Major U.S. Retailers Are Closing More Than 6,000 StoresBy Michael Snyder As you will see below, major U.S. retailers have announced that they are closing more than 6,000 locations, but economic conditions in this country are still fairly stable. So if this is happening already, what are things going to look like once the next recession strikes? For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major turning point for the U.S. economy, and I still feel that way. And since I started The Economic Collapse Blog at the end of 2009, I have never seen as many indications that we are headed into another major economic downturn as I do right now. If retailers are closing this many stores already, what are our malls and shopping centers going to look like a few years from now? The list below comes from information compiled by About.com, but I have only included major retailers that have announced plans to close at least 10 stores. Most of these closures will take place this year, but in some instances the closures are scheduled to be phased in over a number of years. As you can see, the number of stores that are being permanently shut down is absolutely staggering 180 Abercrombie Fitch (by 2015) So why is this happening? Without a doubt, Internet retailing is taking a huge toll on brick and mortar stores, and this is a trend that is not going to end any time soon. But as Thad Beversdorf has pointed out, we have also seen a stunning decline in true discretionary consumer spending over the past six months The truth is that middle class U.S. consumers are tapped out. Most families are just scraping by financially from month to month. For most Americans, there simply is not a whole lot of extra money left over to go shopping with these days. In fact, at this point approximately one out of every four Americans spend at least half of their incomes just on rent For decades, the U.S. economy was powered by a free spending middle class that had plenty of discretionary income to throw around. But now that the middle class is being systematically destroyed, that paradigm is changing. Americans families simply do not have the same resources that they once did, and that spells big trouble for retailers. As you read this article, the United States still has more retail space per person than any other nation on the planet. But as stores close by the thousands, space available signs are going to be popping up everywhere. This is especially going to be true in poor and lower middle class neighborhoods. Especially after what we just witnessed in Baltimore, many retailers are not going to hesitate to shut down underperforming locations in impoverished areas. And remember, the next major economic crisis has not even arrived yet. Once it does, the business environment in this country is going to change dramatically, and a few years from now America is going to look far different than it does right now. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. It is incredibly deceptive to list RadioShack when they are going out of business. Thats not deceptive, its a fact. Regardless of bankruptcy, they are still closing. Gees! Closing, shutting the doors, bankruptcy, not selling enough to pay their bills, high prices, too many regulations, obamacare too expensive, there are MANY reasons to close. Bankruptcy is a way to try to buffer the devastation of the loses. Why are they in bankruptcy? Because of the same reason all the others who are closing. the economy is BAD! You CLOSE when you have tried all you can and nothing, nothing is improving, so you close before the loss gets bigger! They started by closing a few stores, but that didnt help. We need to keep an eye out to see if any of the others can avoid bankruptcy. Those who do avoid it are the ones who pander to the elite. God help us. Pray for our country, the people who hate our free country care more about destroying us than we care about keeping her alive. They hate you because you first hated them, and bombed and murdered and poisoned millions of their people. When have we Bombed, murdered , and poisoned the CPUSA ?? Hated I agree, I hate the commies that now rule our once free country! It has nothing to do with communism, which most Americans never really understood anyway, nor wanted to. It has everything to do with psychopaths who are running our country into the ground. Funny thing though, Obama was raised by, and surrounds himself with red diaper babies. LOL Its a Bolshevik thing. Emmett, you are correct. But, it is not the American people demanding we commit these atrocities. As heinous as they are, they are being ordered by the Oligarchs in Builderberg, the Trilateral Commisiion and Wall Street. It doesnt matter who is president or in any part of government. They take their marching orders from those who bought and paid for them. The sad part is most dont even know it and the ones that do dont have a clue what to do about it. Make no mistake, they will not stop themselves. Their goal is a New World Order, one global govt, and one currency. (so they can control everything and we will be left to serve them) Wake up America! Stop playing their game. They cant do this without us. Right on target. RadioShack is in bankruptcy because of all the stupid things that Len Roberts did to them and their customers while he was their president. You OBVIOUSLY dont know how BK works. They are NOT going out of business. You are necessarily out of business if you are bankrupt. GM should have filed for bankruptcy, and would have stayed in business if they had. Go read the Wiki article on Radio