Loves Labor Lost

I am pro union, always have been and have been a member of several in my lifetime and currently not and it infuriates me. I have repeatedly contacted the American Federation of Teachers, the State office of New Jersey Teacher’s union as well as their local here in Jersey City. Have they ever responded? No. Shocking, again, no, not really. Unions are a hot mess and it shows. And this is why unions are being rejected by many newly aspiring members at Amazon and Starbucks and led them to form their own surrogate type of union related to their locale and efforts at that shop or warehouse. That is not really a union per se but an attempt at least to have some collective bargaining rights and protections. But without a larger org behind them it makes it challenging to establish the kind of contracts needed to establish workers rights to guaranteed hours, paid leave and of course the big whopper, sick leave. During Covid this issue was almost universally one of debate and the bonuses that many employers paid during their designation of being an essential worker allowed but have long since gone.

Union efforts have been made at Dollar Stores, Newspapers and Magazines and even Book Publishers and Retailers. So we have a scale that covers the lowest of the low to the highest of the high and with that the success rates show that those who are higher up the rung manage to understand and know how to navigate the system thanks to better education and use of words as I like to call it versus the lower tiers. But neither are 100% successful and are met with great resistance from the elite whom are reclining on their super yachts being entertained by the parade of Gays and Artists invited to do what they do best – make them laugh. And I mean you Andy Cohen. And meanwhile the grinders of coffee and makers of take out continue on in oblivion. Funny who were essential and had to work in public versus those who had the privilege to work at home? Sure that worked out well for the right wing bitch Caitlin Flanagan at the Atlantic, where she can spew out her idiotic thoughts on such subjects as Public Schools are failing and masks are useless. Ah she is a prize of bitchery, idiocy and white privilege all rolled into a Karen of our worst nightmares. And it is that group that is the most resistant to return to the office, being coddled comes easy when you have a cashmere throw to wrap oneself in on a chilly day or air conditioning to control on during a heat wave. Meanwhile again my back to school gear, more K95 masks and door stops so I don’t have to hear another bitch Admin telling me not to use “instruments of learning” as door props. A union would have protected me and allowed me to do what I need to do to keep air ventilation flowing and with that also protected Students. And unions do that for its customers as well. Well not Subscribers to the Atlantic, we still have to rip out the Flanagan articles on our own but again if you have a pet it makes great liner.

Think about all the product recalls at Dollar Stores for expired merchandise. Had there been enough staff with the ability to check and shelf all current product and pull the expired ones that would not happen. They also can better serve customers who come in to shop and need to find items and ensure that they too are getting what they need and done so promptly and efficiently. How many times do you rant and rave about the lack of service in a store? Been to a Target recently or a Macy’s? The service runs the gamut from friendly and helpful to downright horrid or just non existent. You can wander Macy’s flagship in Herald Square and not see a staff member for miles or walk by them with merch in hand and not a single acknowledgement. And this is from one who actually loves that store and finds all kinds of treats and the one near me is always good for some cosmetics and household goods. Again price point matters and with that you can find assistance at a Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue but when you move down the heirarchy to say Kohl’s it is obvious there are problems with the retailer and it shows. There is nothing wrong with buying merchandise that is less costly and with that there is a place for these kinds of retail outlets but I do believe it is all tied to service and way things are merchandised aka displayed, organized, and the ability to shop and compare all under one roof. When I worked at Macy’s I used to show the top of the price point and the lowest with at least one in between and allowed the customer to make the ultimate decision based on price point and my knowledge of the item and its quality. Not all things expensive are better quality you often pay for brand and name. Gucci and Addidas and their collaboration is a good example. The shoes are over $800 a pair and they are manufactured by Addidas with a license to put a Gucci logo on the shoe. Addidas average 75 bucks, that my friends is a hell of a markup but hey they are Gucci and you can go into the Gucci within the Macy’s store in NYC and walk out with a pair in your hand. There is marketing and merchandising right there. It does not intimidate nor does it make it harder to get, more access and availability means more choices and more money. These collaborations have been very profitable and it was Target that began that concept and today I cannot recall the last one they had and if anyone cared.

It is difficult to understand how a unionized store would make a difference to a customer but it does. Staff are secure in their jobs, they are rewarded with commission or a pay scale that enables bonuses tied to profit and with that they have health care and a safe workplace that enables them to be proactive to ensure that it is safe for all who both work and shop there. I would not work at a store that sold unsafe food as an employee you do shop there and get a discount so what would be the purpose of having that on your shelf. Amazon which is a nightmare of its own has massive problems and I have written about them throughout the blog but when the last figure came out that by 2025 Amazon will have gone through all of entire available labor force, these Mayor’s duking it out over Immigrants better get on the bus and get them to an Amazon warehouse fast as I need my asswipes and dildo!!

Again the shortages of food and products are tied to shipping and manufacturing all which comes from China and yet when we have said products produced here we have in the case of Baby Formula and vaccines the facilities being closed due to filth or other safety issues. Yeah cause in China they have top notch inspections, sure they do. Which again is tied to workers and their role in safety and security of that which they are handling. And I have written about Truckers, John Oliver has covered this and we too have a massive problem in the transportation industry that needs better oversight. And building back better means improvements on our rail lines and roadways to handle this type of traffic in both commercial and personal ways. You don’t want to go back to the office because of the commute, but then again you have to live further away thanks to the cost of housing and with that Covid made you scared to use public transport or in some areas it is non existent and you need to work so you drive. And with that we have the gas costs that dominated the news of late. It is always something right? Again blame the rich for taking trips and going places in their Mercedes. I can assure you it is not them, not at all. I travel and go by train that is not who is sitting next to me in bars or hotels either. It is the middle class, working class and with that they are very very Republican as they are sure that the busloads of Immigrants will take even that away from them. No you, you fucking moron, they are enabling you to have them. Who is working throughout this heat wave? Not you the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Tech worker, the Book Editor, the Architect, the white collar coddled class.

We also have a large class of health care workers, they too are somewhat organized as Nurses are but there too is a shortage of care in many of these corporate owned hospitals and in turn who is at risk? Patients. A union would benefit there to ensure that the numbers are right and the hours worked reasonable and that includes these idiots who are studying to be Doctors frankly as they are even more dangerous as they can kill you. And many times patient deaths are due to neglect and Covid may have proven that. For the record medical errors are the third leading cause of death, makes you want to race into a hospital right away, no?

I post this article from the LA Times that has caution to the wind of worker’s rights as the recession looms. Funny how that works that the pay scales of executives are never cut during down times and in fact are rewarded for cutting costs to ensure profit. Aka the Jack Welch school of management. Glad that old fart is dead, sadly his acolytes still are. And the article states that workers rights are there on the horizon and yet the Democrats are the problem people. Democrats the workers friend. See why Trump is popular? I do as it ain’t the management that loves him that is for sure. But then again why stop him as he manages to do their dirty work without getting the least bit dirty. He is one of theirs after all.

Labor unions are hot, but their moment may not last

By Noah Bierman and Don Lee The LA Times Aug. 11, 2022

WASHINGTON — 

American labor leaders see this as a moment for radical change: Workers in Starbucks coffee shops and Amazon warehouses are rising up and demanding representation. Polls show millions more support unions or wish they had the chance to join them. President Biden, with majorities in both chambers of Congress, wants to lead the most pro-union administration since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“There’s a great reckoning and workers have had it,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest and most influential unions.

Yet even as experts acknowledge the newfound excitement around labor, they caution that unions, which have suffered decades of declining membership, are unlikely to turn the tide. Unions’ moment of opportunity could already be slipping away. Republicans are poised to gain seats in the November elections. And a potential recession could wipe away the rare leverage workers have held in the tight labor market that emerged in the wake of the pandemic.

“The winds have been at workers’ back and that has helped spark labor drives in places that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,” said Jake Rosenfeld, the author of “What Unions No Longer Do” and a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

But “there are clouds on the horizon,” he added.

Unions have long complained about the structural advantages held by employers fighting off organizing efforts. Employers can hold mandatory meetings where supervisors lobby against unions. And although firing workers for trying to organize is technically illegal, the penalties employers face for doing so are often small — and invariably come months or years after an organizer’s dismissal.

Employers can also drag out the union recognition process and the contract negotiation that comes after it, as they wait for employees to leave their jobs or for economic conditions to change. Employers’ power will only grow if the labor market, now one of the tightest in recent years, loosens, and workers begin fearing a recession.

“When they’re holding those captive audience meetings, they can say basically, ‘Well, the economy is about to get bad, so it’s going to be harder for you to find a job,’” said Jon Shelton, a labor historian at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

About 1 in 10 American workers is in a labor union, down from a peak of more than 1 in 3 in the mid-1950s. Government workers are five times more likely than private-sector employees to be in a union.

The National Labor Relations Board has received more requests to hold union elections this year than during the same period in 2021. But much of the increase in these requests for elections is coming from Starbucks cafes, each of which employs only a couple of dozen workers, meaning the potential impact on overall union representation may be modest, even if those elections succeed.

Shelton criticized Democrats for their failure to rally enough support to pass labor’s top priority, the PRO Act, which would overhaul the rules governing organizing. In an interview with The Times three months before his death last August, Richard Trumka, the influential president of the AFL-CIO, praised Biden for thinking like a union guy, but said the success of his labor agenda would depend on passing that bill.

“If the PRO Act is not ultimately passed, then there won’t be a recovery for working people,” he said. “There’s nothing to drive it.”

Trumka predicted Democrats would muster 50 votes and find a way to pass the bill in the evenly divided Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. But it has been stalled, in part because Democrats have been unable to assemble the 50 votes or change the Senate filibuster rules, which require most legislation to get 60 votes.

The administration has tried to use its authority to make administrative changes that have helped organizers gain recognition at the National Labor Relations Board and to build in requirements on its signature spending bills that tie subsidies on things like electric cars to American jobs.

“The PRO Act is still a necessary step, but what’s remarkable about the Biden administration is they are using every tool and level of government,” said Henry, of SEIU.

Biden and Harris, who leads the administration’s labor council, have also used their platform to support unions far more than even prior Democratic administrations, recording messages of support for Amazon workers trying to unionize and invoking workers and wages in their speeches. In May, Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh met with Christian Smalls of the Amazon Labor Union and Laura Garza of Starbucks Workers United at the White House.

Harris on Wednesday was in Las Vegas — a city that will be key for control of the Senate — to speak at the United Steelworkers convention.

“You helped make America the most powerful nation in the world,” she said, recalling her youth in the Bay Area, learning about steelworkers’ role in building the Golden Gate Bridge and other American monuments.

Harris talked about the decline of manufacturing in the 20th century and the impact it had on middle-class wages and communities. She praised steelworkers for leading “a new era in the American labor movement,” including help in unionizing Google contractors, and went on to talk about union workers’ role in building high-speed internet, clean drinking pipes and roads projects approved during Biden’s tenure.

She promised the administration’s climate and healthcare spending bill, which is expected to win final passage in the House in the coming days, would bring jobs “in steel towns and in coal country”: forging steel for wind turbines, cutting glass for electric cars, installing rubber for solar panels.

Biden’s pro-union rhetoric goes further than that of leaders such as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. An emphasis on workers may have helped Biden defeat former President Trump in 2020. But many white working-class union members have left the Democratic Party and could help Republicans regain control of the House, Senate or both in the November elections.

Mark Wilbur, president of the Los Angeles-based Employers Group, which advocates for business owners, said the decline in unions is a result of their obsolescence, especially in California, which has more worker protections than other states. Workers, he said, don’t want to pay dues for something they don’t need and consumers do not want to pay added costs.

“One hundred years ago, it was really needed,” he said. “Workers died on the job. Those days aren’t really relevant anymore.”

Liz Shuler, who replaced Trumka as president of the AFL-CIO, said that she’s in touch with members of the administration daily and that unions are not giving up on passing legislation. But she believes many Americans are overlooking the hundreds of billions of spending the Biden administration has secured for infrastructure — building a semiconductor industry, electric car expansion, roads and highways.

“All of these huge investments have labor standards attached to them,” Shuler said, “to make sure that we’re going to benefit working people.”

She said her federation of unions is increasing its investment and cooperative efforts to help fledgling movements to unionize Amazon workers and other industries. Shuler pointed to the example of Microsoft, which agreed to make it easier for employees of one of its gaming subsidiaries to unionize, as a positive sign. But she said the struggle with Starbucks — which has raised wages and pushed back against organizers — shows resistance remains strong.

“The one missing ingredient is companies,” she said. “Companies are fighting workers with everything they have.”

Big Rent Due

While I have written about the issues facing residential renters that is a double edged problem as some owners are small scale landlords with one or two investment properties that rent is the primary financial investment to pay the mortgages, taxes and incidental costs required to maintain and own investment properties. In 2008 many single investors bought numerous properties with the intent of owning as a method of long term investment and when that market collapsed it led many tenants in the lurch as banks foreclosed or the property was sold to larger REIT venture capitalists in which to again refurbish and resell or use as rental markets demanded including short term/Airbnb use. That too is another fallout post Covid for the small investor who are now listing furnished properties for rent with shorter leases in anticipation for the long term while others are simply moving to the more traditional means or trying to sell them. And once again the venture capitalists are quickly buying up such properties as well for their own long term gain.

