Last year it was the polar vortex that caused retail sales to be terrible at Christmas. This year it was too warm. How come it can never be just right? What a load of bullshit. If Macys really believed their bad sales was due to warm weather, why the fuck would they announce the closing of 36 more stores and the firing of 3,000 more employees? Who does that because of weather?
This is just the beginning. It is only January 6. Over the next month dozens of retailers will report atrocious results. Some might report positive sales, but they needed to slash prices to achieve any sales gains. Profits will be non-existent. Sears, JC Penny, and numerous other bricks and mortar retailers will announce the closings of hundreds more stores. There will be 5 to 10 retail bankruptcies in the next few months. Ghost malls will become spookier.
This always happens when the economy is recovering. Right? The consumer doesn’t have a pot to piss in. They can’t handle a $500 emergency expenditure. They’re up to their eyeballs in auto, student loan and credit card debt. An economy built upon people buying shit they don’t need with money they don’t have has hit the wall. I wonder who could have foreseen the collapse of retail in America.
Oh yeah. That was me.
Macy’s cuts costs, and thousands of jobs
Shares of Macy’s, down 44% over the past year through the close Wednesday, rose 3.4% to $37.38 in after-hours trading.
Macy’s, which called its 2015 performance “disappointing,” said it expects to cut about 3,000 associate jobs across its stores and implement a “voluntary separation opportunity” for about 165 senior executives. It also will cut 600 back-office jobs and eliminate 750 jobs by consolidating call centers.