Is it surprising that US retail chains are in trouble?

[melm00se]

depending upon the source (and how they do their calculations), the USA has anywhere between 2 and 5 times the retail space per capita of other countries. That is a lot of money tied up to buy, build and maintain which creates an environment of oversupply which, if anything, drives down prices as these retailers have to increase competition for the American consumer dollar.


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[Freddie]

1. We're headed for a nasty recession

Typical when repugs run everything.
DH is an manager for a place that sells auto parts to garages and dealerships. His sales are down and the dealers are telling him that new and used car sales are not happening. When people are unsure of things the first thing they do is put off making major purchases if they can. Auto sales are a good predictor of things to come. Not to wish for a recession but the best way to make people angry at the party in power is a bad economy.

[Adrahil]

2. I don;t really think it is a matter of oversupply, so much as...

... the fact that the retail shopping experience kinda sucks..... limited selection, limited sizes, generally low quality, and usually it's hard to find someone to help you, or even to check you out. IMO, the big department stores are doomed. The market is shifting to online retail, and successful brick and mortar stores will cater to specialty markets, or the low-end discount segment (think dollar stores).

[melm00se]

3. Do you think that

any or all of those are influenced by the profitability of the retailer?

[Adrahil]

6. Of course, in both positive and negative ways...

Many retailer focus solely on costs, and ignore people like me who be inclined to support local shopping if the experience offered me something. But if it's just about getting product, I can do that faster, cheaper, and with generally better results online. OTOH, I do patronize my local game store occasionally because they DO offer more. The staff is knowledgeable about their products and can make informed suggestions. There are other gamers there, so I can meet them and sometimes even play games there. So sometimes, I spend the extra 10-25% they charge to support them because they offer something I do not get at Amazon. If they focused solely on selling games and gaming accessories, they'd be out of business, because Amazon is much cheaper. But they stay IN business because they recognize they cannot compete based on price alone.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Retail is dead

Retail jobs are being replaced with Warhouse jobs at a remarkable clip.

Our regional grocery chain, Meijer, is now offering home delivery for a very small fee. No more Saturdays spent in a crowded store sounds great to me. It's $99 for the whole year, that's probably 80 hours of time a year my wife and I will not have to spend in the store. And more than that, it will allow us to budget our trips to the store much more effectively.

Huge shifts in the American Way of life in the next several years. Retail is dying out and self driving cars will revolutionize travel in cities and suburbs.

[crazycatlady]

5. There's a lot of problems with brick and mortar retail

For many people, online is the only option for clothes (plus-sized women-- defined as over size 14, more than 50% of American women)
Stores are often messy (it is what happens when you cut payroll)
Employees are trained to upsell and that drives customers crazy (as directed by corporate).

[stopbush]

7. I'd rather wait 2-3 days for my online order to show up at home

than spend 30 minutes standing in line at a register at an understaffed retail store.