Friday, April 18, 2014

Two More Victims Of The Retail Apocalypse: Family Dollar And Coldwater Creek

The Rumor Mill News Reading Room 

Two More Victims Of The Retail Apocalypse: Family Dollar And Coldwater Creek
Posted By: Susoni [Send E-Mail]
Date: Friday, 18-Apr-2014 10:43:21

Shame, Coldwater Creek had beautiful clothes. ..
Susoni
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Did you know that Family Dollar is closing 370 stores? When I learned of this, I was quite stunned. I knew that retailers that serve the middle class were really struggling right now, but I had no idea that things had gotten so bad for low-end stores like Family Dollar.
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I was also surprised to learn that Coldwater Creek is closing all of their stores...
Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer said it plans to close its stores by early summer.
Coldwater Creek joins other retailers to seek protection from creditors in recent months as consumers keep a lid on spending.
The company said it plans to wind down its operations over the coming months and begin going-out-of-business sales in early May, before the traditionally busy Mother's Day weekend.
Coldwater Creek, which has 365 stores and employs about 6,000 people, has five stores in Maryland.
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Technology, outsourcing, a growing temp staffing industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class.
The working class. Most jobs that existed 20 years ago aren’t needed now. Maybe they never were needed. The entire first decade of this century was spent with CEOs in their Park Avenue clubs crying through their cigars, “how are we going to fire all this dead weight?”. 2008 finally gave them the chance. “It was the economy!” they said. The country has been out of a recession since 2009. Four years now. But the jobs have not come back. I asked many of these CEOs: did you just use that as an excuse to fire people, and they would wink and say, “let’s just leave it at that.”
I’m on the board of directors of a temp staffing company with one billion dollars in revenues. I can see it happening across every sector of the economy. Everyone is getting fired. Everyone is toilet paper now.
Flush.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know someone who previously managed a advanced auto store who recently took a job at family dollar. Internally the stores are poorly managed and can account for the underperformance. Another manager at dollar tree had their performance bonus cut several months ago already. This is the same as a wage cut. The manager was told a bonus would still be paid if deserved but has not seen one since. This is in one of the best performing stores in the area.