i dont believe it

Slip-sliding away.

For those who follow.  I posted yesterday from the Simi Valley Mall where Macy's was forced to take TWO anchor locations.  They called them Macy's and Macy's West.  Losing one or both is a death sentence to 60+ more storefronts.  

Try finding an open cash register at one of their stores now. Can't imagine what it will be like after some layoffs.

Here's a hint for any retailers out there. Don't make it difficult for people to give your their money.

Is Obama unfairly bashing Wall St? Yes No

If anything, it's a well deserved bashing.

Ahead of the curve...

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania -- As reported by The Express-Times: In a time when many companies are announcing layoffs, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is seeking to fill 1,000 jobs.

Sands is looking to hire employees for casino operations, food and beverage, entertainment, security, information technology, administration and other fields.

The company plans to hire another possible 800 employees when an adjacent hotel, mall and convention center open.

I was in Macy's right after Christmas (supposedly when retailers were desperate) and was unimpressed at the "sales."

I said to my sister, "They apparently WANT to close some stores."

Macy's going BK this year. Mark it down. That would be the whopper of all retail BK's. Next year's Thanksgiving Day Parade will be renamed "Wal Mart Thanksgiving Day Parade".

The Macy's death warrant was signaled when the Indians finally got to have a float in the Thanksgiving Day parade. (and I loved the hell out of that float, by the way)

Finally, the highway patrol has figured out that the zombie banks aren't as safe as we thought.

zombies were sighted in TX, and then Raptors in Indianapolis

Texas Road Signs Warn Of Zombie Attack - Automotive News Story - WRTV Indianapolis

'Raptors Ahead' Sign Gets Stares, Chuckles - Indiana News Story - WRTV Indianapolis

same exact issue here in Southern MD mall
Fudge Juicy Airy Doodie

Its true with almost every Southern California mall. Macy's is stuck with at least 30% more floor space than they require just at the mall's my wife has dragged me into. (I'm an internet browser and 'hey, so and so has a sale. Find it, buy it, go home. She browses...)

Retail is based on spending at 105% of income. Now that its below 97% of income... they're doomed. For most spending isn't descretionary (rent, energy, transportation, basic food, cheap booze*). The only things to cut are kitchen gadgets, excess clothing, and fancy liquor and food.

• Like it or not, prohibition failed. People will drink. I hope to pick up 18+ year scotch cheap later in the year. Some of my favorite wines are at 50% of bubble prices ($75 to $30/bottle). But good low cost wines are now ~25% more ($13 to $16, on sale)! People are skimping... some quantity reduction (LA times had an article, it was single digit YOY percentage cuts in alchohol volume buying), but mostly cost reduction. Gee Whocoodanooda? (There were threads on here two years ago predicting a shift to low cost alchohol consumption.)

Got Popcorn?
Neil

CHRIST!!! Now Goldman is saying to short the S&P 500. Didn't we go through a situation where shorts were banned on their own institution?

Goldman Says Buy Puts Because U.S. Stocks May Resume Retreat
Goldman Says Buy Puts as U.S. Stocks May Resume Drop (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Damn. Down goes Frazier and it's not even 3:00. Is that just Macy's doing that?

sweet, the ed mcmahon gold toilet for cash advert is now on CR!
Citizen Scotto | 02.02.09 - 1:44 pm | #

It was on the Super Bowl last night!  I see MC Hammer on mine.

Wow, a 78 handle.

die-back after the fall of the roman empire?

Which one? East or West?

I'm thinking we need a sub-blog of CR called "Roman Empire Romper Room" or something.

What happened to Daily Bail? Did he Fail?

American Can: Wikipedia can be your special friend...

Macy's! GASP! Not Macy's!

Well, as long as they don't close Moe's and the Quicky Mart.

Nostrovia,

What happened to Daily Bail? Did he Fail?
nova | Homepage | 02.02.09 - 2:08 pm

Please

For those who follow. I posted yesterday from the Simi Valley Mall where Macy's was forced to take TWO anchor locations. They called them Macy's and Macy's West. Losing one or both is a death sentence to 60+ more storefronts.