That said the multiple family units be they condos or apartments are a market I have yet to see what will result as again I suspect many residents will want out of such hot boxes of confinement due to costs, lack of space and simply fewer demands to distance upon entering or exiting the property. The building behind me is one such example as an albatross that they stupidly accelerated and now will have multiple expensive units in which will go vacant for I suspect quite some time.

This from Forbes:  According to RealPage, about 370,000 new high-end units are to reach competition this year (although construction delays and disruptions could deflate this number), marking a 50% increase from the national supply that came online in 2019. 

“We have too much product that was either just completed or under construction and you’re not going to have people moving around as much as [it would be otherwise] typical in the near term,” says Willett. “It’s going be really hard to get that new product filled up.”

For the summer months, which usually see a peak in rental demand, it’s still hard to tell what the effects will be, despite the impacts already rippling throughout the industry.

“Everybody’s wondering what this all means for the summer leasing season,” says Robert Pinnegar, CEO of the National Apartment Association. “Traditionally, the summer period is when you see the most movement of people from property to property, from state to state, from city to the city.

“With the uncertainty that’s going on now, especially with the economy essentially being at a standstill, nobody really knows what that’s going to do. And the unknown factor here is what government policy is going to be with regards to how we interact when the businesses reopen.”

And if working from home becomes the norm it may mean larger plans other than just redesign and scheduling staffing needs for many companies as it too will have a ripple affect and nowhere will feel it more than Manhattan.

Which brings me to the issue of commercial properties which have been on the upswing in most markets, while housing lagged, this is one area of build that has not. Crane watch became the mantra of most business journals under some misguided (intentionally or not) to sell and market their cities to businesses in which to relocate their operations. Along with massive tax incentives that enables business to not pay income nor other revenue generating taxes for decades it become an inticing invite to enable business to hopscotch across America while small business are given no such breaks and they continue to generate the most jobs and in turn revenue to the state coffers. Then came Covid and that game changed.

Small business owners closed are already struggling with rent and now the added lootings we may see more closures and in turn that will affect overall taxes and mortgage burdens.   But it is not only the small businesses.

This from the Washington Post:   Nearly half of commercial retail rents were not paid in May. Companies as big as Starbucks say the financial devastation from the shutdown has left them unable to pay their full property bills on time. Some companies warn they will not be able to pay rent for months. And this from the New York Times:  If building owners cannot come up with enough money to pay their next property tax bill in five weeks, a deadline the city has refused to postpone, the city will be starved of an enormous revenue stream that helps pay for all aspects of everyday life, from the Fire Department to trash pickup to the public hospitals. It could lead to a bleak landscape of vacant storefronts and streets sapped of their energy.

But again like residential rents, commercial ones are not doing much to re-examine their balance sheets and rental agreements. This is from one such store owner in New York:  In 2018, even the national chains began closing more spaces than they opened. Rents have come down somewhat in a few heavy shopping arteries, but on the streets where I was looking to open stores, rents didn’t seem to budge. In 2019, rent for my NoLIta store jumped from $360,000 a year to $650,000.

And I laugh at the once adored WeWork that had everyone salivating at their “worth” that fell hard and fast before Covid and now it too has been infected with LayOff mentality and demands to reduce rents.

This is one new road we are going down and it sure as hell is like the rest of our infrastructure, rocky, bumpy and full of holes.

Office Towers Are Still Going Up, but Who Will Fill Them?

Developers around the country are grappling with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic as tenants cancel plans and workers fear returning to the office.

The New York Times
By Kevin Williams
Published June 2, 2020

Before the pandemic shut down businesses, a robust economy had powered a building boom, sending office towers skyward in urban areas across the United States. The coronavirus outbreak, though, has scrambled plans and sent jitters through the real estate industry.

Skyscrapers scheduled to open this year will remake skylines in cities like Milwaukee, Nashville and Salt Lake City. Office vacancy rates, following a decade-long trend, had shrunk to 9.7 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2019, compared with 13 percent in the third quarter of 2010, according to Deloitte.

Developers were confident that the demand would remain strong. But the pandemic darkened the picture.

“There is a pause occurring as companies more broadly consider their real estate needs,” said Jim Berry, Deloitte’s U.S. real estate sector leader.

The timing is unfortunate for Mark F. Irgens, whose 25-story BMO Tower in Milwaukee opened in mid-April at the peak of the statewide lockdown in Wisconsin. A month later, a small fraction of typical daytime foot traffic was passing by as most businesses adhered to the governor’s stay-at-home directive, which expired last week. A restaurant that was slated for the ground level was canceled, and three potential tenants have delayed their plans.

Instead of showing off the building’s sparkling Italian marble floors and panoramic vistas of Lake Michigan, Mr. Irgens is worrying about who is going to pull out next and what type of corporate landscape he might face when the pandemic finally ends.

But he is not putting on the brakes. The BMO had been planned for five years, and he has leases to negotiate, investors to please, tenants to woo and loans to pay off.

“Development projects are different than making widgets,” he said. “You can’t stop; you can’t turn it off. You have to continue.”

Slowly, workers are filling their BMO offices. Managers, who were scheduled to report on Monday, constitute about 15 percent of the building’s occupancy. Mr. Irgens thinks it will be the end of the summer before it gets up to 50 percent. Without a coronavirus vaccine, it may be year’s end before the building approaches a “normal” occupancy, he said.

Other developers around the country are also dealing with the fallout, especially for towers with Class A space, regarded as the highest-quality real estate on the market. In most cases, new buildings are not fully occupied, and developers were counting on a strong economy to do the work for them. For instance, the BMO Tower was 55 percent leased before the pandemic.

The question facing the owners of office towers is: Will anyone still want the space when coronavirus crisis fades?

If the economic pain drags on, there could be long-lasting changes to the way people work and how tenants want offices to be reimagined, said Joseph L. Pagliari Jr., clinical professor of real estate at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Some of the changes — like more spacious elevators — could be costly to put into place, he said.

The pandemic could be a “pivot point,” Mr. Pagliari said, and that would be bad news for building owners. The office towers were designed to be “best in class,” he said, but the pandemic has suddenly made their most salable amenities — common areas, fitness centers and food courts — into potential liabilities.

The economic crisis could also spur high interest rates on debt, which would cause building values to fall, Mr. Pagliari said. That may happen even if the crisis diminishes in the weeks ahead.

“The current pandemic has raised perceptions about the likelihood and consequences of future pandemics,” Mr. Pagliari said. Developers who can factor in such events will gain an advantage, but any skyscrapers that are built with pandemic fears in mind are years away.

The prospect that workers may want to continue working from home does not worry John O’Donnell, the chief executive of Riverside Investment and Development, which is developing a 55-story tower at 110 North Wacker Drive in Chicago. The tallest office building erected in the city since 1990, it is scheduled to open in August and will be anchored by Bank of America. Other tenants include law firms, many of which are doing business from home.

“There is a need for collaboration, team building, common business cultures and a continuous desire to have social contact within a business,” Mr. O’Donnell said.

The building is 80 percent leased ahead of its August opening. One tenant signed for 40,000 square feet of office space at the height of the lockdown, which Mr. O’Donnell took as an encouraging sign.

The building is already being adjusted to meet post-pandemic needs, something Mr. O’Donnell said newer structures were better able to do. Amenities are being updated to be touch free. And owners are talking with tenants about walk-through thermal imaging to monitor workers and visitors for fevers.

The pandemic will result in a demand for more office space, not less, said Paul H. Layne, the chief executive of the Howard Hughes Corporation, a national commercial real estate developer based in Houston. Developers will move away from the industry-standard 125 square feet per person toward roomier workplaces.

But others say it is too early to tell when demand for office space will return. Jamil Alam, managing principal of Endeavor Real Estate Group, said the situation would vary by city.

“There will be winners and losers,” Mr. Alam said, explaining that he thinks denser metro areas like New York and Boston, which have been ravaged by the coronavirus, could find their luster lost in favor of smaller markets.

Endeavor, which is based in Austin, Texas, has a portfolio that includes 15.6 million square feet of commercial real estate in cities like Dallas, Denver and Nashville. One of its projects, the 20-story Gulch Union, will be the largest office tower in Nashville when it opens in August with 324,254 square feet of office space.

Smaller markets like Nashville are well positioned for companies wishing to pull up stakes from major metropolitan areas with higher density and costs, Mr. Alam said. Gulch Union has leased 27,000 square feet, and four more deals totaling 40,000 square feet are near completion.

“Deals are still being done,” he said.

There will be an appetite for urban, walkable, mixed-use office environments, Mr. Alam said, and changes will need to be made in buildings over time, like fewer touch points on handles and elevator buttons.

But projects that have not been started yet will be paused, said Chris Kirk, managing principal of the Salt Lake City office of Colliers, the commercial real estate brokerage firm.

“If you are a developer or landlord or C.F.O., you are concerned,” he said. “Everyone is feeling the impact.”

And the city is experiencing a building spurt downtown. A 24-story Class A tower developed by City Creek Reserve, the development arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is scheduled for completion next year. The building, which will have 589,945 square feet of office space, is already 80 percent leased.

Salt Lake City has been averaging a new Class A office high-rise every decade, and the pace is increasing. Still, the pandemic might put the brakes on that.

“Anyone who would be coming out of ground speculatively now without the commitment has got to be thinking about their timing,” Mr. Kirk said.

Mr. Irgens hopes to ride out the pandemic and continue with other projects. In February, his company broke ground on a six-story building in Tempe, Ariz., and it is moving forward with a 235,000-square-foot Milwaukee office project that is 42 percent leased.

“My partners in my business are working really hard to figure out how to have business continuity, and it is really hard to do that,” he said. “Things are changing daily.”

The House of Fashion

This morning I read about the retailers, J Crew a more mainstream source of clothing for the aspiring prepster and Neiman Marcus for the aspiring and/or wealthy customer whose Christmas catalogs are something to see as they include specialized vehicles, trips next to high fashion and chic bags.  Neiman’s redefined luxury retail.  And their death is for now delayed as they file for Chapter 11 they owe much of their demise to of course the Vulture Capitalists who used debt to finance their own incomes and line their Brioni Suit pockets with outrages fees and interest the stores were forced to pay versus make investment in the actual retail outlets and build their e-commerce platform as they should to compete with the flowing river that is composed of cash, Amazon.  But even the allure of high fashion is now something Bezos wishes to come aboard that port as well as he moves in a new circle of high fashion friends.  Go figure we all like to look good, well unless your at home during a pandemic then the once chic athleisure wear is now replaced with pandemic chic sleep/loungewear.

I remember my first time going to Neiman’s in Texas where they began and the awe of wonder and beauty that this store defined. I grew up in retail as my Mother began at a small company that was once called Nordstrom Best and it too evolved and may also find itself on the same train that Barney’s, Sears, Penny’s, Lord and Taylor, Henri Bendel,  and Macy’s have already boarded and some have since departed to be distant memories on the trip to the retail dead zone.  There are a lot of retailers that I have memories of that were consolidated into other brands and some that just simply shut their doors to be vacant fronts of once thriving industry that ran from the high to the low everything in between.  They sold shoes, drugs, hardware, books and toys and all of that we can now buy on Amazon. Wow that is distressing if not again wrong on so many levels.   There is a Wiki page dedicated to the corpses of this industry and many I recall growing up with, going to, shopping or even working at and learning a trade and building my skills that eventually led me to being a Teacher.  I can tell you if you can sell shoes to women and men you can certainly learn to peddle knowledge to kids, the joke was I made more money doing that than I did as a Teacher.

Retail was unionized when I worked in that business and in turn Nordstrom was the first to offer profit and share which we have since seen as stock options in the tech sector creating the billionaire class that largely think they know everything about everything and then they don’t.  I recall the dot com collapse, the 2008 one and now Pandemia which has exposed how fraught they truly are as they run on the fuel of bullshit and the backs of others in a way that retail did.  Using women, lowly educated and/or poorly trained people to sell, pimp or push a product that is marked up beyond value to give it a label of import, ironically made by lowly paid, often “slave” labor.  And that is a cycle that is glorified, glamourized and showcased in magazines, movies and tv.  Well it was as even that industry of  fashion has taken its hits to its bow and that ship is sinking as well.  But Captain Bezos is now hitting that port as well.  Well he did capsize the Project Runway monopoly with his ironically titled, In the Cut even taking its hosts with him; Don’t Pirates always take some booty? But it was less about reality as that show was facing a crisis of its own, over their former Captain, Harvey Weinstein, who also was very involved with all the details of his business, even marrying a designer who in some odd perverse fashion of  dressed his victims, whoops I mean stars.  But, fashion  is always about stars and led by Anna Wintour she made sure who was in and who was not.  But even she too may be on a sinking ship.  Vogue may exist but in less glossy pages and fewer issues that women will use to idolize and demonize themselves over not having the latest, the it bag and the shoes that someone died for.  Literally.

