Stores Closing Due to the Pandemic and Joe Biden
By Mark Schwendau
The Covid-19 pandemic and Joe Biden’s failed leadership have offered many American retail businesses a one-two knockout punch. While many of these businesses will continue to do business with less brick and mortar locations, some plan to rely more heavily on online sales. The main point to be made in this news story is the amount of these store closures really is unprecedented. While some may argue that this has been brewing for a long time, the fact of the matter is these closures are going to result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and, as always, the buck stops in the Oval Office.
Amazon (department stores) (66 stores)
American Eagle Outfitters (clothing stores) 250 stores
AT&T (telecommunications stores) 250 stores
Banana Republic and GAP (clothing stores) 220 stores
Bath and Body Works (department stores) 50 stores
Bed Bath and Beyond (department store) 350 stores
Best Buy (electronics store) 60 stores
Brooks Brothers (clothing stores) 126 stores
Carters (clothing stores) 200 stores
Chipotle (restaurants) 65 stores
Christopher & Banks (department stores) 449 stores
Century 21 (department stores) 13 stores
CVS Pharmacy (drug stores) 900 stores
Disney (theme stores) 119 stores closed, with 23 left open
Francesca’s (clothing stores) 250 stores
GameStop (video games stores) 557 stores with over 1,000 stores closed previously
GNC Live Well (dietary aid stores) 1,200 stores
Godiva (candy stores) 128 stores
JC Penny (department stores) 175 stores
Kmart (department stores) 350 stores
Kroeger (grocery stores) 13 stores
L’ Occitane (department stores) 23 stores
Macy’s (department stores) 131 stores
Microsoft (software stores) 70 stores
Nordstrom (department stores) 16 stores
Office Depot (office supply stores)
Pier 1 Imports (department stores) 942 stores
Rite Aid (drug stores) 145 stores
Sally Beauty Supply (personal care stores) 350 stores
Sears (department stores) 95 stores
Signet Parent Company (Kay/Zales/Jared Jewelry stores) 380 stores
Stage Stores (clothing stores) 738 stores
Stein Mart (discount department store) 279 stores
Tailored Brands (clothing stores) 500 stores
The Children’s Place (clothing store) 300 stores
Victoria’s Secret (clothing store) 300 stores
Walgreens (drug stores) 200 stores
Other companies planning closures, such as McDonald’s and Subway restaurants, will also be making some closures in the New Year. McDonald’s plans to close all remaining locations within Walmart Stores, and Subway may do the same. Meanwhile, Chipotle attributed their closures to the inability to find qualified store managers for all of their national locations.
Some stores, such as Pier 1 Imports, are now gone forever. They were working on Chapter 11 restructuring in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
Many of these companies are blaming inflation and the downturn in the economy as the main reason for their sudden store closures and falling profit margins of their bottom line. Others, such as Office Depot, have complained of supply chain issues as so many of their products are made abroad.
Acting President Joe Biden took credit for seemingly ending the upcoming anticipated rail strike before the Midterm Election. That strike now seems to be back on for some time in December after the recent election. Should that strike occur, the American public should know that an estimated 40 percent of our goods are transported to our stores by railroads. We now also have an ongoing looming diesel fuel shortage. Semi-tractor-trailers also provide most of our goods to our brick-and-mortar storefronts.
Discretionary spending goes down with inflation, and that is a historical fact. When people have less money to spend in stores because the necessities of such things as food, housing, energy, and transportation go up, retail businesses, both large and small, feel their pain.
Look for some of your favorite shopping destinations to disappear in 2023. Look for the unemployment rolls to balloon in early 2023. Experts say things will get worse before they get better, but those same experts are at a loss for predicting when things will get better.
And for all those still suffering from (Donald) Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), he predicted this would happen if Joe Biden were in our highest office. Whether you like the man or not, he is right far more than he is wrong to the batting average of some 90 percent, and he does know business and economics, lessons Democrats have yet to learn.