Multiple Macy's in a mall aren't particularly unusual in Socal - surely this isn't the first you've seen? We used to have several department store chains here but Macy's bought several of them (Robinson and May Company, after THEY had merged; Bullock's separately). There are two Macy's (of 4 anchors) in the Main Place mall in Santa Ana and I've seen others nearby although I can't remember where (not a mall person). There are THREE in South Coast Plaza, although one is in an expansion building across the street linked by a walkway.

Macy's copes by splitting up its departments between the multiple stores. In some cases one store is very weak - in the Santa Ana mall one store has furniture on the second floor (very slow) and furniture clearance on the third. It's almost a Macy's outlet. The stuff I think of as classic (and high margin) department store stuff - jewelry, china, women's accessories, perfume, etc. - is all concentrated in the other store.

That's Candyman, and it's 3 x in front of a mirror.

When DB starts muttering about opening the box...I'll be scared.

Nostrovia,

I also think retail chains are just buying inventory for the stores that are selling it. You can see a fairly obvious differences in same name stores based on location.

President Barack Obama says that "very modest differences" should not get in the way of swift congressional passage of a massive economic stimulus package.

The president said he was taking full responsibility for rescuing the U.S. economy, in its worst downturn in 80 years.

"If I don't have this done in three years then there's gonna be a one-term proposition," Obama said, already looking ahead to the 2012 presidential election.

Where's one to long printing...

Pavel Chichikov

Your no young man, and neither am I. We need to get ahead of the youngsters.

Pavel:
it wasn't just Zombies.. it was Nazi Zombies. i think they're quicker. Plus, it was also Raptors. They're very fast.

i think that's why the signs told people to move to colder climates.

Finally, MN is due for a resurgence in population!!!! No Raptors here. never gonna happen!

Not sure if zombies like the cold though...

the Zombie banks with their Zombie Bankers are the real problem, and we have Zombie banks here in MN (Wells, etc) but they're still hidden. Overshadowed by the obvious Citi/BofA zombies.

Minnesotans are always so darn understated...

I've said this before, but what were those idiots at Macy's thinking when they went on their merger spree? Most of the value in a department store is in its brand. So they go out, buy basically all the old-style department stores and - shut down the brands! If they were going to spend hundreds of millions on stuff just to throw away, why not on ships they could turn into fish reefs or something?

Sebastian:

Minnesota also has a multi-Macy's.

the Ridgedale Mall has 2.
One is the Women's store
the other is Men's store and Furnishings.

Pavel, some modern zombies (28 Days Later, I Am Legend) are quite fast.

Not your father's George Romero type zombies.

Comrade Kristina

Oh. I wasn't even close was I.

Seb,

You need to come outside and smell the bubbles.

Nostrovia,

At Stanford (Palo Alto) they bought/closed Emporium and made it the Men's department.

Mr. Sparkle said: "@Sebastian - I've seen the 2x Macy's phenomenon in Texas as well. Particularly after they took over Foley's."

Yearning to Learn said: "Sebastian:

Minnesota also has a multi-Macy's.

the Ridgedale Mall has 2...."

Well, I guess this would go a long way towards explaining why real estate is going to Hell in a speedboat in so many places around the country. The closest thing we have to that phenomenon here is the occasional Starbuck's grocery-store kiosk in the same shopping center as a full-size Starbuck's.

Sebastia

If they hadn't divested a bunch of stores there would be few malls in Socal WITHOUT multiple Macy's, and several with no other anchors at all.

They were very thoughtless about it. Do you know there has been a 423% increase in lost parkers at malls?

They come in, park by Macys, and then leave by Macys. It is the wrong one! Cops do not even take stolen car reports until they drive them around to the "other" Macys.

Are you kidding? You aren't, are you? I've never lived anywhere that a store did anything like that, and never even heard of it happening before now.

