary" industries.

[vision-master]

The Family Dollar store is a rip-off. I stay away from those junk stores.

[shortonoil]

odegaard said:

When PO strikes I think many peak-oilers will Lament the loss of all those "unnecessary" industries.

pstarr, can you explain to this poster the fallacy of building an unsustainable economy! One constructed totally on a resource that depletes without regard to its depletion characteristics. Also tell them about the eventual of loss life, destruction of the habitat and suffering that is guaranteed to result from such a course.

Anyone who will be lamenting the loss of “unnecessary” industries, probably did not have much understanding of how precarious the situation was to begin with. As to “when PO strikes”: oil companies are cutting back on E&D to the tune of $170 billion as demand falls. Production is falling along with it. The FED, Treasury pumped $12.7 trillion into the financial system last year, and banks still are not loaning and are still insolvent. Every major economy in the world is now contacting. The PO world is here.




AvailableEnergy

[patience]

Quote: "...an unsustainable economy..."

Equals a walking dinosaur that does not know yet that it is dead.

[the48thronin]

Quote: "...an unsustainable economy..."

Equals a walking dinosaur that does not know yet that it is dead.

you mean they cant depend on constant growth supplier managed jit distribution based on cheap transport from slave labor camps to market? Where will we get our sea food if not from polluted ponds in slave labor countries?