Shack, and find out what is REALLY going on. Sheesh!!!!! BK is Burger King, not RadioShack. Profit Prophets: The September 7-year surprise is awaiting Who be the personhoods that hate your free country: there be no free country and those haters, you mean Bushs Clintons, Obummers, Kissinger, CIA, the military, etc, etc and their masters from the Ashkenazi Cabal. Free country, hahahah, with the majority of the population mentally enslaved, unwilling to think for themselves and the balance pushed further by the day to the edge, free, forget it. And those closures due to the economy in the tank, you can hug the banksters and the complicit politicians for that intentional destruction of wealth, not theirs, yours.. Youre looking in the wrong direction, americanpatriot, and the time for the slaves housed in the Walmart closed-for-plumbing-the-depths concentration camps is a heartbeat away. The latest figures I have seen is 0.2% growth. With all that is required to set up a business, and keep it running, and make a profit, with those kind of percentages, who is willing to try? The pres and his henchmen are doing a bang up job. Radio Shack is changing hands, NOT going out of business. Then where will the RadioShack stores be? I dont know, but if you read the Wikipedia article, youll find out that not all stores are closing. Not all RadioShack stores are corporate. Many of them, especially in small towns, are dealers, who are allowed to carry other product lines, and may be allowed to retain their dealerships, although one would have to wonder what the point would be in having a RadioShack sign on the front of the store when there are no RadioShack products in the building. Several years ago, I was the manager (read only employee) of a former RadioShack dealership in Quartzsite, Arizona. When the owner went back to the corporation to renew her franchise, she was told shed have to keep the store open all year. Since she only made money in that store while the snowbirds and shows were in town, she stocked the store with generic products and moved all of the remaining RadioShack inventory to her dealership in Parker, which is open all year. It made more money on cellphone sales and accessories than everything else combined, and closed early. My severance pay was the CB radio, DC power supply, feedline, and fiberglass dipole antenna that Id talked her into letting me install to sell stuff to truckers. I still have the first two items. The point STILL is RS is not going out of biz. Time will tell. Moron; NO they are closing BECAUSE business has been falling off and they can NO LONGER keep the stores open. Do learn before spewing stupidity. If they hadnt abandoned their original core business, their original core customers would still be supporting them better than the big box stores customers are supporting them. Ive been a customer of RadioShack since the mid 60s, and Ive watched them commit suicide. You, on the other hand, are probably more accomplished at ad hominem than the history of RadioShack, which originally had a space in its name. Ever think that some closings are planned so that people are forced to buy online? Easier to be tracked. good point on the tracking part. The truth is that middle class U.S. consumers are tapped out. Well hopefully now they will be able to sit down and figure out for themselves You fool , in 2008 1 trillion dollars was stolen from the middle class, do you know as a fool where that money went? Nitwit. in 2008 1 trillion dollars was stolen from the middle class How many middle class U.S. consumers know that? How many middle class U.S. consumers How many middle class U.S. consumers How many middle class U.S. consumers Western culture is a slave culture that thinks that it isnt. And a debt based money system is the reason why. But how many middle class U.S. consumers And dont bitch me out again I dont go online to talk to assholes. We cant afford to be nasty, thats their game. We are all learning and must stand together help each other. You missed his point. Most serfs are have been too busy and too comfortable to take the time and effort to understand how we are being sold down the river. You, dear CMRedwood, said a mouth full and hit the nail on the head! The politicians and the media and the movie/rock stars are traitors to our country. They have joined the ranks of the communists who warned us in the 1950s that they would conquer us from within. They have done this through the demonRat party. They kept their promise and we are seeing the destruction of our county in real time. Keep in mind, AmericanPatriot, that with a few exceptions like Goldwater, GOP RINOs were equally complicit. NWO policy advances are always Hegelian dialectic in format, thesis + antithesis = synthesis; and problem, reaction, solution requiring both minion political factions. I have to agree, though, that many of the brightest and staunchest light bearers came from the Libertarian and conservative minded ranks due to the NWO Fabian socialists deeply infiltrating academia and the rest of the Establishment big Kool-Aid drinkers. It was our own American elite who invented Communism, for their own ends. Please name one Communist who has taken over the U.S. Barack Hussein Obama , Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Elijah Cummings, Barney Franks, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Keith Ellison, and there are 80 proud Democrat Socialists of America (ALL are DemonRats) to just name a few. See below link to see all 80 communist members