The really creepy thing about doing this story for you, the collapse of the retail market could lead to a domino effect on other segments of the economy which could lead to depression. The old adage, “A recession is when one of your two neighbors is unemployed. A depression is when the neighbors on both sides of you are unemployed,” may soon come to pass once again.
See also: “Bet the Globalists and Communists Did Not See This One Coming!”
Copyright © 2022 by Mark S. Schwendau
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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He classifies himself as a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. Mark is an award-winning educator who has published seven books and numerous peer-reviewed trade journal articles, some of which can be found on the Internet. His father was a fireman/paramedic, while his mother was a registered nurse. He holds degrees in technology education, industrial management, OSHA Safety, and Driver’s Education. His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.
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Add to this dilemma, the rising rents these businesses have to pay. In my little corner of the world, many businesses have been shuttered due to a decrease in sales and higher overhead… Discretionary spending is also way down, but I don’t have to tell the informed readers of the Independent Sentinel.
So I’ll try again: I think you’re getting a little carried away. ALL these stores had major problems before the shut downs. Especially Sears and K-mart. Who are you kidding? Best buy has been hanging on by a thread for at least a decade. I can’t believe Chipotle is still in business at all after they started poisoning their customers. And you’re blaming Biden? McDonalds is overbuilt, as is Subway and Krispie Creme. They have a lot of excess weight to drop as does Starbucks. Victoria’s Secret was always based an a false premise as men much prefer their woman naked. And showing off million dollar bras? They thought that would save them? The drug stores are closing most of their locations in major cities because they regularly get looted and on and on it goes. Our current economic doldrums had very little to do with any of them being in trouble today. Hey, retail is tough, you pay a high rent and borrow money for your inventory. That’s why so many of them fail. The higher interest rates, the harder it is to borrow for inventory. It’s as simple as that. And if you remember, it was Trump who shut the economy down.
Trump did what he was told by Fauci so to blame Trump is truly a poor attempt at a rewrite of history. Fauci needs to be put on trial. He is a complete and utter fraud.
Excuse me? Trump was the President of the United States. NO ONE TELLS HIM WHAT TO DO. JUST ASK HIM.
And Tony Fauci was “the science” in the world’s first pandemic. Nobody could overrule him. Hospitals had to follow the “Fauci Protocol”, check and mate.
You didn’t like my comment so you erased it? So when we’re here, no voice can be heard except you? I didn’t write that gibberish, you did. All of these companies were well on there way down without Biden’s help. I don’t care who you were or are. I was in the market for decades and know who these business are. And you want money? IT WAS TRUMP WHO SHUT DOWN THE ECONOMY AND WAS/ IS PUSHING THESE POISON VACCINES! NOT BIDEN, he wasn’t elected yet. How soon we forget.
How soon you forget is right. On the campaign trail of 2020, both Trump and Biden said they would never mandate the clot shots. Biden went back on his work less than a year later which is typical. Trump is a hero. He let the cat out of the bag during a Fauci presser when he leaked both Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. Fauci not only did not want that news out, and the treasonous ass clown made it hard to get and, outside of the “Fauci Protocol” hospitals were required to follow.
I’m not trying to make excuses for Joe Biden, Hardly. But, I will point out the truth and tell it the way it is. Donald Trump even today, says his biggest accomplishment was the vaccines. He’s finally starting to stay quiet about it. And how do you know he wouldn’t have mandated it? Trump is a germophobe and people like that can be scared and talked into anything. They played him like a piano. Before he ran for President, he didn’t shake hands with anybody and didn’t think anyone else should either. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. I never bought into this vax crap EVER. And I’m not that smart.
The Traitor Joe Regime keeps telling us how great the economy is and all I see is retailers holding on by their finger nails.
The whole point of closings is to destroy the middle class and middle America. Where store closings happen most and are the most painful and impactful is in small towns across the country, the Blue areas. I live in a small town and first the big box stores moved in and began killing off mom & pop business, such as sporting goods, corner markets, hardware stores, appliance stores, furniture stores, now some of the big boxes are closing and leaving and with them go various small businesses who depended on the big stores for a significant part of their business.
We are fast becoming a controlled totalitarian state and this is by design.