Retail is dead, women killed it!

[TwistParticipant]

Anonymous wrote:

I remember the Sears catalog.

Im officialy old.

Me too. I loved the Wishbook.

Within a block of me there are two houses that were Sears kits. And I thought building my shed was a big deal…

[Bob DylanParticipant 1352]

As a youngster, the outhouse had last year’s Sears catalog for wiping and a sack of lime for covering….talking about old…??? lol

..it ain't me babe...it ain't me you're looking for, babe...

[narwhalParticipant]

A lot of this pictures of malls and such closing up, is somewhat misleading. Yes, malls aren’t what they used to be, but many malls are failing because the neighborhoods around them are failing.

The malls were setup in the suburbs, but now these suburbs have turned into slums. So yes, they are going to close up.

As far as jobs go, I think the stories of gloom are underestimating American’s ability to come up with new ways things to sell, and insatiable appetite for the latest whatever. From what I’ve witnessed, two markets have expanded since the internet came on. First there are more residential services available. It seems that way at least. The other is what’s called ‘the long tail’.

If you have a retail store, you couldn’t afford to stock items that didn’t have a buyers for your local area. But with online retail, your local area is now the entire country. Thus you can sell items that only a few people want and make a good product. There is so much more variety and niche items out there now that we didn’t have before. It also means you can take more risks in producing a product, because you don’t need it to be that much of a success to make a profit.

As for Amazon ending up following the same path as Apple, Amazon isn’t a closed eco-system the way Apple is. In that regard, they are much more like Microsoft. That said, they seem to be more willing to innovate then Microsoft is/was.

I don’t know that the government is going to shut off the good shipping rates that Amazon gets. Much of what ships from Amazon is sold from small business owners. You could argue that shipping rate increases would harm them more than Amazon…or that hurting Amazon isn’t worth the harm to voters from a political standpoint.

I see a lot of these outline retailers becoming more like the credit card companies. The make their money by enabling transactions and taking a cut from each transaction.

Ok. Then do it.

[Faust For ScienceParticipant 22541]

FrankOne wrote:

Amazon negotiates rates.

That is the issue. Soon Amazon will not be able to negotiate and the company will have to accept the rates like everyone else.

FrankOne wrote:

They have a ‘negotiated service agreement’ with USPS.

That agreement will likely be discarded when the White House reaches that matter.

narwhal wrote:

A lot of this pictures of malls and such closing up, is somewhat misleading. Yes, malls aren’t what they used to be, but many malls are failing because the neighborhoods around them are failing.

Malls have collapsed for three reasons.

1. The economic downturn.

2. Lack of foresight by landlords whom own the malls.

3. Renting to fair weather tenant businesses.

A good landlord will stay on top of the needs of their tenants and the landlord plan ahead for economic downturns. Moving in professional businesses such as medical and education, as retail shops close. Many of those whom own malls did not do this.

Those mails that are still healthy are because the landlords stayed on top of the situation and brought in medical and education. The healthy malls I have been to have rented out to doctors and schools.

[OldBillParticipant]

bstoff wrote:

USPS is not subsidized in any way by US tax dollars…

In a narrow sense, yes. In a broader sense, upper management is cynically lying to you.

While the USPS is longer a branch of the federal government and is no longer under direct federal control, the USPS is still intertwined with and directed by the federal government to a huge extent.

Our UK brothers will be more familiar with the term “public-private partnership” (PPP) because many of their government services are handled in that fashion. The USPS is a PPP of sorts here in the US.

USPS budgetary shortfalls are covered by one time federal grants. The USPS doesn’t own any of it’s post offices or the land they’re on, instead those buildings and are rented under government contract. Similarly, USPS vehicles are bought under government auspices. USPS rates are set contingent to Congressional approval.

That last means the rate loopholes Amazon enjoys are a result of passive Congressional approval. If Congress didn’t approve of the rates, it would intervene.

You can be subsidized in many more ways than a line item in the yearly federal budget.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[ScarberianMPTGLParticipant 3286]

Speaking of Sears, I think I heard somewhere that it was going down as well, at least here in Canada. Makes you wonder what’s next..

I, Lelouch Vi Britannia, command you, all of you, to Go Your Own Way!!

[OldBillParticipant]

Faust For Science wrote:

2. Lack of foresight by landlords whom own the malls.

A change in the tax code in the mid-50s provided a tax shelter in the form of real estate developments. While it took some for the suburban demographics with that tax loophole, when enough people were finally living in the “right” places, malls became the go-to tax shelter for individuals and corporations.

Malls were so easy to build, so easy to find tenants, and good at providing a tax shelter that corporations were set up just to take advantage of that fact.