http://beforeitsnews.com/u-s-politics/2013/05/list-of-80-communists-in-congress-today-the-puppets-of-the-new-world-order-2446612.html Notable Past Member: Co-Chairs: Vice Chairs: What???? Obama says were in a recovery!!!! Well America! Are you ready for change? Yes say the sheeple!! Yes, this is the wonderful promise he made to fundamentally transform our free and blessed country. He sure is doing a bang up job. Its the ONLY promise hes keeping. to destroy our county and make it a communist muslim Nazi one world order for the UN. You are on target,, yet today as frustrating as Obama is, I am exactly feeling the same with him as with George W,.both have committed egregious errors and threaten to take over for who knows how long? The GOP stealing the election in Florida away from Gore, getting us into a worse quagmire than Vietnam? Obama keeping it going..both parties support US imperialism from GMO food monopolies and the top secret Chemtrail destruction of our planet. I love the USA, its popular culture and freedom, but hate the interference of our leaders globally,for the most part. Libya and Syria, we had no business there. Our world is one competing with job cutting from technology and cheap foreign labor, our health is threatened by immunizations run amok,corrupted food, air ,etc. There is no NWO counspiracy, just a lot of idiots like BIll Gates and corporate /government heads,who think they can play God with everyones lives. When I was growing up in the 60s people were generally poor or limited, no AC, color TV, cell phones, computers,etc. In some ways, despite our economy, people are better off, though bloated from GM corn in their diets, that is sad to me. Kids with autism and ADD from toxins. How do you protest to the government today? Used to be colleges protested VIetnam, today protest isnt posted nationally .Thats my take. No hate mail please. Yes, Lance, you are right. And, I would never send you hate mail. However, I do believe that the elite are working for the new world order. GHW Bush, before ending his presidency, told us all about it. His famous speech on this is on YouTube. Plus there are many more who keep telling us it is almost here. Last fall, Henry Kissinger, the German elite, was happier than I have ever seen him as he was joyously proclaiming that the new world order was here. The UNs Post 2015 Agenda 21 http://www.un.org/sg/management/pdf/HLP_P2015_Report.pdf Please read this with an open mind. They have worded it to make us think that its for the good of the people. This is a bunch of crap. This is to make the elite powerful and in control of the world and make THEM rich. Power and control is the most coveted. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This IS the new world order (one world order). Notice the words sustainable and equality. To make this work, someone has to fund it. We, the most wealthy nation on planet earth, will be the worker ants to sustain this. In order for our USA to sustain this, our constitution will have to be destroyed, eliminate borders, and the invasion of our country by the world. The global warming scheme will be the means to fund, obamacare is the means to fund. Old people, disabled, and very sick, who are not able to produce funds to this sustainability, will be cut off from assistance and allowed to die. The word equality does not mean what you think it does. Every person in the world will be equal. that is equally poor. Our good ole USA, who is the land of dreams, where anyone can become what they want to be and as rich as they care to work for their wealth, and land of the free, will no longer exist. The fundamental transformation will be complete, because it is the intention of the elite to stop our leadership and our fortunes, but to make us equal with all the rest of the world. We are hated because of our wealth and opportunity. They want us equal with the rest of the world. This is why obama is telling us to spread our wealth to others less fortunate. He does not mean for us to spread or share our wealth with our USA citizens, his meaning, which hem hillary, bush, or the other elite, doesnt tell us this. And this will make us equal to a third world country. obama has already told mainstream media that when he gets out of office, he will continue his campaign on global warming. The elite think they can control the earth and its natural changes by spraying with more chemtrails, more HAARP, etc. while they continue to jet all over the place, and party hardy with our tax dollars, and tell us to stop grilling on our backyard grills, they will control our water, our food, and continue to use Monsanto to GMO our food and the food that the cows, chickens, pigs eat. Last year obama passed a law that made it impossible for anyone to sue Monsanto for their crops cross polinating our farmers crops, but Monsanto can sue and take our farmers land for growing their GMO plants. Many farmers have lost land and their family farms that their fathers left to them because Monsanto took their land and took their family businesses away from them. obama knows exactly what he is doing, and hes doing it ON PURPOSE. Any common sense would tell you that the wind blows wherever it wants to blow, and contaminated seed and its plants will flow with the wind and that is an act of God, not stealing their GMO plants. I would be jumping up and down mad because my plants were contaminated.. not to steal their cancer causing GMO seed that kills our citizens! Why would obama not stand up for our farmer citizens against Monsanto, but let Monsanto take our citizens life blood given to them by their fathers? This is pure evil and it