And the rich will profit off the death of those victims of Covid. I have written often about the hypocrisy of Gates and his ilk and this is no different.  Zuckerberg is killing it to use a pun on Facebook as is Bezos and that Buffet is shedding stocks like a virus is another who while promising to give he used the pandemic to fire all the workers at his business, Cort Furniture, and hire temporary workers stopping an attempt to unionize the shops.  How convenient.  Some things just work out.  And for now there are attempts to be ethical and step up to protect workers,  but I don’t expect it to last as that affects the bottom line. Think of it like a disease, the Midas Touch in reverse, they kill everything they touch.

Billionaires are playing savior now. But they broke the economy to begin with.
Let’s not get too excited about rich people’s philanthropy during coronavirus.

By Tara Isabella Burton|The Washington Post|May 15, 2020
         Tara Isabella Burton is a Religion News Service columnist. She is the author of “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World” 

As the coronavirus pandemic rages across the United States, the nation’s titans of industry have begun to style themselves as heroes by pledging millions of dollars to health care. Twitter and Square chief executive Jack Dorsey offered $1 billion — just under a third of his wealth — to fight the virus. Oprah Winfrey has donated $10 million. Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt have teamed up to fund the Pandemic Action Network, which seeks to influence world governments to increase their own spending on global health initiatives such as the World Health Organization.

It is tempting to laud these figures as self-made men and women paying back the spoils of their success to the rest of us. But the United States relies on, and worships, individual billionaires and their charitable efforts precisely because the country is so broken. The cultural and economic systems that made these people successful exist at the expense of the collective good. The quintessential American myth of the clever bootstrapper lionizes someone who triumphs despite the derelictions of government, infrastructure and health care that have made this pandemic so dire. Our very conception of success — resting on veneration of inimitable heroic individuals — has worsened the country’s failures.

Americans have, historically, been eager to view themselves as a nation of individuals, rather than a collective. Our early philosophers — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau — preached a gospel of self-reliance. “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist,” Emerson wrote in 1841. Nineteenth-century visitors to the country, such as the French statesman Alexis de Tocqueville, were struck by both American optimism and American obsession with individual liberties. “Americans believe their freedom to be the best instrument and surest safeguard of their welfare,” Tocqueville wrote in 1835, “. . . to secure for themselves a government which will allow them to acquire the things they covet and which will not debar them from the peaceful enjoyment of those possessions.”

So, too, today. The rhetorical specter of “socialism” — with its insidious hints of “death panels” and shadow governments — consistently casts a pall over attempts to reform health care, expand the social safety net and enact legal protections for gig workers (now a third of the nation’s workforce) who are disproportionately at risk in a pandemic economy.

The victory of President Trump’s identitarian populism is the clearest example that voters reject the concept of a shared common life. And it was bankrolled by such hedge fund donors as PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Thomas Peterffy, the founder and chief executive of Interactive Brokers Group, who recently told the New Yorker that his support of Trump was because “the U.S. will get to socialism” through “increasing government regulation.”

Yet our current suspicion of the institutions that might bind us together is unprecedented, even by American standards. A 2019 study by the Pew Research Center revealed that almost three-quarters of Americans younger than 30 say that people generally “just look out for themselves.” Young adults are significantly more likely than older Americans to express mistrust in the military, religious leaders or police. The institutions and organizations that have shaped our sense of the common good, and our role within it, seem to have conclusively failed. The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus threat could easily justify anyone’s lack of faith in the federal government.

At the same time, the Bill Gateses, Jack Dorseys and Peter Thiels of the world — seemingly “self-made” men, whose money and resources are increasingly forming the spine of the nation’s coronavirus response — represent a new and uniquely American vision of moral and political influence. The origin stories of these founder-heroes tend to emphasize their sui generis qualities that owe nothing to our shared institutions (governmental, ecclesiastical and educational). Many were college dropouts; Thiel, who holds two degrees from Stanford, created an eponymous fellowship that pays promising young entrepreneurs to leave college to code.

The techno-utopian libertarians of Silicon Valley and the hedge fund billionaires of Greenwich, Conn., share a conviction in the power of individual human freedom and the danger of any collective (or governmental) institution that might stymie unfettered human autonomy. Google’s Larry Page has gone on record envisioning a global free zone — one he likens to Nevada’s Burning Man festival — a “safe place” for technological experimentation not subject to any laws or safety regulations. Former Sears chief executive Eddie Lampert, now among the highest-paid hedge fund managers in the country, famously restructured the company in alignment with the economic principles of libertarian novelist Ayn Rand: The result was Sears filing for bankruptcy. The uber-rich, explicitly or implicitly, value the narrative of the uber-mensch. In this myth, wealth inequality is justified as the natural, material expression of the fundamental inequality of humanity.

These billionaires, whatever the source of their wealth, tend to frame their success as something they have earned on their own, whether through business savvy, technological creativity or old-fashioned American gumption. They (and we) decry American institutions — government, universities, health care, regulatory bodies — as fundamentally static and bureaucratic, holding back promising people from their destiny of self-making. As Thiel put it to economist Tyler Cowen in a 2015 podcast interview, denying that the United States is a democracy or a republic: “We are actually a state that’s dominated by these very unelected, technocratic agencies [that are] . . . deeply sclerotic, deeply nonfunctioning.” Contemporary billionaires see our civil institutions as mere bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, about 1 in 6 American children grows up in poverty. Our wealthiest school districts outspend their poorer counterparts by as much as 3 to 1. Adults living under the poverty line are five times as likely to say they are in “poor” or “fair” health as those making quadruple that much. Social services across the country are chronically underfunded. Our cultural obsession with freedom leaves behind our most vulnerable.

The coronavirus made clear that the rhetoric of human liberty is illusory, and with it the false narrative that individuals can make themselves in isolation. In a pandemic, no man is an island. Rather, we are, as Dostoevsky’s Father Zosima says in “The Brothers Karamazov,” all responsible to one another for everything. Our bodies, our labor, our social ties to one another are all interdependent. And we can address this pandemic only by recourse to a common life and common identity.

It is perhaps laudable that many of the victors of capitalism’s spoils want to contribute to the common project of fighting the pandemic. But we should not forget that so many of the factors that have rendered the coronavirus particularly deadly in the United States — income inequality, the lack of a social safety net, the precarious standing of newly-essential gig workers, the obsession with freedom from government tyranny and the lack of a coherent civic identity — are direct products of the way we valorize self-making.

The same faith in atomized consumerism that drives people to make billions of dollars in profit also positions them to donate some of that profit now. Our faith in capitalistic individualism has allowed corporations to both circumvent and co-opt the institutions of our shared civic life. It has weakened the foundations of our political coexistence. What capitalism’s victors are contributing to the coronavirus effort now should not be celebrated as altruistic charity but rather evidence of the broken system we have helped them build.

The Bare Necessities

Yesterday in my endless conversations with morons (this should be a better book than Conversation with Morrie) and the Concierge who thought the stimulus was a joke he also did not understand why people are shopping for anything outside of necessities and in turn that all the stores who have online shopping will be fine after the shut down.

Again he is an idiot if I have not made that clear as he rarely listens and like one of the Barista’s I also “talk” to the minute the conversation trends into things that he doesn’t know/care or understand he shuts down and goes to his head place which I assume is like a cloud of just space and gas.  I tried to explain that we are being inundated with emails after emails from vendors and stores now shut offering specials, sales and deals on many items that may not be necessary but are things that eventually I would have bought or now need.   I now have to dye my own hair, treat my own skin and nails, maintain my own health and well being that includes more than food and medicine.  I have bought books, weights, some additional Yoga props and things that during my clean out I realized I could use and would add a touch of color or add storage to my apartment.  Not all of us sit staring at the wall and get high as a coping strategy. Even I have read enough books and magazines and there is only so many shows you can stream so hey shopping helps distract you.  If you have disposable income what you do with it is your business.   And guess what it is contributing to these retailers that are not all Amazon vendors stay somewhat solvent.  There will be some who don’t come back as they were already struggling and I wrote about them in my last blog post.  But stalwarts and legacy stores are a part of the community and they sponsored parades, they had amazing holiday window decorations, are often meeting places and are just places to kill time and yes buy a scarf or some shoes.  To say that you buy EVERYTHING online means you were already a shut in and clearly in denial. And yet I have seen numerous posts and rants on the media that is the only social distancing that we can practice and many are irate at people buying other than essentials while at Target or the Depot or wherever is open. And yes we are also stacked to the roof here with endless packages and items that are being delivered here on the hour. It is entertaining if not tragic as they are overwhelmed with it so even I try to keep my shit on the down low.   I guess Madonna had it right she is just a Material Girl but that was then and this is now.  And yes that includes the luxury stores that  Madonna would shop at as many are boarded up and in turn are no less immune to a downturn as the middle/lower tier retailers are, ask Barney’s about that one. Oh you can’t they are closed.

As for the stupid, I truly thought I had left that bullshit back in Nashville, nope its here and very much everywhere just less religious, so there is a plus.  But ignorance is willful and this young man is heavily ignorant and nothing will change that, not even a pandemic.

I have gone out of my way the last year to find vendors who are not on Amazon and there are many and have amazing options and products.. Murchison Home, Bespoke Post, Burke Decor, Royal Danish Design, Food 52, and yes I buy from Bloomies and Macy’s and go in to pick up and have some frozen yogurt or some other food item while I am there.  I grew up in retail and think of it as more than a place to buy shit.  If you went to one you would know that but malls have taken a great deal of the meeting element away from retail stores via food courts but again I like to see the item, to touch it for quality, value and again see options and have choices.  But when you are poor you actually believe you are getting a deal.  What you are getting is a Chinese made product of low quality, low value and little quality control.  So have at it.

But when Goodwill stores close that is another issue that may also be a tell. The last few years we have swamped them with items that are largely discarded and disposed of and in turn while they do have some great deals the varying thrift stores are often associated with junk when in fact they do have some good things if you are willing to look. And that is one of the other issues of those who are status obsessed that such shopping means you are just that – poor.  We are obsessed with status and brands that again may be the reset we need.  But what will happen when when do hit that button?

There is no way a store will reopen immediately and be staffed and trained and stocked with merchandise. There will be a need to mark down items, do inventory and do an accounting and full merchandise refresh to ensure that all the products are still saleable. There will be discontinued items, damaged items and other that will have to marked out of stock, sent to close out specialists and many of those who have also shut their doors.  The reality is that to think that day two this will all be normal has never had a real job or done any real work.   The same for restaurants and other service based industry that will have less of a transition but they will have to assess the losses and what that means going forward.  Some will start of with the bare necessities and in turn customers will adjust or walk as if they expected that it should just be back to normal day one as turning on a light switch. Wrong again.  This will be a domino effect for many.

Retailers furloughed nearly 1 million workers this week. But the industry’s troubles are just beginning.  Analysts say at least 15,000 stores, including some well-known brands, are likely to close permanently

 The Washington Post By Abha Bhattarai April 3 2020

Mike Derse kept his two toy stores open as long as he could, but sometime in mid-March he realized he had no choice but to lay off his entire staff.

“We just didn’t have the cash to keep our employees on the payroll,” said Derse, who closed the two Learning Express franchises he owns with his wife three weeks ago. “ ‘Look, we’re sorry,’ ” he told the 30 workers. “ ‘We’ve had to make drastic changes.’ ”

Like countless other small-business owners living in suspended animation until the coronavirus crisis wears itself out, Derse is hoping to tap a massive federal stimulus program and take out a loan to get his workers back on the payroll as soon as his stores in Bedford, Mass., and Burlington, Mass., are allowed to reopen. But specifics have been murky, he says, and it’s been difficult to get a clear sense of how, or when, to apply for the pool of $349 billion in stimulus money that became available to small-business owners Friday. Major banks like JPMorgan Chase have already warned that they won’t be able to accept or process applications right away.

So far, the only certainty about the outbreak is its ferocity, complicating Derse’s ability to anticipate, much less plan, his next step.

“Most small-business owners are living day-to-day,” he said. “If we have to stay closed for months, will we make it? I honestly don’t know.”

The retail industry, in turmoil long before the pandemic took hold, is facing new and unprecedented challenges. More than 60,000 stores have closed in recent weeks, according to Coresight Research, and entire shopping malls now sit empty as social distancing — which public health officials have called the best defense against the pandemic’s spread — keeps consumers home. Retailers are canceling millions of dollars’ worth of orders as sales have gone off the cliff.

This week alone, nearly 1 million retail workers were furloughed as major brands like Macy’s, Gap, Kohl’s, L Brands and J.C. Penney told most of their employees they needed to stay home, without pay, indefinitely. By comparison, retailers shed 2.6 million jobs in 2008 at the height of the Great Recession.

Analysts suspect the trend line will only worsen: Many of these temporary store closures are sure to become permanent as coronavirus-related shutdowns stretch into the spring and summer. A number of major retailers already are operating under heavy debt loads, making it nearly impossible for them to stay afloat without sales coming in.

“The effects of a universal shutdown are likely to be profound and lasting,” said Deborah Weinswig, chief executive of Coresight Research. “We anticipate that some of the retailers that recently announced temporary store closures, including well-known names, will never reopen their doors.”

[The past two weeks wiped out all the economy’s job gains since the 2016 election]

The growing crisis, analysts said, will permanently alter an already-battered industry that has struggled to adapt to changing consumer habits as more people buy online and eschew department stores in favor of direct-to-consumer brands. Retailers announced a record 9,300 store closures last year, as such companies as Forever 21, Barneys New York and Gymboree filed for bankruptcy. Many others were hard-hit by the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports, which have already cost retailers 300,000 jobs, according to Moody’s Analytics.