There’s a time limit on how long the money can be parked in that tax shelter and – surprise – malls began to falter just around the point those first time limits ran out.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[OldBillParticipant]

ScarberianMPTGL wrote:

Speaking of Sears, I think I heard somewhere that it was going down as well, at least here in Canada.

Sears has been in such poor shape for so long it was sold to K-mart in 2005.

Makes you wonder what’s next…

K-mart.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[ScarberianMPTGLParticipant 3286]

OldBill wrote:

Sears has been in such poor shape for so long it was sold to K-mart in 2005.

I thought K-mart was gone too, wasn’t it?

I, Lelouch Vi Britannia, command you, all of you, to Go Your Own Way!!

[OldBillParticipant]

ScarberianMPTGL wrote:

I thought K-mart was gone too, wasn’t it?

Maybe in Canada. It’s still around in the US and it owns Sears.

There are about 1300-1500 K-marts in the US, IIRC. They’re closing a couple hundred this year though so my number may be high. While the number of Sears is much smaller, it includes “speciality” stores like auto centers.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[GrumpyParticipant]

K-Mart is gone in western Canada.
Sears is “restructuring” so it to will soon be a memory.
Eatons, HBC, Zellers, Futureshop, and a myriad of other retailers are gone now as well.
Most have been bought out by US/Multinational and the owners tried to run them like US/Europe/Asian markets rather than in Canadian markets and failed due to it.

Even Canadian Tire is being hit (losing sales) due to trying to compete with Walmart et all, thereby alienating its huge customer base of automotive/outdoors/recreational purchasers so they can try to sell a little of everything.

There was a time in my life when I gave a fuck. Now you have to pay ME for it

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

narwhal wrote:

American’s ability to come up with new ways things to sell, and insatiable appetite for the latest whatever…

…made in China.

It matters not if new jobs are created involved in the marketing, sales, or distribution of wealth. If the country isn’t actually producing wealth, it’s doomed.

Trading one factory job for two jobs asking “would you like fries with that” is a bad deal even if it’s more “jobs”.

[FrankOneParticipant 1420]

OldBill: Yes, USPS is mostly subsidized indirectly. They can borrow money up to $15 billion at very low interest rates from the Federal Financing Bank — rates far below what their private sector competitors must pay. They are also given a monopoly on delivery TO mailboxes. FedEX legally, cannot deliver to those boxes, nor can UPS or anyone else. They are also exempt from property taxes, tolls, vehicle registrations, etc. You and I might want some free market reforms. But we aren’t gonna get them… Because there are over 600,000 organized postal workers who vote.

It is also true though, that they must run unprofitable rural routes. This actually puts Amazon in a strong negotiating position; USPS MUST run the routes, so why not deliver more packages in same to make USPS closer to being solvent? Truly privatizing USPS would have many effects; its labor costs would go down to be similar to UPS. This would make it more competitive in urban areas. They would probably opt for less frequent deliveries to rural areas AND charger higher rates for delivery to such routes. Remember, if Amazon didn’t improve their bottom line, they wouldn’t sign agreements.

Also, Amazon does NOT have to accept higher rates, they can opt to expand their own delivery operations, OR select a USPS competitor.

[OldBillParticipant]

FrankOne wrote:

It is also true though, that they must run unprofitable rural routes. This actually puts Amazon in a strong negotiating position; USPS MUST run the routes, so why not deliver more packages in same to make USPS closer to being solvent?

No. You’ve got it exactly backwards. That rural deliver route mandate puts USPS in the driver’s seat because that mandate has given USPS what amounts to delivery monopoly along those routes.

USPS is mandated to service those routes whether it make a profit or not. Indeed, thanks to indirect federal subsidies you and I listed, USPS never has to make a profit or break even. If Amazon tries to low ball USPS on delivery rates, USPS can say “Fine, take your business to UPS, FedEx, and the others.” When Amazon approaches those firms about deliveries, Amazon is going to be quoted a higher rates for slower deliveries because none of those firms have the necessary infrastructure in place.

If Amazon wants it’s deliveries made to those routes within a certain amount of time, USPS is the only carrier which can do it.

I’m not suggesting that USPS is going to dictate rates to Amazon any more than Amazon is going to dictate rates to USPS. I am saying that, once the rate loopholes Amazon currently exploits are closed, USPS will be in a stronger negotiating position. They are not going to accept whatever pittance Amazon gives them simply because they’re trucks are traveling those roads anyway.

Building “delivery options” is much more involved than adding a few Cisco servers to the “farm”. It will take years for Amazon, UPS, FedEx, or the others to put in place the infrastructure USPS already owns, infrastructure which also happen to be federally subsidized. Amazon isn’t going to want to wait and that’s another reason why USPS will be in a strong position.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[Author]

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