This occurred after Macy's purchased the May Co. Many of these malls already had Macy's as anchor tenants. Instead of closing the May & Co. stores, they just turned them into Macy's, so many malls now had not one but TWO Macy's...

beaver dwelling - stopped out

Sometimes we will come across people sobbing, and speaking quietly into their cell phones in the Macy parking lot. We have learned to just turn our heads and walk on by.

California Crisis Deepens - Are Other States To Follow?

I loved this line from the linked story:

[discusses other state's woes]..."They all pale, though, in the shadow of California's gaping chasm of debt."

Yee-Haw! We're still #1!

I wonder if that prediction a poster made the other day about February 9th being black Monday was a week off? Dow in freefall..

timmay to ppt: its not plunging, its an orderly decline

Is Obama really bashing Wall St???

DeMint: Let's not say it's a stimulus when it's a government spending plan. All of the things, the needs in our society, education, these are things we debate every year.

Frank: Spending can be stimulus. I don't understand.

DeMint: It's the largest spending bill in history and we're trying to call it a stimulus.

Frank: The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the one in Iraq. If we're going to talk about spending, I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinary expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good in my judgment. I don't understand from my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping to get health care, that's wasteful spending. But that war in Iraq, that's going to cost us over a trillion dollars, yeah, I wish we hadn't done that we would have been in a lot better shape fiscally.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole another show, so I'm going to...

Barney Frank has his moments with “foot in mouth” tendencies. However on this point he is entirely correct. Every time a Republicant Congressiter starts to whine about how Obama's stimulus just say the largest spending bill in history “is the fraudulent war in Iraq by Bush/Cheney and their Neocon assclown friends ( esp. defense contractors ) that was financed with borrowed money and turned “a budget surplus into a record deficit and debt”

The people in the media and the Republican party either aren't smart enough or honest enough to face up to that fact.

Not unlike the CEO's personality?

Precisely. You should watch him defend all these boneheaded moves.

stuck in traffic in the DC burbs

totally congested in san mateo and burlingame saturday afternoo

eek, I was just poking around for other places with multiple Macy's and checked Del Amo (biggest mall in Socal, for those who don't know it). Jo-Ann's(a craft fabric supplies store) as an anchor store? That can't be good. Eek!

So we have a Mall and a Galleria. The Galleria is for the rich peoples. It is usually empty, and has lots of "Furriners."

The malls seem to attract certain socioeconomic groups. You can tell the difference.

Tysons Corner Mall = professional level employed with a heaping of drug money.

Fair Oaks Mall = I am white, and not too bright. Also Juan and Marie.

Springfield Mall = Body armor

Landover Mall = Body armor for you and the kids.

Margin Call of Cthulhu writes:
"Mrs. Cthulhu and I were stuck in traffic in the DC burbs over the weekend and she said, "where are all these people going? I thought we were in a recession.""

Yesterday I was wondering why there so so much traffic everywhere in my area. Some of it was probably people going to the beach (it was a beautiful 65 degree day), but most of the traffic seemed to be in the business districts.

I wonder sometimes if this is a new version of the apocryphal unemployed guy who gets up in the morning, gets dressed, and goes out as if he still had a job. Because he doesn't know what else to do.

stuck in traffic in the DC burbs over the weekend

I was at the Tyson's Galleria on Saturday evening - totally dead at 7pm. No wait at Legal Sea Food, which is unheardof.

FE-
I hear Joanns is doing well due to people going back to making their own things (especially gifts at Christmas).
We have a strip mall near us and Joann's is the only anchor left (Smart/Final moved and Mervyns is well, yea)

Fed Says Most U.S. Banks Tightened Loan Standards Over Past Three Months

Fed Says Most U.S. Banks Tightened Terms on Loans (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

if the world is ending then why are the malls still full?

--
Deflationary Depression IS Almost Here (the US)

David Rosenberg, 02/02/09:

“Not a recession but a depression -- We get into the details of the first-quarter GDP report below, but the chart below says it all for those that doubt that this is not a recession, but indeed a depression: As the long-run chart below vividly illustrates, nominal consumer spending does not plummet at a 9% annual rate in a typical post-WWII gardenvariety recession. That is, however, exactly what happened last quarter.

