Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Open Forum

Feel free to post up your thoughts, comments or links of interest here

13 comments:

Googler said...

find your blog very good. just added you to mine.

http://tradesbydee.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Cap and Trade for Gasoline?

Although the Senate's recent attempt to introduce a cap-and-trade system for carbon crashed and burned when it collided with $4 per gallon gasoline, fear not. Some in Congress are fearlessly tilting at another windmill: the "windfall" profits earned by oil companies.

Unfortunately, by reducing supplies, a windfall profits tax will only lead to even higher prices. Still, if Congress really wants to "do something" about high gasoline prices and global warming, it can always try rationing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121340131140573813.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

NOTE: would encourage those that follow these things to get up to speed on this "cap and trade" swindle.

Anonymous said...

Store Closings

I cannot confirm these

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

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 not providing 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

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 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.


Macy's - 9 stores

Movie Gallery - 160 stores as part of reorganization plan to exit bankruptcy

The 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: 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.

Vince said...

Here's a question I've been wondering about.. Over the past few months, I've noticed quite a few ads on television and radio from these firms that purport to "settle" or negoitiate down your credit card debt. Now I don't carry a credit card balance, and you probably don't either, so we don't have any experience with companies such as these. My question is what's their game? How do they make money? Who's behind them? As frequently as they advertise, it sounds like they're making out well.
Maybe one of the readers knows whats going on here. Thanx..vl

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the great information. FYI, I came across a great Google Maps/MLS mashup that I'm all about. It lists all properties across the US with pictures and detailed info. It even includes foreclosure properties. It's been very helpful. PropertyMaps

Anonymous said...

It's the start of unprecedented change for our way of life, our culture and indeed, our world.

The Long Emergency is here and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Prep as best you can, spiritually and physically.

I visit here each day. Thank you Randy for Economicrot.

Anonymous said...

We all have to realize that the conservative collective body has been significantly infiltrated by theocratic neo-fascists and their Brownshirt media militia. They have created their own religion of power, control and greed. Jesus is only their straw man. The foundation is to limit freedom and democracy for unitarian executive powers so as to give more to the wealthy through the hard work of the middle class and working class. They find an enemy that they create and build it up to be more violent and confrontative than it really is, while claiming this figurative boogieman is smarter than our entire law enforcement network, therefore, the neo-fascist playbook is opened and the instructions are put into action, such as spying on one's fellow citizens, subversion of constitutional rights, destruction of habis corpus, selling off of national assets, devaluing the currency, off-shore investment, and their best and most attractive play is put into action, which is to open the Treasury to "corporate royalists" because their prior edict of free and open competition, open markets, and free enterprise cannot be achieved without the financial support of the government handing out federal contracts in order to boost profits and CEO wealth, or allowing them to hand over their financial losses in exchange for newly minted dollars, socializing the system as these thieves buy luxury goods, while excoriating the idea of socialism as they benefit from it.

Randy said...

Hunter -- I couldn't agree more, however many still have their heads buried in the sand and will be absolutely clueless/lost when TSHTF.

Glad you enjoy the Blog. You're certainly welcome!


Jerry -- Superbly stated! I was going to say: With your excellent comm skills, maybe you should think about starting your own Blog, then I saw you HAVE one: eye-on-washington.

I'll add it to my links the next time I make changes to my Blog template.

Thanks

Randy

Randy

Matt said...

I don't know if anybody here reads it regularly, but I do; http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com. Great website. It is a subscription service but they release an article every few days.

Anonymous said...

A couple of warnings from the UK:

Morgan Stanley warns of 'catastrophic event' as European Central Bank fights Federal Reserve &
Royal Bank of Scotland issues global stock and credit crash alert
.

Anonymous said...

Randy,
Thanks for your support and I appreciate your positive comments about my posting. I would be honored to be added to your links!

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

Randy said...

Matt,

Just read a couple of their articles -- great link thanks

Hanover- thanks, just posted it up!

Jerry,

No Problem... Your link is up (right side of page)

Randy

Justin_n_IL said...

The earth is getting ready to reel to and fro like a drunkard. It's a good time to snug up to your Maker. Here's a link to my blog concerning such a thing. GOD bless!!
http://justinnil.blogspot.com/

Justin