The coronavirus shutdowns, Weinswig said, “are throwing even more salt on those wounds.”

Weinswig projects that at least 15,000 stores will close by the end of the year. Consumer confidence — which until this year had been buoyed by low unemployment rates and a booming stock market — has taken a massive hit in recent weeks, with millions reporting layoffs and pay cuts. Even once the country’s retailers open back up, analysts say it will be a long time before Americans are able, or willing, to spend freely.

The outbreak has given rise to a deep economic downturn with echoes of the Great Depression, paralyzing entire industries and sparking widespread layoffs — from travel to professional services to manufacturing — as cities and states take unprecedented measures to battle the fast-spreading disease that as of Friday morning has infected more than 245,000 Americans. And the health and economic toll will grow: The White House projects upward of 240,000 people will die of the virus, and economists expect that 40 million Americans will be out of work by mid-April.

“This pandemic is going to stay in people’s minds even once it’s over,” said Sharon DiMinico, chief executive of Learning Express, which has 100 toy store franchises across the country. “The economy has basically shut down. People are losing their jobs. Who knows how long it’s going to take to recover from that?”

The company’s stores have canceled countless orders in recent weeks and laid off more than 1,500 workers, she said. Some outlets have begun offering curbside pickup or delivery services, though sales have been spotty. Some vendors have shut down, DiMinico said, and several others have warned that their supply chains were disrupted during coronavirus-related shutdowns in China.

“The longer this goes on,” she said, “the more likely it is that some of these stores will close for good.”

Some retailers have already taken drastic steps. Rogelio Rodriguez found out a couple of weeks ago that the Goodwill Store where he worked would be closing — just temporarily, managers told him — as New York began hunkering down for the outbreak. This week, he was told the Manhattan site would be closing permanently.

“We knew it wouldn’t be opening again any time soon — used clothes are not essential — but I still wasn’t expecting this to happen so suddenly,” said Rodriguez, 56. “I’m a working-class dude, and now I’m out of a job.”

Large retailers across the country announced a rapid succession of furloughs this week as store closures remained in place for the foreseeable future. Macy’s is furloughing the majority of its 125,000 workers, while Gap and Kohl’s are each furloughing about 80,000 employees. A number of other retailers have announced significant cuts, including J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, L Brands and Urban Outfitters. A number of others, including Everlane, Sephora and Rent the Runway, have laid off large swaths of their workforce. Overall, 16 million Americans worked in the retail industry last year, according to the Labor Department.

A snapshot of recent retail furloughs
Macy’s: the majority of its 125,000 employees
Ross Stores: most of its 92,500 employees
J.C. Penney: most of its 90,000 employees
Kohl’s: 85,000 employees
Gap: 80,000 employees
Ascena Retail (Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant): 39,000 employees
Belk: most of its 22,000 employees
Tailored Brands (Men’s Warehouse, Jos. A Bank): 19,000 employees
Neiman Marcus: most of its 14,000 employees
Guitar Center: 9,000 employees

Nearly 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits over the past two weeks, as the coronavirus pandemic gutted entire industries, including retail, restaurants, travel and hospitality.

The Goodwill store in Manhattan, Rodriguez said, isn’t renewing its lease. Analysts say other retailers are likely to follow suit in coming months, ushering in a new wave of trouble for shopping centers and malls.

Goodwill did not respond to a request for comment.

The nation’s 1,100 shopping malls, which have been struggling with years of declining traffic and slipping sales, are likely to be the hardest hit, DiMinico said. According to reports, Simon Property Group, the largest mall operator in the United States, furloughed 30 percent of its workforce this week — or about 1,500 employees — in a sign that it expects properties to remain closed for the foreseeable future.

Also at risk: department store chains like Kohl’s, Sears and JC Penney, which have huge stores with loads of seasonal inventory that will be out of season by the time they reopen. In January, U.S. retailers had about 16 million employees, with 1.8 million of them working in department stores, according to the Labor Department.

“Currently, revenue for these companies is down 80 to 100 percent, depending on how much business their websites are doing,” said David Silverman, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. “Even once things open up, we don’t see a significant rebound right away. It’s likely to be a slow improvement over many months.”

Fitch Ratings this week downgraded nearly a dozen retailers in quick succession, including Levi Strauss, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Macy’s and J.C. Penney. The economic fallout of millions of job losses and massive cuts to tourism is likely to roil retailers long term, Silverman said: He estimated that holiday sales could decline up to 30 percent from last year, which was already a tough season for many.

Macy’s, the nation’s largest department store chain, was dropped from the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index this week, after its market capitalization fell to $1.5 billion — a 75 percent plunge in two months. The retail giant said this week that it has lost the “majority” of its sales since shuttering its 775 Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury stores weeks ago. Analysts say more retailers are likely to follow.

The timing of the pandemic couldn’t have been worse for the American Dream, a $5 billion megamall in East Rutherford, N.J., that was scheduled to open in March after 15 years of stops and starts. It began rolling out its over-the-top attractions — an indoor theme park, National Hockey League-size ice rink, indoor water park and the country’s first indoor ski resort — late last year. More than 300 retailers, including H&M and Hermes, had been scheduled to start opening stores on March 19.

But days before, developer Triple Five Group said it would be postponing the opening indefinitely. Even after the property reopens, analysts said, it’ll be a tough sell: It will be a long time, they say, before Americans will want to congregate in crowded spaces, and it could take years for tourism to rebound.

For now, the mall is staying dark. “We strongly encourage you and your family to stay home,” the mall’s website says.

Shannon Burns has been spending a lot more time snuggling with her cats at home since the Macy’s where she works closed three weeks ago. On Monday, she found out she had been furloughed through the end of May.

“I’m just sitting on my hands not sure what to do next,” said Burns, 45, who lives in Southampton, Pa. She filed for unemployment benefits and is hopeful her store will reopen in a few months. Until then, though, “it’s like being stuck in some sort of horror movie,” she said. “I’m going stir-crazy.”

An hour away, Dani White was also furloughed from her job in the security department of a Boscov’s department store in Pennsylvania. Her manager, she says, has assured her that her job will be waiting when the mall opens back up. Boscov’s did not respond to a request for comment.

“But I’m worried about how long that will take,” said White, 20. “We haven’t heard anything yet. The only thing they’ve told us so far is: Stay home.”

River Deep Mountain High

Ah yes the Boycott.  This is where an enraged group take to Social Media to express their outrage over something someone said or did like Papa John, Chick Fil A or Starbucks to show these companies they mean business.  This lasts as long as the attention span of Americans which seems to be about 8.5 minutes or two commercial breaks.  Some companies do respond and we saw that with the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas and that like the issue of gun control has been pushed aside with all the other issues demanding attentions, caravans, separating children from parents, a sports star assaulting a woman (when doesn’t that happen, not on camera?) and whatever issue du jour is on the front page of Facebook which may or may not give a shit about the disinformation it peddles.

So when I read about the Amazon boycott in The Guardian I thought, “Well join the club.” This year I was planning to avoid any excess use of Amazon in search of other retailers to provide me with what I needed this season.  That lasted a hot minute.

First was my glassware purchase from Kauffman Mercantile. They shipped them separately, meaning the tumblers from the juice glasses which I specifically requested not to and sure enough two different colors arrived. Their concierge told me to take a photo and return the wrong ones then they would send the right ones or I could just get a store credit.  No on all of the above.  I returned the lot and demanded a full refund.  They had missed the Thanksgiving holiday and I did not want this dragging on for weeks.  Went to Amazon and in a week new glassware arrived ready to go.   My intent to buy books at Barnes and Noble or Parnassus ended after two trips and I really did not want to bother to get a bus, get out, walk over and get back on a bus to buy two books.   Again Nashville has no center core of shopping other than Green Hills and this time of year it is a challenge to get there and back under an hour.  Not to mention transit or the lack of sidewalks. It is not worth it in the best of times but this time of year? No.  Two clicks and the books are in my living room two days later.

Then we have the other odd items, such as home scent and when Candle Delirum wanted to charge me 5 bucks to ship it, one click it on Amazon it arrives today.

Or when I went grocery shopping I went to Whole Foods right across from the YMCA and I combined a work out with a shop out and was run and done literally in a couple of hours. Then I came home and prepared dinner while watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and yes it was marvelous.

As for  shopping for shoes, for clothes and for other items that seemingly are not Amazon I find myself back to Amazon.  I have shopped on Shopbop since its inception and then it was bought by Amazon and the same with Zappos. They have not changed but the owner has as  they have amazing offers and prices that are hard to compete with traditional vendors and the shipping? Free.

I still buy a great deal from Etsy.  Amazon is trying to edge into that market and that is just okay and I cannot for the life of me recall what that site is and let’s keep it that way.   As for retail, I still shop at Bloomingdales, Saks, Neimans and I have taken to ship and pick up at Macy’s.  I loved the old Macy’s and this store here is a raging dump but you peruse online and the sheets and towels and home items are all there online and free to send to the store. No package pirates and again in and out in an hour or go to a movie while there or to yoga as again it is right there near where? Whole Foods where I shop.   I rent cars on weekends and ironically park in an empty building across the street from the mall so I don’t even have that issue as an excuse.   I walk unlike most so even when I have a car it is a good habit to maintain.

Amazon is a deep river with endless tributaries that extend beyond the books and less mortar they began with.  As for Boycotts? Ask Chick Fil A, Starbucks and Papa John about that now they are closed for business, oh wait.    As for retail, ask Sears about that.

Amazon faces boycott ahead of holidays as public discontent grows

A growing number of customers are fed up with the company, from its working conditions at warehouses to anti-tax lobbying

Jana Kasperkevic in New York
The Guardian
Mon 17 Dec 2018

The holiday season is all about spending the time with your loved ones and, judging by most office mailrooms, shopping on Amazon. Last year, 76% of Americans who shopped online for Christmas presents said that they planned to do most of that shopping on Amazon.

Amazon now accounts for just shy of half of all online sales in the US and Santa’s not so little helper is expected to have another bumper Christmas this year. But there are a growing number of people whose front steps won’t be graced by Amazon packages this festive season – consumers boycotting the online retailer.

No one denies the convenience of shopping on Amazon but for some there are a host of reasons – from the working conditions at Amazon warehouses, the company’s aggressive anti-tax lobbying, its impact on local business or its selling of white nationalist merchandise – that make that convenience too high a price to pay. But even those shoppers concede their boycotts come at a price.
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Steven Shamrock, 51, had been considering boycotting Amazon for a while. First when he learned how Amazon workers were treated. Jeff Bezos might be one of the richest men in the world, but Amazon’s median salary is a paltry $28,446 a year. The second time Shamrock considered boycotting Amazon was when he read about the company’s dominance in web services. Amazon Web Services controls around 45% of the world’s cloud-computing capacity and provides the web services for customers ranging from Netflix to the CIA to the UK’s Ministry of Justice.

The last straw came in May of this year when he read that Amazon was banning customers who made too many returns.

“If a company gets so big, they can start picking and choosing their customers, it’s really not a business that promotes competition,” said Shamrock, who runs his own public accounting practice in the Chicago area. According to him, nothing is good in extremes, especially large companies that can end up controlling prices or distorting them. “I think anytime a company gets that large and gets that much economic power, it never ends well.”

Recently, Amazon announced that it was going to start paying its employees at least $15 an hour and that it will exert some of its influence on Capitol Hill to lobby for an increase in the federal minimum wage. While on the surface this announcement seems to benefit the workers, the move also benefits Amazon. With the unemployment rate dropping below 4% and fewer Americans looking for jobs, companies have been scrambling to attract potential job candidates. And in order to get all those Amazon Prime packages out on time for the holidays, Amazon had to hire 100,000 more people this year.

Shamrock, who said he might reconsider his boycott if the company were to treat its employees better, was not impressed by the news.

“The increase is still not to a living wage and I have not heard of any improvements in working conditions. We are still boycotting Amazon,” he said. His wife and their twin 21-year-old sons have also joined the boycott.

Laura Klein, too, would like for Amazon to make more effort in order to get her to end her boycott. When she gets an urge to shop, Klein goes online and checks whether Amazon is still streaming NRATV, the National Rifle Association’s streaming media service. Shopping on Amazon is very convenient, but for the last 10 months Klein has been boycotting the company.

Klein decided to boycott Amazon shortly after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February that claimed 17 lives. At the time, the New York Times published a feature about NRATV, the National Rifle Association’s online TV channel which broadcasts pro-gun content and is streamed by Amazon Fire TV as well as Apple TV and Roku. It wasn’t long before calls for Amazon boycott spread like wildfire across the internet. Months later, nothing has changed.

As a result, Klein has done most of her holiday shopping at a local brick-and-mortar store and has resolved to boycotti the second season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which premiered on Amazon Prime on 5 December.

Every time Klein has to make a purchase online, she has to remind herself not to go on Amazon. That’s why she continues to check if they are still streaming NRATV.

