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America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

bloomberg.com

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Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#141

Post by mattnewton »

samsolomon wrote: post #102

I live near Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and they could not be any busier. It's packed at 2pm on a Tuesday when I'm going to an eye doctor appointment. On the weekends there are often traffic issues in from people entering and leaving. I feel like it's not that malls or retailers are dying, but instead all the revenue is going to a few places with wealthy, urban locations. Perhaps this has to do with the i…

I think that’s part of it, there is also the issue the article goes into about leveraged buyouts leaving several retail stores with interest payments that are just too high on otherwise healthy buisinesses. It isn’t enough for them to be packed, they have to show growth to beat the interest.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#142

Post by mac01021 »

crisdux wrote: post #42

I'd imagine this is also partly due to the America's demographic changes and the aging population. The large baby boomer generation is retiring and entering a period in their lives where their consumption is lower. Generation X is smaller and can't keep up the consumption. Generation Y is slowly entering a consumption phase.

Why is consumption lower after you retire? You've finally got time to spend all that money that you've been spending all your time earning.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#143

Post by ianbicking »

munificent wrote: post #75
hprotagonist wrote: post #2

in general, it is difficult for me to separate a reasonable concern borne of the knowledge that a thriving economy is important from a sense that, so far, the big retail chains that are closing many locations sell junk that i both do not want and think is largely superfluous anyway. Anyone got a reasonable way to synthesize those competing thoughts?

I think the America that will result from this die-off is a better place. Less suburban sprawl. Less giant eyesore big-box stores that no one enjoys spending time in. More informed purchases because people buy stuff online where it's easier to compare reviews. But I think there will be significant, very painful collateral damage to people during this transition and I've very sympathetic to people hit by the job losse…

> I think the America that will result from this die-off is a better place. Less suburban sprawl.

Why would this lead to less suburban sprawl? Unleashed from any interest in physical commerce, wouldn't suburban sprawl perhaps be even more attractive? There's a lot of assumptions here that these changes will have us reverting to older forms, but I don't see any reason why.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#145

Post by gorbachev »

hinkley wrote: post #98
excalibur wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really relevant, but I'm having a hard time picturing a household that consumes 200 unique items every week. Must be pretty fancy.

Well the number was pulled out of the air, but you don’t think a family of four has 200 distinct items in their trash + recycling every week?

Durable goods would take that number way up from 200 for an average US family.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#147

Post by [deleted] »

sanderjd wrote: post #125
onion2k wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spend, spend, spend: shop till you drop mentality. If you think malls are only about consumerism then you've misunderstood a big part of their appeal for a lot of people. Young people and groups of friends don't go to the mall on their own. Malls merge consumerism with social activity - they're for people who enjoy shopping with their friends. If that's not you then fair enough, but don't disparage malls simply becau…

I'm not a sociologist, but my feeling is that malls are just a last resort place for young people to socialize that is unstructured and free of charge. That is: there isn't really anywhere else to go be with your friends without paying for the privilege, that isn't organized by adults (like school sports or church groups for instance). When I was growing up, we had the mall and we had parking lots, and the latter was…

[deleted]

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#148

Post by jamesmp98 »

samsolomon wrote: post #102

I live near Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and they could not be any busier. It's packed at 2pm on a Tuesday when I'm going to an eye doctor appointment. On the weekends there are often traffic issues in from people entering and leaving. I feel like it's not that malls or retailers are dying, but instead all the revenue is going to a few places with wealthy, urban locations. Perhaps this has to do with the i…

I miss ATL malls

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#149

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

sytelus wrote: post #31
brango wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're aggregators. There's value in going to a single shop to buy everything instead of going to 200 individual suppliers for your weekly shopping.

Aggregation, filtering, sorting, recommendations could be best handled by machines. All businesses specializing in this using human efforts are at grave risk.

I disagree. Amazon is an utter failure when I don’t know the exact product I want to buy: reviews are faked and many of the products are of low quality, with no way to test them except for a terribly inconvenient return process. I’d rather just try on clothes in a store and not buy ones that I don’t like instead of having to sigh and package them up and wait for a refund.

You may see retail employees as unnecessary middlemen, but they provide a value a machine cannot.

I can talk to GameStop employees about which new games they played to see if they’ll be fun; I can talk to petsmart employees about proper pet care; I can go over installation prodcedures with the Geek Squad folks at BestBuy; I can get recommendations on outfits at the upscale men’s clothing store I frequent...and so on.

There is no superior specialization in this regard. Many of these examples are because of the relationships I have cultivated with long-term retail employees, who know me and my preferences far better than any machine learning algorithm has attempted to match.

Re: America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning

#150

Post by Retric »

cptskippy wrote: post #121
Retric wrote: post #3

Retail is dependent on consumer spending. As more stores close the remainder should be more profitable, which should minimize ripple effects.

In theory yes however you're assuming that there's no collateral impact from a store closing and that there are alternatives. Large retail chains are often anchor stores that sustain retail centers. When they shut down the economy of the retail center collapses. This impact spreads beyond the retail centers to surrounding businesses. The reduced retail traffic means that fewer people are stopping for lunch at restaur…

The failure of a major company that's over leveraged does not mean each location also closes.

What's being described is a company who's operations are profitable, that simply has excessive debt. In that case the operations can be sold in bankruptcy to recover whatever money is possible with the buyer assuming operations.

What kills malls is when an Anchor store is unprofitable.

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