is the agenda. Its not just our food that is contaminated, the food that the animals we eat is, too, plus all the injections that they give these animals. Please, no hate mail. Please educate and prepare for what is to come. We ask for it by our total complacency and apathy. When you research it all out it falls into place. They are taking over our wet lands, the NDAA controls our water, our food, our communication, our land, our healthcare (or lack thereof), schools, and every single aspect of our lives. When obama or hillary declares Marshall law, they WILL control every aspect of our lives. There is much going on that we dont know, it is happening in secret, behind our backs, as they tell us all is well. All these riots are orchestrated. Do you remember when obama was campaigning? He told us all that he wanted a police and military that was stronger and more powerful than our police force and our military, and he wants to by pass Congress all the time. Well, he has already by passed Congress in many things. obama wants to be the dictator of the world. He is George Soros puppet, and I wonder if Soros will let him rule his world? God bless you, Lance. I pray that you and your family will keep safe in the coming mayhem that The chaos we see now in these riots is just a tiny preview. The closings, which Dan below thinks is part of a conspiracy by the gubmint, is a result of increasing online sales (no conspiracy neededthe key is convenience and cheaper prices due to lower overhead). The US Commerce chart at https://www.census.gov/retail/mrts/www/data/pdf/ec_current.pdf shows that online retail sales, in the past 9 years from 2.4% of all retail sales to 7.6%. So 5% of sales have moved online. The victims are physical stores, which are losing sales due to online sales. According to the National Retail Federation, there are 3,793,621 Retail Establishments in the US. IF we assume that the 5% of sales captured by online retailers would result in closing 5% of the retail stores (just for the sake of argument), that means that 190,000 stores would close (over the 9 yr period) or over 20,000 a year. 6000 closing does not seem out of line given that line of reasoning. This explains why, with retail stores closing retail sales are increasing. Today, retail sales overall are exactly where they were just before the economic collapse in the last few years of the Bush era. People may not be spending more but they are spending it more online. Jobs lost in the physical retail industry are being gained in the online retail industry. There is no nefarioius effort to track citizens or to cook the books to understand this development: it is a result of the movement of sales to the online retailers. Losses in the physical industry are made up in the online. Its not really difficult to understand. We are all buying less at stores and more online. Thats what it is. I am quite happy to see 400 Office Max and Office Depot close. Probably because of all the boycotting of their stores, for the homosexual agenda! Lets hope! The world is a stage each are playing a part. We cant always know what is staged so we have to stop JUDGING based on facts we are fed We are living in the age of endarkenment where facts and truth are no longer important. BUT, Isnt this just more signs of Obamas improving economy and the drops in the jobless rates? On the same level as global warming? (Sarcasm) Just wondering if our idiot oligarchs intend to upload their consciences to immortal machines. And exist forever without us useless eaters to molest them by our being around them that why their closing down the whole system to conserve all energy for themselves. They will only keep useless eaters to be their worker ants to pad their bank accounts and give them power and control over all who breathe. Thralldom and organized murder called WAR is all the Norseman raiders read Educated Barbarians as the Romans would call them know how to do. Capitalism, Socialism are just words to them of no real meaning. There have been 70,000 MORE BUSINESS CLOSINGS than there have been new businesses opening! NO, its NOT because of online shopping, its because of $1 TRILLION taxes after Obamas first election and so many new regulations now that its costing U.S. businesses approx $10 BILLION a month in new costs. Businesses are shutting down, moving opportunities OVERSEAS where Obama sent BILLIONS of dollars of the bail-out dollars on foreign industry and banks. Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The office supply store closings are a direct indicator of mom pop The real unemployment rate is around 25% and the 20-somethings are still living with mom and dad, not buying hipster clothes or fancy teddy bears for the kids they cant afford to have. And everyone I know seems to be sick with something theyre poisoning us every day with a slew of different methods and criminalizing more behaviors all the time, too. Only in a demented capitalist society can millions be homeless while millions of homes are empty, and no one can think past, well, theyre poor, they cant afford a house as if housing isnt a human right. When the USSR fell, no one went homeless, for all its other issues When the USSR fell, no one went homeless. This is true, and since Russians grow most of their own food on their Dachas, no one starved although there was certainly some belt tightening. Dimitri Orlov has written about the differences between the collapse of the USSR, and the impending collapse of the USA. See his book Reinventing Collapse. The enslavement of free men, therefore their reliance on