“Because if they stop, then I’d say: ‘Oh, wonderful! I would love to do business with them again!’ But as long as they continue to, I just can’t. Morally, I just can’t,” said Klein, 45, who lives in New Jersey and works in pharmaceutical marketing during the day. In her spare time, she works as an interfaith minister.

The decision was not an easy one. Klein has been shopping on Amazon since the 90s, when she used the website to buy books and CDs. By 2018, she bought almost everything via Amazon – even her groceries. She had supported boycotts before of companies like Chick-fil-A, which faced a backlash for opposing same-sex marriage. However, those boycotts didn’t really affect her personally because she wasn’t really buying from those companies that much anyway.

“I thought: ‘Oh, that’s a really good idea,’ but I wasn’t the one giving something up and in giving up my business with Amazon, I wasn’t just giving up on things. It felt like I was giving up pretty much everything,” said Klein. This boycott felt like a breakup. “I really had to think about: how do I buy things now? Where do I go? What do I do? I’ve gotten so used to not going to a physical store or using other online sources for shopping and figuring out how else to buy ebooks. It was really almost like starting from scratch in a lot of ways.”

Amazon is not simply a marketplace. For many loyal shoppers, it’s a way of life.

To resist the temptation of Amazon, Klein deleted all Amazon apps from her phone and iPad. She started shopping for groceries in the store and has been reading books that she bought in the past but hasn’t gotten to yet. Throughout the months, she would occasionally tweet about her experience with the hashtag #boycottAmazon.

Experts are not convinced that boycotts work. “While I suspect that corporate protests or proposed boycotts rarely lead company executives to ‘see the light’, morally speaking, the bad PR surrounding them can be prohibitively expensive,” said John Paul Rollert, adjunct assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

There are recent examples of successes. Take Bank of America, said Rollert, which was forced to scrap a $5-a-month fee for using one’s debit card to make purchases unless a customer had a minimum of $20,000 in her bank account. “Bank of America floated the plan in late September of 2011, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Within a week, one of their customers started a Facebook campaign proposing a ‘Bank Transfer Day’ on 5 November. The protest got so much attention that, on 1 November, Bank of America caved and rescinded the plan.”

The potential loss of business was enough to make Bank of America reverse course but perhaps Amazon is just too big to boycott. For years, some spurned Amazon in favor of local bookshops. Then more recently, people sat out Prime Day in solidarity with workers protesting against the company in Europe. Yet Amazon barely shrugged and continued growing. Earlier this year, the company disclosed that the number of Prime members surpassed 100 million. More new members signed up for Prime in 2017 than in any other year.

Both Shamrock and Klein know of no one else that is actually boycotting Amazon. Klein’s friends told her they would give it a try, but she doesn’t know if they actually went through with it.

The few times that the boycott has come up in Shamrock’s conversations, he said others were “a little bit confused” and then just moved on.

In order for such boycotts to work, “a lot of people have to do it, obviously”, said Shamrock. “But I haven’t heard of any large-scale efforts for that.” His guess is that Amazon is too convenient – and too big.

Shopped Out

Growing up the birth of the mall took over and going to one was a treat.  I found it interesting but as a City kid who rode the 5 Phinney downtown was an easy commute and one I preferred.  Today I live in a city that has no real downtown and I find it exhausting trying to just figure out how to get a Mascara, go to movie or just look at seasonal decorations.

I grew up in retail and worked retail seasonally and long term when I was in College and post divorce and I loved it. I made money, lots of money and I grew up with a Mother who started with Nordstrom when it was a tiny single store in Seattle.  I worked there and hated it.    I rarely shop in the store and it is a our singular “elegant” store in Nashville as the Macy’s and Dillard’s compete to have nothing I want and rarely what I need.  I am not sure I need anything but frankly Nashville is where fashion came to die.   So I shop how? Online or when I go to New York and hit the streets re-known for them. 

Ah, the infamous 5th Avenue, a center for retail but even New York City is seeing the closing of Lord and Taylor  and Henri Bendel’s this holiday season. But it is also a reflection of  an overall shrinking of retail as apparent by it many vacant storefronts throughout the city.   Even the host of the annual Thanksgiving Parade, Macy’s has shrunk its footprint in many of its flagship stores.  Most of the space is being sold to WeWork the faux co-working tech company but actually a real estate company  that takes advantage of fire sales to arrange short time leases for businesses looking to establish an office or start ups needing space.

Over time the annual walk and shop which led people to wander from store to store to see iconic displays and designs that often were simply traditional to the extraordinary, such as Barney’s, the lack of a downtown and retail core turns this event to the mall.   But malls are closing and those that remain are trying to catch the same customer as there are only so many unique stores to offer largely the same products, all that can be bought online.  Which brings another annual Christmas story about the death of retail,  but even in the Holidays there is something about wandering through aisles, among stores looking for a bargain or the unique item that would make a great gift for that special someone.  But that too is going away as I suspect people hate each other more and think less about giving gifts than receiving them in any way that is about surprise and joy.  Shopping is now like phone booths gone the way of technology and ease.  So now trying to dig up a quarter to make a call, stand on the corner in a glass booth and have a conversation can now be done on the same corner without at least the veneer of privacy. 

I do think that money is truly the story behind the decline of retail and not Amazon. Amazon is today’s generation Walmart.  It is just sitting fat on your sofa versus going in sweatpants to the larger retailer that enabled you to get substandard food and a lube for both your vagina and car.

CBS Sunday Morning did a great story about the decline of Sears and how it was cutting edge for its day and yes years before even Amazon was the Sears of today they were experimenting with a type of online commerce using their infamous catalog and they already had the transportation and delivery system well established that could have been doing what Amazon is planning to do today.  Yes kids Amazon wants to compete with UPS, USPS and Fed Ex and have their own control over all aspects of the product.  Next up instant manufacturing like print on demand only more complex depending on the product.  Care for a Solar Panel? A Car battery?  Amazon 3D can make it for you and have it air dropped within the day.   Think I am kidding? Think again, Bezos never does stop thinking of ways to world dominate and I am sure this is on the table.

But remember visionaries have just that visions and they too think they are the most progressive and advanced of its era.  GE did once.  As did Carnegie and Rockefeller.  Ah days gone by but the names still exist even when their companies have long been gone.

Sears was bought by a “genius” investor and run into the ground by the same “genius.” So much for thinking that all men have the solutions when they are often the problem. Understanding history is how we understand the present and in turn prepare for the future. Or not. What comes up must come down and history bears repeating.

Chicago Tribune
Rise and fall of Chicago icon: 132 years of Sears

By Kori Rumore

Sears Holdings Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company’s chairman, Edward Lampert, will step down as CEO and 142 stores — including Sears and Kmart stores — will close. Here’s a look back at the company since its founding 132 years ago.

1886
Richard Sears begins selling watches in Minneapolis

Sears was a station agent in Minnesota when a shipment of gold watches arrived for a local jeweler, who refused them.The rebuffed wholesaler told 22-year-old Sears he could have the watches for $12 apiece. He said yes, pivoted, and offered them to agents along the line for $14. With that type of watch retailing for $25, there was room for the agents to profit, and Sears pocketed $2 for each one sold.Within six months, Sears had made $5,000, and his watch business started to outstrip his railroad salary. “The tail had begun to wag the dog,” he said in a 1906 Chicago Tribune story.

1887
Sears moves to Chicago, hires Alvah Roebuck

Setting up at Dearborn and Randolph streets, Sears hired a watchmaker “thin to emaciation,” Alvah Roebuck. Their watch company grew rapidly into a general mail-order company that used high volumes to enable low prices.

1888
First catalog released

Sears first uses a printed mailer to advertise watches and jewelry. Under the banner “The R.W. Sears Watch Co.,” Sears promises his customers “we warrant every American watch sold by us, with fair usage, an accurate time keeper for six years — during which time, under our written guarantee we are compelled to keep it in perfect order free of charge.”

1895
Key financier joins company

Julius Rosenwald would later become president of Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1908, when Richard W. Sears retired, then chairman of the board in 1924. The philanthropist’s generosity can still be seen throughout Chicago.

1908
Sears retires as president

Richard W. Sears’ fortune, at the time, was estimated at $25 million. Sears became chairman of the board and continued to participate in the company for several more years.Sears died in 1914 — a decade or so before the company he founded opened a single store.

Feb. 2, 1925
First retail store on Chicago’s West Side

The Homan Square site was already home to the company’s mail-order plant when the store, which featured an optical shop and a soda fountain, opened. Sears national headquarters was based here on a 55-acre site. Retail operations moved to the new Sears Tower headquarters in 1973, then the current headquarters in Hoffman Estates in 1995.

1927
Launches Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances

Sears pays $500 for the rights to name from the Marion-Craftsman tool company. The products, which include power tools and lawn mowers, become known for their warranties.A Chicago street provided the name for Sears’ lines of home appliances, according to company lore. The Kenmore name appeared on washing machines starting in 1927, though the nameplate debuted on a Sears sewing machine in 1913.

1931
Establishes Allstate

Launched to provide mail-order car insurance, Northbrook-based Allstate Insurance Co. was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears. In choosing a name for the new business, managers borrowed the trademark of a Sears product, Allstate Automobile Tire.

1933
Launches Christmas catalog

The 87-page catalog featured toys, holiday decorations, housewares, tools, clothing, jewelry and appliances — something to appeal to every family member.

Sept. 10, 1973
Moves HQ to Sears Tower

Four hundred people are the first of 7,000 Sears employees to be moved — from 13 buildings at two locations in Chicago and one in Skokie — into the company’s new headquarters in what was then the world’s tallest building.

1975
Becomes the exclusive retailer of Pong

Produced by Atari, the popular home version of the electronic ping-pong game with its “blips” and “bloops” is sold only at Sears.

Jan. 26 1986
Discover Card debuts nationally

Two months ahead of schedule, the credit card is introduced nationally to compete with industry giants MasterCard, Visa and American Express.

February 1991
Loses its crown as king of American retail

Based on total sales revenue for fiscal 1990, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart becomes the country’s top retailer, followed by Kmart. Sears slips to No. 3 on the list.

Jan. 25, 1993
Catalog discontinued

The company announces the closing of its money-losing catalog division and the demise of its storied Big Book. Founder Richard W. Sears first offered his watches and jewelry for sale in a catalog in 1888. A general merchandise catalog came along in 1896.

November 1994
Sears Tower sold

Getting out with unpaid interest mounting, Sears announces it will give up ownership of the tower as part of a restructuring of the massive debt. AEW gains control of the property.

March 31, 1995
Allstate, Sears split

Sears began cutting the cord with Allstate, then the country’s second-largest insurance company, in 1993, when Sears sold almost 20 percent of its stock at an initial public offering.The split let Sears proceed without dealing with any catastrophic payouts common in the insurance industry, while Allstate investors didn’t have to be concerned about the ups and downs of retailing.

Aug. 10, 1995
HQ officially moves to Hoffman Estates

Sears headquarters had been in Chicago since Richard W. Sears moved his watch company here from North Redwood, Minn., in 1887.Now, nearly 5,000 employees would be working at the suburban site.

1998
Christmas catalog debuts online

One year before launching Sears.com, the company places its Christmas items for sale on Wishbook.com.

May 13, 2002
Acquires Lands’ End for $2 billion

Under the deal, Lands’ End clothing would begin appearing in Sears’ stores as early as fall 2002. Sears had struggled for years to bring nationally known brands to its apparel mix.

July 16, 2003
Credit division sold to Citigroup

The sale provided Sears with a $3 billion premium on its credit-card portfolio — the nation’s 8th largest with 25 million active accounts — and returned an additional $3 billion in invested capital to the company.By selling its finance arm, Sears jettisoned a division that had provided more than half of its annual profits and helped boost sales by giving customers a way to pay for big-ticket items. But it also was rid of a division that had cost a top executive his job after Sears had to boost its bad debt reserves by $222 million in October 2002 to offset rising delinquencies.

Nov. 17, 2004
Company announces merger with Kmart, led by Edward Lampert

Valued at $11 billion, Kmart Holding Corp. scooped up Sears, Roebuck & Co. The new company, which was called Sears Holdings Corp., would become the nation’s third-largest retailer and continue to occupy Sears headquarters in suburban Hoffman Estates.Leadership of the new company was controlled by Kmart’s chairman, Edward J. Lampert, a 42-year-old Connecticut investor who made his name buying Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003 and raising almost $1 billion by selling many of its stores to other retailers, including Sears.“This is going to be an enormous undertaking,” said Lampert, who owned 52.6 percent of Kmart and 15 percent of Sears.

Feb. 2, 2008
Executive shakeup

After the company suffered through a dismal holiday selling season, CEO Aylwin Lewis is ousted.Lewis served as CEO of Kmart Corp. in 2004, and became head of the combined company after Kmart acquired Sears Roebuck & Co. in 2005.

Jan. 8, 2013
Lampert takes over as CEO

Company Chairman Edward Lampert takes over the position from Louis D’Ambrosio. Lampert was the company’s fifth CEO in eight years.

Feb. 22, 2013
Calumet City store to close

At the same location for 50 years, the Sears store in the River Oaks Center mall closed in May 2013. The company cited poor financial performance.

April 4, 2014
Lands’ End spun off

Started in Chicago in 1963 as a sailboat equipment catalog, Lands’ End evolved into an upscale casual clothing retailer. Sears purchased the company for $1.9 billion in 2002.