“Deflation risks will trump inflation risks -- Yes, yes, everyone seems to believe that sky-high fiscal deficits suggest that Treasury yields have nowhere to go to but up: Wrong. We believe as long as the private sector is shrinking its balance sheet and the economy is operating below full capacity, deflation risks will trump inflation risks, and the void created by the debt paydown in the household and business sectors will leave ample room to absorb the largesse at the federal government level. As a real life example, the fiscal deficit exploded to $833 billion in 2008 from $188 bln in 2007, and yet, miraculously, the 10-year note yield fell to 3.7% from 4.6%. Go back to 2002, and we see that there was a deficit of $232 billion, a huge swing from a $92 billion surplus in 2002 and a $255 billion surplus in 2000. What did the yield on the 10-year T-note average in 2002? How about 4.61% (and 4% the following year when the budget deficit surged to $395 bln). And in 2001 it was 5% and in 2000 the average yield was 6%. So those who believe that fiscal deficits are the only ingredient in the equation that determines the direction of bond yields, well, we would have to say that they are …. mistaken.”

Donald Straszheim (on Bloomberg): “People are not spending, they are saving because they think that that is the right thing to do.”

Whodda have thunk dat?!

Also, those who like to look at the leading indicators, please see ECRI's Future Inflation Gauge and Weekly Leading Index (both declining at more than 24% annual rate!). ARE YOU READY FOR THE DEFLATIONARY DEPRESSION IN THE US?

It would soon go global, especially to Chindia. Global trade is cliff diving.

Jas

MO COWBELL! BOOHYAAHHHH!!

Yearning to Learn writes:
Question of the century: Was there a massive population die-back after the fall of the roman empire?

I don't believe so. I am by no means a scholar on this, but my understanding is that things just sort of drifted... the Roman Empire held less and less importance in the daily lives of people, and it sort of broke up. many people may never have even noticed that it broke up.

for instance, the Eastern part simply became the Byzantine empire...
.
It never really broke up. Parts of it went Byzantine, part became the Holy Roman Empire. The Carolingians considered themselves the heirs of Rome, as did the czars. There wasn't a huge population die-back, either, people just moved into the "suburbs" such as France. The decay of the buildings is due largely to weathering, and locals plundering the stones for their own building projects.

You have to remember, the early Christians HATED the Roman Empire with a violent, spiteful passion, and encouraged the destruction of classical (read: pagan) culture, including literature as well as buildings. The Roman Empire did not so much decay, it was replaced by something totally hostile to it. And the 'decadence' of the Romans was largely Christian propaganda, a myth they used to promote their program of total war against the pagan world.

The destruction continued apace for many centuries, and finally reached the barbarian North. By that time, some of the monasteries were occupied by recent "surface level" converts, former barbarians who were somewhat sympathetic to the old ways, and found the means to preserve some of the culture of their forefathers. They usually disguised the pagan epics, for example, as Christian allegories. This is the only reason we still have poems such as Beowulf.

If you want to get a feeling for this process of active, hateful destruction, go rent the Beowulf movie. Not accurate, but it gives you some idea.

Why do suburbia people spend so much time at the mall?

I never forgave Marshall Field for buying Frederick & Nelson in Seattle.

I can't blame you, even if it was back in 1929.

On the Clock writes:
One word -- payday.

That's a good explanation. I was trying to chalk it up to pre-Superbowl grocery runs.

One word -- payday. The malls will be morgues once again until February 27.
\t
On the Clock | 02.02.09 - 2:50 pm | #

I kind of remember that happening in the 70's.  Everything old is new again.  What was the Dow at in the 70's?

lawyerliz, thats OK, I hated Burdine's when they took over from Maas Bros.

Miami area.

Maas bros was disappearing when I arrived here in 72.

is the market opening today?

How about "Zombie Condos"

Curbed NY: Jasper: Murray Hill's Second Batch of Zombie Condos?

Pavel,

"But this is not the place to correct it."

Yes, but it is too easy to do:

the early Christians were HATED by the Roman Empire's rulers with a violent, spiteful passion,

Only 3 words off.

