Even the Service Industry is Suffering

This was posted on the Crooks and Liars website this morning.

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide

Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men’s stores plus another 22 underperforming stores.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores

Foot Locker to close 140 stores

Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.

Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.

Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.

Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.

Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores

Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.

KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

CompUSA (CLOSED).

I have been concerned that the United States no longer produces anything. We cannot feed ourselves, and we cannot supply our own natural resources. We moved into a service economy, and from the list above that is not working so well. It is hard to serve people who have no money to buy anything. The above list is certainly not comprehensive, but it is frightening. The United States does not even have a lock on technology anymore, and new ideas or inventions are coming from other parts of the world. In Cleveland, we faced a hurricane of foreclosures, substantial job losses, increases in utility costs, and there is talk of the destruction of Regional Transit Authority (massive fare increase at the same time we see massive service cuts). We saw a couple of American Cities (Detroit, Cleveland, and New Orleans) practically destroyed due to neglect and unregulated greed by the federal government. We need some leadership nationally to move this economy forward. This current strategy is not working, and large numbers of people are suffering every day because of tax cuts and unchecked capitalism.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.