April 6, 2014
State Street store closes

Highlighting a growing trend away from bricks-and-mortar shopping, Sears closes the 13-year-old location.

Sept. 15, 2014
CEO gives $400 million loan

One week after Fitch Ratings downgrades Sears Holdings’ credit rating to CC status, Sears CEO Edward Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments, lends the company $400 million.

Jan. 27, 2015
115 jobs eliminated at Sears

Spanning various departments, these positions were cut in an effort to reduce expenses in the face of years of losses.

Aug. 20, 2015
Posts first quarterly profit in three years

Sales declined in the second quarter, but Sears was bostered by selling and leasing back some of its buildings to a new real estate investment trust, Seritage Growth Properties.

Feb. 25, 2016
250 employees laid off

After posting fourth-quarter losses following a poor holiday shopping season, Sears eliminated 250 positions and also said 151 open corporate office positions would not be filled.

April 21, 2016
80 stores to close by summer

Two months after announcing it was accelerating plans to shutter unprofitable locations, Sears said it would close 10 Sears and 68 Kmart stores.

May 5, 2016
Ravenswood store to close

After 90 years in operation — the longest-standing store in Sears’ chain — the Lawrence Avenue Sears would close.

Dec. 8, 2016
$748 million lost in third quarter

It was the fifth consecutive quarter of losses for Sears.

Jan. 4, 2017
CEO to give loan up to $500 million; his tab now near $1 billion

CEO Edward Lampert — the company’s largest investor — agreed to loan Sears $321 million immediately with another $179 million more available in the future. It’s the second time in a week he stepped in to fund the ailing retailer. Lampert and his hedge fund had now lent Sears more than $1 bilion since September 2014.

Jan. 5, 2017
Craftsman sold

The well-known tools brand was sold to Stanley Black & Decker for $525 million and another $250 million after three years. Stanley agreed to pay Sears a percentage of its new sales of Craftsman products for 15 years, and during that time, Sears would be able to continue selling Craftsman products royalty-free.

Feb. 23, 2017
130 corporate employees laid off

Sears eliminated the employees, who mostly worked at its Hoffman Estates headquarters, as part of a restructuring plan aimed at cutting at least $1 billion in costs during 2017.

March 23, 2017
Company loses $2 billion in 2016

After years of losing money, Sears said there was “substantial doubt” it would be able to keep its doors open.

March 24, 2017
CEO takes bigger stake in Sears

Sears CEO Edward Lampert, already the company’s largest shareholder, bought nearly 526,000 shares, causing shares to jump more than 9 percent.

April 21, 2017
50 auto centers, 92 Kmart stores to close

The stores, including two in downstate Illinois, were to be closed as part of an effort to cut costs by $1.25 billion in 2017.

June 8, 2017
66 more stores in U.S. to close

Seventeen Sears and 49 Kmart stores were to shut in late July or early September.

June 13, 2017
Cuts 400 jobs, no longer qualifies for state tax breaks

The announcement meant Sears’ head count in Hoffman Estates had been cut by more than a third since 2011, when it employed 6,200 people at its headquarters and received a package of tax breaks after threatening to leave Illinois.At the end of 2016, Sears reported having just three more employees than the 4,250 minimum it was required to maintain to be eligible for the tax credits, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Econonomic Opportunity.

June 23, 2017
More store closings

It was announced that 18 Sears and two Kmart stores, sold by Sears to Seritage in 2015, would close in September.These closures came in addition to the closing of 226 stores announced earlier in 2017.

July 20, 2017
Kenmore products sold on Amazon

Sears partnered with the e-commerce behemoth to sell the full line of Kenmore appliances, including smart home appliances integrated with Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa platform.

Aug. 24, 2017
3 more Illinois Kmart stores to close

After closing or announcing plans to close 330 stores already in 2017, Sears Holdings Corp. said it would shutter 28 more — including Kmart stores in Oak Lawn, Elmhurst and Belleville.

Oct. 30, 2017
$60 million loan is Sears’ 3rd time tapping CEO’s pockets in a month

Earlier the same month, Sears had borrowed $100 million — $40 million on Oct. 18 and $60 million one week later — from affiliates of Sears CEO Edward Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments.

Nov. 3, 2017
63 more stores to close

The company informed employees at 18 Sears and 45 Kmart stores that those locations would be shutting down by late January 2018.

Nov. 30, 2017
Revenue falls 27 percent as sales plunge

Revenue dropped 27 percent in the third quarter to $3.66 billion with more than half of that decline coming from store and pharmacy closures, the company said.Sales at established stores, a key measure of a retailer’s health, plunged 15.3 percent during the third quarter — more than double the decline it reported in the same period a year earlier.

Dec. 14, 2017
DieHard auto batteries, other products sold on Amazon

Less than six months after Sears began selling its full line of Kenmore appliances through the e-commerce giant, the Hoffman Estates-based retailer began selling its DieHard auto products on Amazon too.
(Screenshot)

Jan. 4, 2018
Orland Park, Boubonnais and Marion Sears stores to close

Three Sears and three Kmart stores in Illinois would close in the company’s latest round of cuts. Thirty-nine Sears and 64 Kmart stores nationwide would close by April, it was announced.The Sears in Orland Park was set to be converted into a 45,000-square foot AMC movie theater.

Jan. 10, 2018
CEO’s firm gives company $100 million loan

Sears Holdings Corp. announced it had received the loan, but it did not disclose the source of the funds. But in a regulatory filing the next day, Sears said entities controlled by CEO Edward Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments, provided the loan.

Jan. 31, 2018
220 corporate employees laid off

Most of these employees worked at the company’s Hoffman Estates headquarters, and the cuts affected various business units and roles across the organization.

Feb. 15, 2018
Posts profit despite sales drop

During the fourth quarter of 2017, which included the holiday season, Sears sales fell 15.6 percent at established stores — its worst showing for the crucial holiday period since at least 2012. But the struggling department store operator posted a profit for the quarter, mainly due to a tax benefit.

March 23, 2018
Sheds more than 50,000 jobs in 2017

In the company’s annual report, Sears Holdings Corp. revealed it slashed about 36 percent of its U.S. workforce in 2017 — from 140,000 full- and part-time employees as of Jan. 28, 2017, to 89,000 as of Feb. 3, 2018.

May 14, 2018
Explores sale of Kenmore, other divisions

Sears announced it was beginning a formal process to explore the sale of three pieces of the business that CEO Edward Lampert’s ESL Investments expressed interest in acquiring: Kenmore, the home improvement business of the Sears Home Services Division and the Parts Direct business of Sears Home Services.Sears Holdings Co. had been exploring alternatives for those businesses — as well as the Craftsman tools and DieHard battery brands — for nearly two years, saying it believed they had room to grow by expanding their reach beyond Sears.

May 31, 2018
Gurnee Mills, Hawthorn Mall locations to close

Both stores were among five Illinois stores scheduled to be closed in September after another quarter of losses and slowing sales for the company. The Gurnee Mills stores opened in August 1991 and the Vernon Hills store was an anchor when its location, Hawthorn Mall, opened in 1973.These stores were among 63 closing stores Sears identified, part of a group of 100 unprofitable stores the ailing Hoffman Estates-based retailer was targeting for closure.

June 4, 2018
More time to repay loans

The company extended the maturity of two loans totaling about $320 million, originally due in July 2018, to July 2020.Lenders include affiliates of Sears Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment.

June 26, 2018
200 more employees laid off

Following a round of 220 job cuts earlier in 2018, another 200 corporate employees — about 150 of them working at the company’s Hoffman Estates support center — were laid off.

July 15, 2018
Closes last store in Chicago

Just shy of its 80th anniversary, the store on the edge of Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood shut its doors. The store opened in 1938 in a $1 million building designed by Chicago architecture fir, Nimmons, Carr & Wright.In October, it was announced that Springbank Real Estate Group was converting the four-story building into apartments and ground-floor retail space.

Aug. 14, 2018
CEO makes $400 million bid for Kenmore

ESL Investments, the hedge fund run by Sears CEO Edward Lampert, proposed buying Sears’ popular Kenmore appliance brand and a piece of its home services division.

Aug. 23, 2018
2 more Illinois stores to close

Sears Holdings announced that a Kmart in Steger and a Sears store in Bloomington would close in November as part of the latest group of 46 stores — 13 Kmart and 33 Sears locations — identified as unprofitable.

Sept. 13, 2018
Another quarterly loss

The company had now reported a loss in six of its last eight quarters. Same-store sales, a key gauge of performance, also shrank.

Sept. 24, 2018
CEO proposes selling real estate to avoid bankruptcy

Sears CEO Edward Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments, suggested selling about 200 company-owned stores to lighten the company’s debt load. But even if the plan were to succeed in preserving the company, it likely would accelerate the decline of Sears’ physical presence.

Oct. 6, 2018
Niles store to close

Though not among 46 Sears and Kmart locations previously announced to close before the holidays, the Niles store at Golf Mill Shopping Center was set to close in mid-December.

Oct. 10, 2018
Eyes bankruptcy

With a $134 million debt payment due October 15, it was unclear whether the company would be able to avoid a trip to bankruptcy court.Sears, which has lost $11 billion since 2011, announced it had added a restructuring expert to its board.

Oct. 15, 2018
Files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

The last man standing while storied Chicago competitors like Wieboldt’s, Montgomery Ward and Carson Pirie Scott fell by the wayside, Sears survived the Great Depression, adapted as its shoppers traded catalogs for downtown department stores, and followed customers to suburban shopping malls. But it faltered as discounters, specialty chains and online merchants wooed consumers away in recent decades, and it never seemed to find the niche that would bring them back.Under the bankruptcy court’s protection, Sears buys more time for a turnaround, one it’s been attempting for years. Despite efforts to cut costs by closing hundreds of stores, Sears has lost more than $11 billion since 2011. In the last two years alone, the company has closed more than 725 Sears and Kmart stores. The company will close 142 more stores before the end of the year.

Pay Jump?

 The Il Douchebag-in-Chief has been once again bragging about the Jobs numbers which show that there are more people working. Then we have the standard dogma that has been around for decades about a “Skills Gap” which has been the primary reason for H1B1 Visas and other tactics to encourage outsourcing and temporary visas to fill jobs Businesses assert cannot be filled here but oddly can by low wage slave labor in countries with even less education and skill training but sure.

But without wages one cannot buy cars, houses, clothes and stuff that keep our economy generating and this is in evidence with the current marketplace of American made.  

And with all the promised Jobs Trump bullied, threatened, cajoled or lied about we are seeing the end of Sears as they have announced more closings, but those employees are not Coal Workers so fuck ’em.   And J. Crew the former clothier to the Obama’s are undergoing restructuring and in turn that will mean layoffs and possible store closings.   But Trump can just blame them for that one.

And now switching gears (pun intended)  in the Automotive industry as even luxury cars are finding declining sales which means more layoffs.  And the same goes for GM.

And with those go the related and connected businesses that supply said Auto Workers or Retailers to provide parts to customers who buy said autos. 

And even Microsoft is laying off workers and that right after the big tech meet and greet at the White House. Perhaps they can work there helping the Greatest Son-in-Law whoever lived modernize Government. 

U.S. Job Growth Picks Up the Pace, but Wages Lag Behind

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By PATRICIA COHEN
JULY 7, 2017

Automobile sales may be slowing, e-commerce is putting the squeeze on bricks-and-mortar stores, and overall economic growth is limp. But the labor market has nevertheless managed to charge ahead.

Employers added an impressive 222,000 jobs in June, the government reported on Friday. Although the jobless rate ticked up slightly to 4.4 percent, it was because some people who had dropped out of the labor force were lured back.

But the hunger for workers and mounting complaints of labor shortages have raised a vexing question: Why isn’t the heightened demand for workers driving up pay?

The Federal Reserve pointed to that conundrum in the updated report on the American economy it sent to Congress on Friday. “Despite the broad-based strength in measures of employment,” it said, “wage growth has been only modest, possibly held down by the weak pace of productivity growth in recent years.”

The Fed’s report reflected its overall confidence in the country’s economic direction, which has led it to begin raising interest rates for businesses and consumers after years of holding them near zero to encourage investment and risk-taking. After increasing its benchmark rate last month, the Fed is expected to do so at least once more before the year’s end.

One of its aims is to head off any inflation that might result from a tight job market that prompts employers to offer higher pay to get the workers they need. Yet prices have been rising at a slow pace, and sluggish wage growth suggests that the fear may be premature.

“The payroll number is well above expectations,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics. “It’s pretty clear that the trend in employment growth is strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down.” Revisions to earlier estimates brought the monthly average gain since April to 194,000. But year-over-year wage growth plodded along at 2.5 percent.

“The wage numbers are certainly weaker than expected,” Mr. O’Sullivan said, “so it keeps alive the whole debate about the relationship between slack and inflation, and how far the Federal Reserve should allow the unemployment rate to fall.”

June was the eighth anniversary of the end of the recession, when the economy hit bottom, with employers shedding hundreds of thousands of workers and the jobless rate more than double what it is today. But many workers have yet to fully benefit from the expansion.

