Americans say goodbye to more brands - Surprising Closures

[CharlieH]

The stores and Restaurants that you knew so well are all disappearing !

 

Where will this end? Is it going to get worse ?

 

 

 

 

 

[Patong2021]

So what? Covid expedited the change to online retail that had  been underway years earlier. Many of the retail outlets for Rite Aid, CVS, Macy's, Walmart are in  locations that have not been profitable for years. Walgreens had stores within 500 meters of each other.  There was no need. Red Lobster and Applebees had been mismanaged and offered a dining experience that had not kept up with the times. It was all processed food, much of it frozen and then heated or microwaved on premises. Blooming Brands is closing some locations, not all and it makes sense why; The majority of these restaurants were older assets with leases from the '90s and early 2000s.  The decision "considered a variety of factors" including sales and traffic-trade areas, in addition to "the investment that would have to be made to improve the restaurants," according to Nation's Restaurant News.  Parent company Bloomin' Brands announced during a February earnings call that they expect to nearly triple the number of Outback openings in the United States this year compared to 2023. Since six new Outback restaurants opened in America last year, that means up to 18 additional locations could begin serving customers in 2024.

 

There is the doom and gloom nonsensical stories from TikTok, and then there are upbeat stories like this;   https://www.eatthis.com/fastest-growing-restaurant-chains-2024/    

https://nrf.com/research-insights/top-retailers/hot-25-retailers/2024-hot-25-retailers-list

 

Adapt to changing consumer preferences or lose the customers.

 

[GinBoy2]

Well this all tied in to the death of the Mall.

 

The restaurants well more a case of corporate incompetence, especially in the case of Red Lobster.

 

But I have to admit I haven't been in a mall for years, and gotta admit I much prefer buying online pretty preferable to traipsing around a mall

[Yagoda]

Just for sport, here are some of the stores, restaurants etc that have closed or become irrelevant or barely hangin on in my lifetime

 

B. Altmann

Howard Johnsons

Roy Rodgers

Gimbels

Alexanders

K mart

Crazy Eddie

Sears

Sterns

Boston Market

Abercrombie and Fitch (reborn)

Blockbuster

Horn and Hardart

A&P

I could do more but I just did a bong rip and forgot my name.

 

 

[JimTripper]

On 10/15/2024 at 8:32 AM, GinBoy2 said:

Well this all tied in to the death of the Mall.

 

The restaurants well more a case of corporate incompetence, especially in the case of Red Lobster.

 

But I have to admit I haven't been in a mall for years, and gotta admit I much prefer buying online pretty preferable to traipsing around a mall

Not me, I loved the old malls. Out of curiosity how old are you? Nobody I know who grew up in the 80's or before dislikes malls.

 

[GinBoy2]

36 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

Not me, I loved the old malls. Out of curiosity how old are you? Nobody I know who grew up in the 80's or before dislikes malls.

 

Thats the key phrase 'I loved the old malls'

 

I'm 65 and the mall was a well established teenage hang out. They were a great place.

 

The anchor stores, Macy's, Sears, JC Pennys etc, felt glamorous, and it was all great fun.

 

Flash forward 40 odd years, and things have changed.

 

As online bit into the brick and mortar business things began to change. 

 

The anchor stores began to contract or change. 

 

Sears, who I am eternally grateful for, for giving me my first credit card, gone.

 

Couple of years back I went into  a Macy's, which used to be considered fairly high end. It reminded me more of a TJ Max, certainly a shadow of what it once was, and malls can look very sad

 

So a lot of malls, and retailers are on life support

 

I can't deny I along with millions of others have contributed to this decline, sat at home, few mouse clicks and wait for UPS just made it too easy

[JimTripper]

3 hours ago, GinBoy2 said:

Thats the key phrase 'I loved the old malls'

 

I'm 65 and the mall was a well established teenage hang out. They were a great place.

 

The anchor stores, Macy's, Sears, JC Pennys etc, felt glamorous, and it was all great fun.

 

Flash forward 40 odd years, and things have changed.

 

As online bit into the brick and mortar business things began to change. 

 

The anchor stores began to contract or change. 

 

Sears, who I am eternally grateful for, for giving me my first credit card, gone.

 

Couple of years back I went into  a Macy's, which used to be considered fairly high end. It reminded me more of a TJ Max, certainly a shadow of what it once was, and malls can look very sad

 

So a lot of malls, and retailers are on life support

 

I can't deny I along with millions of others have contributed to this decline, sat at home, few mouse clicks and wait for UPS just made it too easy

Hey man, want to go hang out at the mall? I got $5 bucks.