Nostrovia,

Has anyone studied protectionism on a economy that's MASSIVELY imbalanced towards imports.

Smoot Hawley was from a time period when the US was the dominant world exporter and tarifs hurt. Now we're more of a client state to Chinese manufacturers how exactly will some protectionism hurt us ?

I've not seen any research on this other than comparison with the 1930's and times have changed a little since then...

A lot of this is incorrect. But this is not the place to correct it.

At least there's this: Whatever is still left of classical pagan culture is with us because it was saved by Christians.

Nor did the Church teach hatred and spite. Hatred and spite are part of our fallen nature. Ask Cain.
Pavel Chichikov
.
This is exactly what Gibbons' editor, who was a cleric, used to write in his footnotes, against the text in Decline and Fall. The Christian apologia/propaganda has been going on for centuries, and if you protested, you were burned at the stake. The Enlightenment cost many lives.

Memories of those kinds of experiences were what made department store brands valuable.

When my Dad was getting his chemo, I would take my Mom to the Tea Room at the Marshall Filed's State Street store to give her a break. You can't buy that kind of loyalty, nor could you explain it to a corporate suit.

--
Hey, anon, ass-hole, I don't have to do anyhthing that ass-holes demand. Got it, ass-hole?

Jas

I watched a tv thing that said there was a teensy bit of physical evidence that Nero was telling the truth when he said the Christians burned Rome.

I'm doubtful, but interested.

I worked at a dept store. Nice place to work if you were single. I meet my wife there.

Whew, back to "All but Irritating Authors" for me.

For the record - I like Macys. The "one day" sales are great!

rally monkey -- I thought you were gone?

back when being a legislator was a form of national service
Wisdom Speaker | Homepage | 02.02.09 - 2:45 pm | #

And back when the citizens actually respected them. I'm afraid those days are gone forever.

Uh oh, now we have impostor rally monkeys.

All this talk of malls & zombies is making me want to go watch Dawn of the Dead again.
Mr. Sparkle

YouTube - Dawn Of The Dead Extended Version Part 12

All this talk of malls & zombies is making me want to go watch Dawn of the Dead again.

Really? I am thinking Victorias Secret website myself.

lawyerliz writes:
I watched a tv thing that said there was a teensy bit of physical evidence that Nero was telling the truth when he said the Christians burned Rome.

I'm doubtful, but interested.
.
Nero was surely mad, but anyone drinking the lead-contaminated waters would be. All the upper classes would have been poisoned, to some extent. If you want to read about a real nut-case, try Commodus or Caligula. In any case I'm talking about many centuries of struggle here, from Constantine to the fall of what you would call Scandinavia.

Ask Robespierre. Or for that matter, Stalin. He's one of its children.
Pavel Chichikov
.
Or you could read Jefferson, Tom Paine, Voltaire, Galileo, and Newton. Or Martin Luther on the Rights of Man, for that matter.

scone(Unrated) writes:
Cheap poetry + cheap fake history = propaganda. Sorry Pavel, history has gone over to the scientists. We'll look to the archaeologists for our facts.

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

Don't underestimate it, or you will sound shallow and prejudiced.

Do you want to fight the Church? Know it.
Pavel Chichikov
.
Pavel, this is a blog about the economy. It's not a blog about converting people to Catholicism. You can run on about that if you like, but you aren't getting a big audience for that stuff here.

As for my academic credentials, I'd say they are more than adequate to understand these things. But it's not fair to the other commentators to use up all that space. Besides, arguing with a 'true believer' is a waste of breath. There's no common frame of reference. I'm on to the next thread.

scone(Unrated) writes:
Besides, arguing with a 'true believer' is a waste of breath. There's no common frame of reference. I'm on to the next thread.

The Master said, “I will not be afflicted at men’s not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men.”

The discussion of the posted topic devolved to one of history, and Pavel was participating in that.

Pavel has an informed and interesting point of view, and we learn a lot from him in spite of our biases, preconceived notions, and topical ignorance.

Thank you, Pavel.