“This is not a market we have typically seen,” said Michael Stull, senior vice president at the staffing company Manpower North America. “We have not before seen unemployment drop, low participation rates and wages not move. That tells you something’s not right in the labor market.”

Employers are very aware that the pool of workers is shrinking and they are rethinking traditional qualifications like length of experience, Mr. Stull said.

“Employers will take on hard-working, reliable workers even if they don’t have an opening,” he said.

At the same time, he said that workers were “pushing back a little bit about driving an hour for a $10-an-hour job at a distribution center on the outer rim of the city.”

“You need a car for that,” Mr. Stull said, “and you can’t have a car on $10 an hour.”

That’s a familiar problem to Tom Thompson, owner of Star Cleaning Systems in Columbus, Ohio. He is looking to add two or three part-time workers to his 20-member staff.

“Very few people show up for interviews, and if they do, they don’t show up for the job,” Mr. Thompson said. “I’m spending 80 to 90 percent of my time recruiting. I triple-book appointments for interviews, and I’m lucky if I get one person to show up.”

He is offering $9.25 an hour to start, with bonuses and increases for workers who stick around. Running a new company, he said, he cannot afford to pay significantly more.

Nearby distribution centers for big companies like Amazon are sucking up most of the available labor, Mr. Thompson said. “I sometimes wish there was actually a higher unemployment rate,” he said.

Like Star Cleaning, Rooforia Home Exteriors in Omaha often finds customers through Thumbtack, an online marketplace for hiring people to complete tasks. These days it is the workers who are tougher to find.

“We did everything we could to recruit people and had not one application,” said Rooforia’s owner, Sarah M. Smith.

She is depending on guest-worker visas to fill openings for the season, which runs from the spring through November. “It’s hard work in Nebraska,” Ms. Smith said. “We have hot summers, and you’re on a black asphalt roof.”

At $17 an hour, she said, “the pay is fair.”

“We get a lot of people saying the visa program is taking jobs away from Americans,” Ms. Smith said, “but in reality, they’re not taking the jobs because there is no one even willing to do the jobs.”

“We had one person we recruited,” she said. “He didn’t even show up the next day.”

Patrick Bass, chief executive of Thyssenkrupp North America, part of a German multinational conglomerate, said his company was increasingly relying on methods common in Germany like apprenticeships, partnerships with colleges, and internships.

“We’re willing to invest in the people and bring them in and train them,” Mr. Bass said. “But for the basic-skill job, we’re seeing a higher turnover rate than normal. People are job shopping a bit, because they can. They’re trying different things to see what they like.”

While the government’s statistics offer a bird’s-eye perspective, hiring is essentially local. “Even in an era of low national unemployment, with recent jobs reports showing the national unemployment rate ticking down close to 4 percent, jobs are not always available and not everyone who wants work can find it,” Martha Ross, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, noted in her blog. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to help people prepare for and find jobs.”

Professional services showed a healthy gain in jobs last month, possibly reflecting the hiring of new college graduates. Other sectors that showed substantial gains included health care, social assistance and food services.

Reviews of the economy tend to reflect political affiliations, with Republicans more optimistic since the election than Democrats. Ideology aside, however, uncertainty about federal policy may be weighing on the economy. Businesses reported a burst of optimism after President Trump’s election, in part because of expectations that the new administration would enact fiscal measures like tax cuts. But that buoyant outlook is fading.

“This cautious approach to investment may in part reflect uncertainty about the policy environment,” Stanley Fischer, the Fed’s vice chairman, told an audience in Vineyard Haven, Mass., on Thursday. “Providing more clarity on the future direction of government policy is highly desirable.”

Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement,“This new report shows positive gains: Job creation came in higher than expected and the labor force grew,” but he added, “We have a lot more work to do.”

Much of Mr. Trump’s pro-business agenda remains stalled in Congress. Although Republicans control the White House and both legislative chambers, they have so far been unable to agree on a final budget, a new health care plan, a tax overhaul or an infrastructure program.

“This is an unprecedented level of political uncertainty,” said William E. Spriggs, chief economist for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “That is creating a drag on the economy.”

Juanita Duggan, chief executive of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said, “Small-business owners seem to be in a holding pattern while they wait to see what Congress will do with taxes and health care.”

Coming to a Town Near You

Apparently our Il Douchebag in Chief is busy bringing back Coal jobs while ironically building a solar panel wall as the new border marker from Mexico, what is next Windmills to tilt
Since the varying proclamations that Carrier or whomever were keeping jobs in America, Sears is closing stores and those jobs at Carrier that Trump claimed to negotiate into keeping? Well not really as they too are going the way of Trump University.

And as students are being shoved into STEM programs the current projections for what jobs will exist by the time they enter the workforce may be quite different than what they are currently being told; The Guardian list is here.

 So what is the future? Fuck if I know.  I live in the present and with rural towns currently struggling to survive we have to rethink what it means to have the entire population of the United States living in urban areas located on both coasts.  Scary isn’t it?

In Towns Already Hit by
Steel Mill Closings, a
New Casualty: Retail Jobs

Thousands of workers face unemployment as retailers struggle to adapt to
online shopping. But even as e-commerce grows, it isn’t absorbing these workers.

By RACHEL ABRAMS and ROBERT GEBELOFF THE NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 25, 2017

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Dawn Nasewicz comes from a family of steelworkers, with jobs that once dominated the local economy. She found her niche in retail.

She manages a store, Ooh La La, that sells prom dresses and embroidered jeans at a local mall. But just as the jobs making automobile springs and rail anchors disappeared, local retail jobs are now vanishing.

“I need my income,” said Ms. Nasewicz, who was told that her store will close as early as August. “I’m 53. I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

Ms. Nasewicz is another retail casualty, one of tens of thousands of workers facing unemployment nationwide as the industry struggles to adapt to online shopping.

Small cities in the Midwest and Northeast are particularly vulnerable. When major industries left town, retail accounted for a growing share of the job market in places like Johnstown, Decatur, Ill., and Saginaw, Mich. Now, the work force is getting hit a second time, and there is little to fall back on.

Moreover, while stores in these places are shedding jobs because of e-commerce, e-commerce isn’t absorbing these workers. Growth in e-commerce jobs like marketing and engineering, while strong, is clustered around larger cities far away. Rural counties and small metropolitan areas account for about 23 percent of traditional American retail employment, but they are home to just 13 percent of e-commerce positions.

E-commerce has also fostered a boom in other industries, including warehouses. But most of those jobs are being created in larger metropolitan areas, an analysis of Census Bureau business data shows.

Almost all customer fulfillment centers run by the online shopping behemoth Amazon are in metropolitan areas with more than 250,000 people — close to the bulk of its customers — according to a list of locations compiled by MWPVL International, a logistics consulting firm. An Amazon spokeswoman noted, however, that the company had recently opened warehouses in two distressed cities in larger metropolitan areas, Fall River, Mass., and Joliet, Ill.

The Johnstown metropolitan area, in western Pennsylvania, has lost 19 percent of its retail jobs since 2001, and the future is uncertain. At least a dozen of Ooh La La’s neighbors at the mall have closed, and a “Going out of business” banner hangs across the front of the sporting goods store Gander Mountain.

“Every time you lose a corner store, every time you lose a restaurant, every time you lose a small clothing store, it detracts from the quality of life, as well as the job loss,” said John McGrath, a professor of management at the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown.

This city is perhaps still best known for a flood that ravaged it nearly 130 years ago. After rebuilding, Johnstown eventually became prosperous from its steel and offered a clear path to the middle class. For generations, people could walk out of high school and into a steady factory job.

But today, the area bears the marks of a struggling town. Its population has dwindled, and addiction treatment centers and Dollar Generals stand in place of corner grocers and department stores like Glosser Brothers, once owned by the family of Stephen Miller, President Trump’s speechwriter and a policy adviser.

When Mr. Trump spoke about “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” in his Inaugural Address, people like Donald Bonk, a local economic development consultant, assumed that Mr. Miller — who grew up in California but spent summers in Johnstown — was writing about the old Bethlehem Steel buildings that still hug long stretches of the Little Conemaugh River.

The county voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump, eight years after it helped to elect Barack Obama. (It also voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, but not by as wide a margin.)

Here and in similar towns, when the factory jobs left, a greater share of the work force ended up in retail.

Sometimes that meant big-box retailers like Walmart, which were often blamed for destroying mom-and-pop stores but at least created other jobs for residents. The damage from e-commerce plays out differently. Digital firms may attract customers from small towns, but they are unlikely to employ them.

Some remaining retailers are straining for solutions.

Randy Clark remembers when his Miller’s Clothing Store, a family-run men’s wear shop, employed twice as many people and sold 20 pairs of pants a day. He knows he needs a website, but attracting digital customers is the least of his concerns. Brands that he sells, like Tommy Bahama and Southern Tide, will not even let him sell their products online, where he would compete with their own e-commerce operations, he said.

So instead, Mr. Clark has focused on the store itself. He renovated the first floor to attract customers from farther away, customers who might have more money to spend and more places to go than Johnstown. He bought new furniture and new floors, installed a coffee machine, and donated old sports coats and corduroy jackets to make room for fresh inventory. He wears a suit and tie to work six days a week, and says he does not own a pair of jeans.

“Not a lot of people dress up anymore,” Mr. Clark said. “If I don’t dress the part, who will?”

Tom Apryle IV takes the opposite approach at his jewelry store.

Metalworkers, office clerks and executives — thousands of workers used to stream in and out of the factories here every day. When they got engaged or celebrated anniversaries or just wanted a nice diamond bracelet, they often went to Apryle’s, a jewelry store that Mr. Apryle’s great-grandfather opened in 1902.

But fewer people can afford his products now that the good jobs are long gone, and Mr. Apryle has had to make adjustments.

A cash-for-gold sign hangs in the window. He started selling knickknacks on eBay. Eventually, he stopped wearing a tie.

“I might as well be comfortable,” Mr. Apryle, 46, said, gesturing to his wrinkled T-shirt and tennis shoes. “There’s no one here to impress.”

The story of America’s Johnstowns is not just the story of retail, or e-commerce, or how men don’t buy suits and ties at Miller’s the way they used to. It’s also about men like Mr. Apryle, who wouldn’t even have a place to wear them.

“I was the last generation to see it booming and prosperous, and people were employed,” said Mr. Bonk, 53, the economic development consultant, who grew up in Johnstown. “It disappeared in my lifetime.”

Just as Johnstown scrambled to adapt to the decline in manufacturing that began a generation ago, local leaders are now looking at how to navigate a future with a much diminished retail economy.

To help revitalize the area, the county hired Mr. Bonk, whose parents ran a corner grocery store here for more than 40 years and made enough money to send him and his brother to college.

Mr. Bonk has returned, determined to make downtown thrive again. But he does not have dreams of bringing back the department stores of his youth. He knows that consumers these days want to spend their money more on experiences than things, and that neighborhood stores are competing against digital upstarts that do not need as many workers and often have far more resources.

As he walks briskly down Main Street, Mr. Bonk points out the new businesses that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with empty storefronts. There is The Vault, a day spa in an old bank building, and the Press Bistro, which, he excitedly points out, has an area for live music.

These places are evidence, he says, that other people are committed to restoring Johnstown.

“They want to see it be a healthy, thriving community, like where they grew up,” he said.

Mr. Bonk is inspired by Pittsburgh, another former steel town that revived its economy by attracting new businesses, including an Amazon distribution center and the fleet of trucks that came with it. But he knows that the Pittsburgh metro area, with a population of 2.4 million, is 17 times as large as Johnstown.

“I’m thinking about what’s next,” he said. “We’re essentially thinking of Johnstown as an economic development laboratory.”

Mr. Bonk isn’t counting on Amazon coming here.

Know Your Market

This may be a Phoenix yet to rise and retail stores are not dinosaurs, although in some cases they appear to resemble them, it is an industry in immense flux and apparent decline due to the standard “blame the internet” cry that we hear about every industry in transition/decay/decline.

I do think that end is near for both Sears and J.C. Penney’s as they are stores that have frankly never made any attempt to do more than be anchors at malls for years. That brief moment when Penney’s misguidedly hired the former Apple chief to redesign and upgrade what defines literally as occupying the last storefront  in the mall was bizarre and once again a belief that the tech sector is the savior to all things America. And of course as we see repeatedly given their mantra it is good to fail, he managed to do just that and was engineered by no less of a vulture than a hedge fund executive, Bil Ackerman, who doesn’t care too much for that mantra but he needed his wings clipped. Business Insider does a great historical review of the fall and fall some more story of J.C. Penney’s and that of Ron Johnson’s history as well.

Growing up working class with a mother who worked at Nordstrom shopping a Penney’s or Sears was for home products, the sheets, towels and tools that filled a home. I think many of us recall the Kenmore and Craftsman brands for their durability and reliability. Today I would not willing buy either and living in a home with Kenmore products, I cannot wait to leave them behind as they define crap.

I recall J.C. Penney’s attempt into fashion first with Halston and that was a fashion don’t, then later even Tim Gunn tried to resuscitate the store image with Liz Clairborne and other tried bridge brands that were important fashion lines from two decades ago. Then came the attempt to build the store again with Johnson and his concept to incorporate Martha Stewart into the Penney family. It cost a penny to end that lawsuit with Macy’s, as one only poaches eggs with Martha.

