Why can’t traditional retailers remain profitable? Well, there are many reasons, one has to do with rising employee costs due to ObamaCare, but that’s just another fire hose in the bucket – increased regulations have taken their toll as well, and the biggest, for Of course, it is growth with Online. Retailers. How did things get so bad? Well, in their race for profit, these big name brand retailers started selling us inferior Chinese made products, dressing them up with well done marketing.
When I began to write this article, the events of my life interrupted me several times; Christmas, family, New Years, California storms, gardening, etc. and every time he put it off for another day, another unfortunate story would appear on the news; Bloomberg Business News, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, NYT, LA Times or Washington Post Business Section, from another downsizing, resizing or bankruptcy in the retail sector – store closings, supplier hoses, employee layoffs, doesn’t look too good , unless you are an online retailer. Let’s talk, shall we?
Why did that strategy fail? It wasn’t like that at first, but if these retailers are going to sell us cheap imported products, then people will buy by price, and once consumers start doing so, Sears, Macy’s and other large retailers cannot compete due to their structure of sales. higher costs, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, well, he takes no prisoners; “Mercy is not expected, it is not given,” reason.
There were a couple of interesting articles, one in Total Retail in or around the first week of 2017. The first was titled; “Sears to Close 150 More Stores, Sells Craftsman Brand” and Second Was in the Wall Street Journal “Macy’s and Kohl’s Hit by Weak Holiday Sales: Macy’s to Cut Over 10,000 Jobs, Close Stores; Kohl’s to Lower Profit Targets” . “
On January 6, 2017, the Washington Post published an article titled; “The Limited is closing all its 250 stores”, written by Sarah Halzack. There is an interesting video on YouTube titled; “MUST WATCH! Ten Reasons Global Economy Collapsed in 2017 – NEW”, which said Sam’s Club was also closing a lot of less than optimal stores, again 10,000 layoffs there.
Suffice it to say that retail is not working, those old business models will not be viable in the future, they just cannot compete with the efficiency of online retail, no way, not how, now what? Well, they say the only constant is change, but how much short-term change can our economy support? Sure, those aren’t good jobs, and most are only part-time now, but those job losses are real and they really affect real life. Consider all this and don’t hesitate, be cool.