sources other than themselves for sustenance and survival, is the plan Kennedy spoke of and got killed for revealing. Slaves could be set free because now everyone (90% plus) will be either chained to their mundane job, or held as servant with monthly welfare, medicare, social security, and pension deposits into the bank. Biting the hand that feeds them, the Big Bosses know, is something people in the position of a slave rarely do. What to do? Hard to say, too busy watching rectangular screenson our as*es. Call it, made happy, in your serfdom, so comfortable, even insults wont get you out of your chair, which no matter how poor you are, I am sure you have. Planned obsolescence, US manufacturing down the tubes, radioactive rain, earthshine and carcinogenic products, prepping for the super valcano,Ebola and other contagious diseases, the coming earthquakes and other super storms, the ongoing wars, riots, military/police presence, lack of interest in a rigged system, gas prices all are good reasons for closing stores and not going outside to do much of anything. THE DOLLAR TREE?!! NOW I KNOW ITS AN ATTACK ON AMERICA FOR SURE! THE DOLLAR STORE HAS NEVER BEEN BUSIER AS I SEE OTHER MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS GOING THERE CONSTANTLY! EVERYTHING IS CHEAP THERE! AMERICA EMBRACE FOR YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE LIVING IN A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY IF WE DO NOT GET BARACK OBAMA OUT OF OFFICE! PRAY AND REPENT OF YOUR SINS WICKED WORLD! I see that most of them are what are called Upscale stores, with a few exceptions. Some stores have expanded to questionable areas, orv areas where the jobs have been eliminated by the dems doing business as environmentalists (the most successful front for the communists). Having perused the list, I can tell you why these stores are decreasing their outlets. Because there are too many of them, they serve a narrow niche, in a lot of cases, and they are overpriced, in many cases. I wont miss them, but there will be a lot of unemployed people. It is sad that America is not very business friendly, because of our high business taxes. Radio shack no surprise theyve been charging 300% markup for years The average obama supporter wouldnt understand economics anyway so the democrats are covered. same level as global warming? With the forceful ways of the ACLU/LGBT suing businesses with the blessing of Obama Holder, many small businesses will NOT arise and many of them closing. And unless the many restrictions by Obamas laws are overturned by Congress, America will continue to deflate. Is it bad enough Obama sees America as a must be punished nation? Another sign of the wonderful economy that the beige bozo presides over. The insurance companies have been sucking the life out of everyone taxes are nothing compared to what you have to fork over to the insurance companies. They have to pay their shareholders and all the natural disasters that have happened. Car insurance, home / renters insurance, medical insurance, mortage insurance, life insurance, pre arranged funeral insurance, not to mention all the hidden insurance on your bank accounts and credit cards. We all pay for the disasters, by them raising our rates. You dont think they would take a loss do you. They have million dollar CEOs and board of directors, plus all kinds of staff and workers to manage the money coming in and the claims going out. Everyone is scared to death of being sued or having an accident or getting ill, so we all buy more insurance. It is a circle and they are getting more money from us than the government. ExactlyButWhen the economic collapse happens insurance companies will be Out of Business, because money will be worthless. No claims will be honored or paid or settled. Those companies will basically just disappear with all the money you and others have given them for your financial protection. During the resultant chaos and riots your home or car gets burned, you will get nothing. As an old saying went, Buying insurance is a bad bet! Your money becomes THEIR money. (Even if its worth little to nothing). Yes, Warren Buffets top jewel in his crown is Geico and Peter Lewis is CEO of progressive, and is also a big financial donor and political associate(at least 12.5 million) to Soros and Move On! So yes, when we pay our car insurance we feed these RATS who scheme to bring about our demise! This is the plan he,s had all along bring America down Weer in worst ship than in 1930 We want recovery people and you who put this P.O.S in our white house twice see what you have done to AMERICA. A few years ago I operated a small business in the siding and home upgrades/construction.business. Most of my customers were middle-class to upper middle-class that wanted to beautify and upgrade their homes. That business has failed because as the author of the article said, these people no longer have the discretionary income to do so. Then there is that many of them lost their homes and are now renting, if they can afford that. In my area there are many, many vacant homes that some investors are sucking up for pennies on the dollar. Most of those homes need upgrading and repairs to be habitual because of long-term vacancy. What I see is that those investors hire mostly immigrants (Illegal immigrants?) to perform the basic upgrades and repairs at such low prices that I cannot do. Then they rent those homes out at increasingly higher rents to people that lost their homes. I lost my home and now rent. My former employees lost their homes, and now rent. We have all