 

Edited October 16 by JimTripper

[GinBoy2]

9 hours ago, JimTripper said:

Hey man, want to go hang out at the mall? I got $5 bucks.

 

Ahh those were the days of my youth

[GinBoy2]

On 10/16/2024 at 4:08 AM, JimTripper said:

Hey man, want to go hang out at the mall? I got $5 bucks.

 

Of course we are forgetting that $5 at the food court, thats where all the action happened!

[ravip]

Shopping online, ordering food online, working from home... slowly but surely, we humans are getting back into our caves with our phones & computers. Socializing will be something rare, and relationships & friendships will be something foreign. We will ultimately view each other with suspicion and distrust.

The cost of development & changing of time will be very dear, IMHO.

[OneMoreFarang]

Maybe one problem is the concept of chain restaurants in general.

When I still lived in Europe, the only chain restaurants which we had were American owned like Mc Donals.

"Real" restaurants are from individual owners. Maybe those owners own a few other individual restaurants, but not a chain of them.

What do people expect from chains? Consistency. But certainly not quality.

[OneMoreFarang]

24 minutes ago, ravip said:

Shopping online, ordering food online, working from home... slowly but surely, we humans are getting back into our caves with our phones & computers. Socializing will be something rare, and relationships & friendships will be something foreign. We will ultimately view each other with suspicion and distrust.

The cost of development & changing of time will be very dear, IMHO.

Is that your personal experience?

My one differs substantially. 

[ravip]

27 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Is that your personal experience?

My one differs substantially. 

I would say more of my personal observation, rather than my experience.

If we compare the youth of a couple of decades back versus todays, what would you observe?

Isolation is not too healthy to us humans, I believe.

[Jingthing]

Some of those are surprising, others not at all. 

[impulse]

One of my favorite malls in Houston, called Greenspoint, got the nickname Gunspoint in the '80s and it was downhill from there.  Used to go there a few times a week for sporting goods (fishing mostly), movies and to eat.  None of my family have been there in years.  (Haven't bought a pair of Florsheims in decades, either)

 

Look at a lot of the store closings, and it's because the shrink makes it impossible to make a profit.  Online sales is a big factor, but crime is (IMO) just as big.  Between fear of being mugged and "shrinkage", brick and mortar is doomed by crime alone.  I blame that on the Ferguson effect.

 

On an aside, Thailand does malls right.  Mostly food and drink (which doesn't work well online) and the retail is a side beneficiary.  Still, I suspect a lot of the retail in the Thai malls is money laundering.  I see shops that never seem to have a customer, watching for an hour or so from a nearby eatery.  And I scratch my head.

 

Edited October 20 by impulse

[Dcheech]

'Are you surprised?' No, I knew this would be a crap vid with 90 % crap stores I don’t know or do not care about.
 

What I did care about ….  Macys, only because it bought Bon Marche. far less Best Buy, still a brick & mortar to get a few audio or tech related products. Rite Aid deserves a curse, if only because they bought a beloved local store; Bartell's, and then immediately went tits up. I guess I should be happy the local owners got some cash from them.
 

Applebee’s, Red Lobster, Outback, I do not even know if they were out in our area. I would never have eaten at them if they were anyway. 
 

[OneMoreFarang]

49 minutes ago, ravip said:

I would say more of my personal observation, rather than my experience.

If we compare the youth of a couple of decades back versus todays, what would you observe?

Isolation is not too healthy to us humans, I believe.

 

I agree that isolation is not healthy.

Personally I just don't know about young people these days. Obviously I see lots of young people outside, and many of them seem to be addicted to their phones. But I don't know how many never or seldom go out. I also don't know how those who communicate all the time over their phone think about that situation.

I personally would think someone who has 1000 fb "friends" and no real life friends has a problem. But I remember talking to a women in an office who was constantly on her phone and she told me proudly she has friends all over the world.

 

It's different. Is it worse? Personally, I think so. But then, personally I don't have any social media friends.

[Dcheech]

26 minutes ago, impulse said:

Online sales is a big factor, but crime is (IMO) just as big.  Between fear of being mugged and "shrinkage", brick and mortar is doomed by crime alone.  I blame that on the Ferguson effect.

That is because you are a right winger and part of that food chain. Bartell's, mentioned above, was blamed by our resident state right wingnuts as having torn up shelves with stock gone, on, your guessed it, CRIME. Shop lifting squads you see on FOX news. Turns out RITE AID who bought BARTELL's would not stock all of what Bartell's used to carry. They had not removed the shelves. Halved the staff, mainly checkers were left. So it did look like junk six months to a year before they closed them up, as they went into that final death spiral. Nothing to do with crime or the "Ferguson effect", no shoppers were stopped then shot to death by police. Rest easy gentle poster

Mom, alive & pretty spry in her 90's, never had to fight off muggers or smash & grab thieves; Shock, Gasp Horror. She is however plenty PO'd with Rite Aid.







