Community Chat

[esmeraldagooch]

What's your take for all the bankrupsy's this year?  Some are saying bad economy or lack of consumer spending. Others say people are buying online not in brick an mortar stores.

I rarely shop anymore for clothing and when I do I order online.  How about you?

[Gooday]

I wasn't aware of an increase in bankruptcy but with a low of 2-3% growth over the past 7 1/2 years as well as the working force not getting raises, it's not surprising.

Also, the unemployment rate figures are a little skewed as many peope whose unemployment benefits have run out and that inflates the figure.

 As for shopping ~ being retired, I don't need all the clothes, shoes and makeup I used to purchase.  However, if I can get it online, I do.  I do shop at WalMart for certain items and for me, I always pickup casual tops and athletic wear type pants at far less money than what the Q charges.  I always look neat and clean, yet casual with nice shoes and earrings.

[spix]

I also do most shopping online, it's so much easier.  Do go out for groceries, etc but other than that it's online, I think I'm jst getting lazy  lol

[KarenQVC]

All online for me, except fresh groceries.

[millieshops]

@esmeraldagoochFor me, it's something else -  that else is that I did way too much shopping for a few years and just became overwhelmed with too many things around me.

After a couple of years of buying almost no new clothes, jewlery, or other accessories, I really need to shop a bit --  but I don't much like what's being sold.  

I know brick and mortar is in more trouble than online shopping, but until I can't, I'll be a b&m clothing shopper.  Still I'm not surprised when I read the finanical press and see how many stores are in deep trouble.  Some are chains I have almost never shopped, but this year I'm even disappointed with my favorite department at Nordies, so I'm not surprised there's trouble in paradise.  I'm about to begin my 17th year of retirement, and it could be the first year of retirement in which I spent not a dollar there.

[tansy]

Maybe the baby boomers are slowing down and not buying as much, similar to what Gooday mentioned above.  Other than Costco or the grocery store, most of my buying is done online.  

The younger generations seem to have different spending patterns.  

I haven't heard about an upswing in bankruptcies.

[deepwaterdotter]

Speaking only for my husband and myself, our spending has decreased since we retired.  Mostly wear sturdy, non-trendy clothes that only occasionally need replacement. And find my self shopping more and more online for non-perishable items.  

[scotnovel]

Everyone always mentions the economy first but there are all sorts of reasons companies go bankrupt or out of business:

poor company management 

inability to respond to changes like movement from brick and mortar to online

inability to respond to economic cycles (Herb Kelleher from Southwest Airlines once said something like we operate in a good economy as though it is a bad one so that we will still be in business when a downturn happens.  A lot of companies go hog wild with spending, store remodels etc when the economy is at the peak and then can't sustain their business when there is a downturn. )  

consistent poor customer service in stores

price of their products especially compared to quality

limited store inventory (especially as compared to online)

outdated styles (a lot of these specialty teen related clothing lines, for example, are fads and the trends change so quickly that some stores can't keep up and teens get bored and move on)

etc etc

[Moonchilde]

Do you mean individual bankruptcies, or b&m store bankruptcies? If the former it's the same old reasons, and very often medical bills.

As far as b&m stores, I think there has always been a tendency, foolishly, for some rapidly growing businesses to open too many stores, overextend, and have to shut them down. I do think people are buying much more online generally - but smart businesses have adapted to that and gotten with the online program; the stores with too little too late won't make it.

I also think that except for the holidays and gift-giving, people are buying what they need these days, and not everything they want. Younger generations, including millenials, need double incomes and starting to save early if they want a home. And in general I think people are just gunshy about another recession, or being fully out of the recent one. No one's dancing on cars and singing "We're in the money!" yet.

[ECBG]

Having recently worked in retail, they told us that there is so much online shopping that it had gotten to 5% of this large anchor store, so much so that they were planning to have order stations for the customer to use if they couldn't find it in the store.

Our Banana Republic closed and is now an online store.