become part of this disparity and face poverty and homelessness at some point. Whos to blame here? We can see what is happening to our economy,yet law makers refusing to act because of special interest policy. I call it a war on business. The left is tempting us toward Socialism. Small business is being phased out in favor of big business. The deals our lawmakers make with big business will make them rich and ensure who can buy and sell under Socialism. Socialism has already hijacked the voters voice. Take from the rich and give to the poor is their doctrine yet the reverse is true. Those who support the Socialist agenda will only get richer and the poor will be controlled. It matters very little what political party is in control. Greed and power is what truly fires our government. Dependency on government will prevail then government can take control. This happened in Rome,China,Russia,Germany,Italy,and now it is being preached to the masses in our nation. The nation should never allow its people be controlled by big government. The ONLY way we can take back our nation is to think Constitutionally Correct Conservative. We still have the framework in place to return to a representative republic. The quest is : Do we truly government to control our lives? you people dont need to complain about anything1morons put him in office-2- people complain about what he is doing3 but yet let him continue to his agendas and make his on law and do whatever he so pleases himself as being a power grabber4-the people will talk but want do the walk so if we can not stand together and make things happen then stop complaining Have you ever heard of the Internet? Stores closing are a sign that they are less efficient than online buying. Radio Shack cant compete with Amazon and Newegg. Barnes and Noble cant compete with bn.com. The one key factor in all this, is the making of a Socialist economy out of what is now a free America, but one has to ask, how much longer will we be free. If you know the answer i would really like to know about it, because all i can see and hear are the Sounds of Communism, running through the streets of America and no body gives a damn. If you believe you make the decision when election time comes around, your sadly mistaken, there is a society known as the Bildebergs that is made up of the wealthiest people in the world, There are about 150 members scattered around the world, 150 people making all the decisions for 7.125 billion people, I care about the 350,000,000 that live in America and i honestly dont believe they want a society run by just a hand full of people, or commonly none as Communist. The reason so many stores are closing are to make way for Socialism and its ugly head. Wake up America, we can still make a difference. Sovietization of USA why wasnt my comment posted? OK, looks ok now. I was just saying its like Darwinism. McDs. vs. Chipotle. The retailers that provide low value are going to go, makes sense. The economy and markets are inflated to begin with. You ever notice your computer is working slower than normal? NSA. All digital communications are now filtered 100% What do you mean next recession? Its ALREADY a DEEP depression. Everyone needs to have all their basics covered so they dont have to do things they dont want to do, just for money like go to war, go to work for eight hours a day, etc. Family is far more important and deserves far more time than the company store. Everyone needs to have a home where they can truly rest and a garden so they can eat healthy, organic food. The whole system is pretty silly. Corporations make a lot of cheap, trashy things HOPING that someone will buy them thereby wasting lots of human time, energy and planetary resources making, marketing and selling goods that nobody really wants or needs and that go in a landfill in a month or year. High quality goods made to order (like print-on-demand books) would be much more economical and would use far less human and planetary resources. Weve been living in an unsustainable bubble. Maybe its time for us to grow more wise. I believe they over built all of these stores, greed made them build and now greed makes them close. I have about 20 big box stores surrounding me. How many did we need? Not this many for sure. And maybe everyone bought enough crap products these stores sell that they dont need anymore stuff. We really dont need this many of these types of stores. This article is good food for more analysis, but it is hard to draw tight conclusions. For instance, Radio Shack has been barely hanging on for years, Abercrombie and Fitch has been re-organizing and has been forced to do serious rebranding, Barnes and Noble has been phasing out of brick and mortar for a while, Office Depot is merging with Staples, etc. That is not to ignore the fact that Obama has spent us into oblivion, as good paying jobs get more scarce, the IRS is hauling in money in record amounts and it is still not enough. Obama swore the stimulus money was just a one time event, but, trillion dollar budgets became the norm. He certainly has not created an environment that would enable any of these companies to flourish. 2012..a day I new would come TAXES PAID IN $32,446 The takers now exceed the makers, and its only getting worse. Add AP Supermarkets to the List. Because they are buying online is part of it.better pricing more choices no driving, parking etc.What would a true measure of overall retail sales look like, online and walkin taken together look like. That would give a more accurate picture of the overall state of the economy. 