 

Edited October 20 by Dcheech

[ravip]

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

I agree that isolation is not healthy.

Personally I just don't know about young people these days. Obviously I see lots of young people outside, and many of them seem to be addicted to their phones. But I don't know how many never or seldom go out. I also don't know how those who communicate all the time over their phone think about that situation.

I personally would think someone who has 1000 fb "friends" and no real life friends has a problem. But I remember talking to a women in an office who was constantly on her phone and she told me proudly she has friends all over the world.

 

It's different. Is it worse? Personally, I think so. But then, personally I don't have any social media friends.

Yes, I do agree with you.

For me, a mobile & a PC is a necessity now. But, I still enjoy meeting people for a drink and/or having a meal together. I enjoy having a conversation 1 to 1, instead of tapping on my phone! At these times, the phone should be either switched off or on silent mode - in a gathering, getting lost with your phone is showing disrespect to others IMHO.

 

In real, I prefer to have 5 real life friends rather than having 5K FB friends!

Sometimes, I feel that the "art of conversation" is getting lost with the departure of the older generation...

[impulse]

27 minutes ago, Dcheech said:

That is because you are a right winger and part of that food chain. Bartell's, mentioned above, was blamed by our resident state right wingnuts as having torn up shelves with stock gone, on, your guessed it, CRIME. Shop lifting squads you see on FOX news. Turns out RITE AID who bought BARTELL's would not stock all of what Bartell's used to carry. They had not removed the shelves. Halved the staff, mainly checkers were left. So it did look like junk six months to a year before they closed them up, as they went into that final death spiral. Nothing to do with crime or the "Ferguson effect", no shoppers were stopped then shot to death by police. Rest easy gentle poster

Mom, alive & pretty spry in her 90's, never had to fight off muggers or smash & grab thieves; Shock, Gasp Horror. She is however plenty PO'd with Rite Aid.

 

It's a shame to lose all those pharmacies just before the biggest mental healthcare crisis that country has ever seen.

 

[Hawaiian]

54 minutes ago, impulse said:

One of my favorite malls in Houston, called Greenspoint, got the nickname Gunspoint in the '80s and it was downhill from there.  Used to go there a few times a week for sporting goods (fishing mostly), movies and to eat.  None of my family have been there in years.  (Haven't bought a pair of Florsheims in decades, either)

 

Look at a lot of the store closings, and it's because the shrink makes it impossible to make a profit.  Online sales is a big factor, but crime is (IMO) just as big.  Between fear of being mugged and "shrinkage", brick and mortar is doomed by crime alone.  I blame that on the Ferguson effect.

 

On an aside, Thailand does malls right.  Mostly food and drink (which doesn't work well online) and the retail is a side beneficiary.  Still, I suspect a lot of the retail in the Thai malls is money laundering.  I see shops that never seem to have a customer, watching for an hour or so from a nearby eatery.  And I scratch my head.

 

I agree that increasing criminal activity is a major deterrent.  Many outlets have become unprofitable  because of it.  Unfortunately, things are getting worse.

[phetphet]

Unfortunately, the way the US national debt is going, a lot more businesses will be going under. Those numbers are crazy!

[JimTripper]

3 hours ago, impulse said:

Still, I suspect a lot of the retail in the Thai malls is money laundering.  I see shops that never seem to have a customer, watching for an hour or so from a nearby eatery.  And I scratch my head.

Could also be people spending down savings or loans. A lot of business owners hold out thinking things will improve one day. Overconfidence and too attached to the business to make a change.

Edited October 20 by JimTripper

[impulse]

6 minutes ago, JimTripper said:

I wonder the same thing. I see businesses like that in my neighborhood. I always figure it's people who have minimal overhead and are just doing it as a hobby.

 

On the street where the rent is low and the shopkeepers live above their store, I can see it as a great alternative to a 300 baht a day job.  But I can't imagine the shopping mall rent is cheap. (Unless they offer a low "trial rate")

 

Across from my normal Chinatown hotel is a lady in a shop who sits there all day and probably sells less than $50 worth of stuff.  But that may still be a better than 300 baht a day digging ditches.  And her apartment is above the shop.  I'm curious what she pays in total rent, if she doesn't own the property outright.  The other bonus from sitting in her shop is that she's not out spending money out of boredom, and she gets to interact with a lot of her friends.