Then comes the store within a store concept as we have seen many retailers have pop up shops, vendors and other contracts with outsiders to sell their brands within the store themselves and no one does it better than Macy’s. Or should I change that to say “did” it better.

Macy’s is the Tyrannosaurus Rex of dinosaurs as they are part of the Federated Chain of Stores that includes Bloomingdale’s, a store that has always been careful of being everywhere that their little brown bag is. But they swallowed almost every department store chain across the country at one point it was Jurassic Park meltdown with Macy’s taking one local retailer after another and well like all dinosaurs extinction does await.

I worked at our local Bon Marche later bought by Macy’s and I have actually worked at Macy’s. Both were unionized gigs where I made commission. My mother as stated was at Nordstrom in its’ early days, also unionized and they created a profit and share program (the early baby dinosaur to the tech sectors concepts of options) which left my Mother was a decent retirement fund. She did not live to spend it, I however did and it paid for my post grad education.

But the nascent days of retail are gone. The elegance, the women in black dresses with careful coifs and excellent service are replaced by a coterie of idiots who could ring you up while chewing gum at the same time. Funny now that our GDP is reliant upon the service economy, service actually sucks and odd oxymoron if ever.

The elegant shopping experience, the Neiman Marcus a once family owned chain, Sak’s Fifth Avenue and Barney’s are too also owned by varying chains or hedge funds while some local stores still remain – Lord and Taylor and the Hudson’s Bay, Holt Renfrew of Canada chain still exist. Well who do you think own Lord and Taylor, a store once written off as dead but now still exists and does well in middle market, the area that Macy’s once excelled. And in turn they own Sak’s and the online marketer Gilt Group. This is group that used to be fur traders, they clearly get their market.

Knowing your niche in a department store was like knowing your customer and knowing your product. They are not mutually exclusive as any Salesperson can tell you that is the key to satisfaction. But now you are pushed a credit card as the close and very little salesmanship is involved. They used to train you, guide you and have their own schools to build management staff and buying teams. I have no idea what they do now as I have been out of the game a decade both as salesperson and as customer. I moved online myself largely to take better advantage of sales and as I know how merchandise is marked I can wait.

On the heels of Nordstrom a perennial Wall Street favorite now too facing a shortfall, the role of the retail store in the mall as well as in our downtown core has changed. I used to recall fashion shows and lunches, annual holiday events that were sponsored by the stores, including parades, tree lighting’s and celebrity sitings. I think the last one of note was Paris Hilton and well that pretty much sums up that.

So how can retail shake of their old dinosaur bones? Well look at your local Macy’s does it seem dated? Ours does. The Nordstrom’s are remodeling with more food and beverage services, bars and coffee shops and that I have to say is what makes a store a gathering place and then you may stop and pick up something on your way out or in. But I miss the luncheons that were for everyone, the fashion shows, the trunk shows that allowed some of us to rub shoulders with the designers and the fashionistas that set the tone of what defines the “in”. I miss elegant women and men waiting on us and that includes a basic “uniform” in which to identify who is there to actually take my sale. I pretty much use Nordstrom to go to the bathroom en route to light rail and I may pick up a coffee, anything else I look at then search the net for when I get home. Why? I truly hate the Salespeople and they are not much better anywhere else. This is largely why I think people prefer Topman, Zara and H*R as you do help yourself to well cheaply made poorly fitting garments (and too think the Gap is in trouble!) and when ready stand in a queue and wait to be rung up.

The MEME class are so insecure and well brain addled about actually speaking to people they make both hideous customers and the associates whom are ringing them up. Watch an exchange of that some time and you will scurry home immediately to hit the web. My favorite is that when I ask why they don’t shop in retail they claim it is to find better quality items that stores don’t carry but when I ask specifically what those are, I get bland references to products that are “good for you and the environment.” And those are? I suspect it is like me, they can’t afford it but by surfing you find the best deal and that is good for you and the environment.

Go to a mall and have a wander it is bleak and then say why did you like before?  Oh because it was a meeting place. We seem to not have those anymore either in any manifestation. 

Macy’s dismal earnings are a bad sign for the whole retail industry
By Sarah Halzack The Washington Post May 11 2016

Things went from bad to worse at Macy’s in the first quarter, with the department store giant reporting a 7.4 percent plunge in revenue as customers didn’t spend like the retailer hoped they would in key categories such as apparel.

Given the dismal results and the company’s perception that shoppers remain in a cautious posture, the retailer on Wednesday cut its outlook for the full year. While it had previously said it expected a 1 percent decline in sales at stores open more than a year, it is now expecting a decline of 3.5 to 4.5 percent.

The bleak start to 2016 continues a disappointing streak for Macy’s. But it also stokes fear in the wider retail industry about how much consumers will spend in the months ahead. The conventional wisdom has been that as the economy improves, shoppers will start buying gear to refresh their closets and redecorate their living rooms. And yet, despite low gas prices and a jobless rate hovering near a post-recession low, consumers just aren’t hitting the mall.

“We’re, frankly, scratching our heads. We see the same economic data you all see,” said Karen Hoguet, Macy’s chief financial officer, on a conference call with investors.

Hoguet also did not seem particularly upbeat that the consumer would change course anytime soon and give the retailer a jolt. Macy’s depends heavily on spending from international tourists at its flagship locations in major cities, and has recently suffered as those travelers held tight to their pocketbooks due to the strength of the U.S. dollar. Macy’s once predicted such caution would be something of a temporary blip, but on Wednesday Hoguet indicated that executives see the headwind continuing. And she did not seem particularly optimistic that domestic shoppers would open their wallets wider either.

“We are not counting on consumers to spend more this year, but we are working on giving them reason to shop more with us,” Hoguet said.

Macy’s stock was down more than 15 percent on Wednesday, and its gloomy results sent a chill through the broader retail sector. Stocks for Nordstrom, Kohl’s, JCPenney and T.J.Maxx parent TJX Cos. also fell, likely an indication that investors think the performance at Macy’s is a harbinger of weakness throughout the industry.

Macy’s has been attacking its business problems from a variety of angles. It is experimenting with a new off-price chain called Macy’s Backstage that it hopes could help it capture a new customer. It is ramping up its line-up of exclusive and private label merchandise in an effort to give people more reason to shop at Macy’s instead of another department store. And it has hired a senior executive to re-evaluate its highly valuable real estate portfolio.

And while those measures may indeed end up boosting Macy’s over the long haul, business continue to slow in the near term. Macy’s, which includes the smaller but more upscale Bloomingdale’s chain, has now delivered five consecutive quarters of declining revenue and decreasing sales at stores open more than a year, an important measure of a retailer’s health. It’s 6.1 percent drop in comparable sales for the quarter was the worst it has experienced throughout this recent rough patch.

Macy’s has a host of big-picture challenges to tackle: It has more than 700 stores in the United States, a fleet that chief executive Terry Lundgren has said is simply too large for the era of Internet shopping. And many of its existing stores are anchors in the kinds of smaller, regional shopping malls that are seeing fewer visitors. In this quarter, transactions at Macy’s — a figure that is a proxy for foot traffic — were down 7 percent.

Meanwhile, Macy’s digital business was a relative bright spot in the quarter, posting what Hoguet said was a “strong double-digit” increase in sales growth, though the pace has slowed. That suggests that the retailer still has plenty of work to do to shore up its e-commerce operation and to become more of a serious player in that channel.

Macy’s posted a profit of $115 million, or 37 cents per share during the quarter, down from $193 million, 57 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was $5.77 billion, down from $6.2 billion is the same quarter last year.

While some departments performed well for Macy’s, including jewelry, coats, and men’s tailored clothing, those strengths were more than offset by sluggish sales in handbags, watches, women’s shoes and luggage.

Macy’s will continue to experiment with new ways of re-imagining its stores to drum up sales. It is piloting a new way of merchandising its upscale jewelry, and will start a similar pilot with its shoe department in the fall. It has recently seen success with a test in which it moved all clearance items to a central location in the stores instead of scattering them throughout departments. This set-up is to be rolled out more widely across the store fleet in coming months.

Macy’s is also adding Bluemercury shop-in-shops to its department stores and is speeding up its expansion of standalone locations of the beauty chain.

2 + 2 = 5

Well that would be Banker math but in real math that is unequal.  Let’s see what the news this week covers with regards to the Economy.

Well we have this headline:   Jobs and Price Data May Signal End to Fed Stimulus

And we have this: Grim Picture of Recovery in Forecasts by Retailers

Or we have this:   Cisco Plans to Cut 4000 Jobs, as it posts profit gain

And today we have this: For the Dow, the Week Goes from Bad to Worse

So we have it on all ends of the spectrum – the rich and the poors and the one’s in between.  So we have an economy in recovery? For whom?  The second the Riches are affected watch the Fed step up to rescue the ‘poor’ Bankers.

Meanwhile all aspects of Retail are hurting, those WalMart Shoppers to Macy’s and then even Nordstrom! What you say people aren’t shopping?

The only good news was watching another corrupt hedge fund fall to pieces.   I wonder if Steve Cohen is regretting those manse and art purchases?  I bet he and John Corazine have interesting conversations.  Well on second thought, no fly on that wall thanks.

But I will say that being laid off in Japan you aren’t. Instead you are sent to the Boredom room. I wonder if that has free coffee or tea, whatever.  Seriously I would like ours rubber walled so we can systemically smash our heads against it.

 We have a problem in this Nation with regards to the truth. The truth is we are fucked without dinner.  Paul Krugman does a better job trying to explain why we seem to be the Nation’s bitches, accepting lies big or white, while dinner cools on the table.   I call them weapons of mass distraction.  But you might think different if you don’t know the truth.   Mama, daddy has a girlfriend.

Moment of Truthiness

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: August 15,2013

We all know how democracy is supposed to work. Politicians are supposed to campaign on the issues, and an informed public is supposed to cast its votes based on those issues, with some allowance for the politicians’ perceived character and competence.

We also all know that the reality falls far short of the ideal. Voters are often misinformed, and politicians aren’t reliably truthful. Still, we like to imagine that voters generally get it right in the end, and that politicians are eventually held accountable for what they do.
But is even this modified, more realistic vision of democracy in action still relevant? Or has our political system been so degraded by misinformation and disinformation that it can no longer function?
Well, consider the case of the budget deficit — an issue that dominated Washington discussion for almost three years, although it has recently receded.

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that voters are poorly informed about the deficit. But you may be surprised by just how misinformed.

In a well-known paper with a discouraging title, “It Feels Like We’re Thinking,” the political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels reported on a 1996 survey that asked voters whether the budget deficit had increased or decreased under President Clinton. In fact, the deficit was down sharply, but a plurality of voters — and a majority of Republicans — believed that it had gone up.

I wondered on my blog what a similar survey would show today, with the deficit falling even faster than it did in the 1990s. Ask and ye shall receive: Hal Varian, the chief economist of Google, offered to run a Google Consumer Survey — a service the company normally sells to market researchers — on the question. So we asked whether the deficit has gone up or down since January 2010. And the results were even worse than in 1996: A majority of those who replied said the deficit has gone up, with more than 40 percent saying that it has gone up a lot. Only 12 percent answered correctly that it has gone down a lot.

Am I saying that voters are stupid? Not at all. People have lives, jobs, children to raise. They’re not going to sit down with Congressional Budget Office reports. Instead, they rely on what they hear from authority figures. The problem is that much of what they hear is misleading if not outright false.

The outright falsehoods, you won’t be surprised to learn, tend to be politically motivated. In those 1996 data, Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to hold false views about the deficit, and the same must surely be true today. After all, Republicans made a lot of political hay over a supposedly runaway deficit early in the Obama administration, and they have maintained the same rhetoric even as the deficit has plunged. Thus Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, declared on Fox News that we have a “growing deficit,” while Senator Rand Paul told Bloomberg Businessweek that we’re running “a trillion-dollar deficit every year.”

Do people like Mr. Cantor or Mr. Paul know that what they’re saying isn’t true? Do they care? Probably not. In Stephen Colbert’s famous formulation, claims about runaway deficits may not be true, but they have truthiness, and that’s all that matters.

Still, aren’t there umpires for this sort of thing — trusted, nonpartisan authorities who can and will call out purveyors of falsehood? Once upon a time, I think, there were. But these days the partisan divide runs very deep, and even those who try to play umpire seem afraid to call out falsehood. Incredibly, the fact-checking site PolitiFact rated Mr. Cantor’s flatly false statement as “half true.”

Now, Washington still does have some “wise men,” people who are treated with special deference by the news media. But when it comes to the issue of the deficit, the supposed wise men turn out to be part of the problem. People like Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairmen of President Obama’s deficit commission, did a lot to feed public anxiety about the deficit when it was high. Their report was ominously titled “The Moment of Truth.” So have they changed their tune as the deficit has come down? No — so it’s no surprise that the narrative of runaway deficits remains even though the budget reality has completely changed.

Put it all together, and it’s a discouraging picture. We have an ill-informed or misinformed electorate, politicians who gleefully add to the misinformation and watchdogs who are afraid to bark. And to the extent that there are widely respected, not-too-partisan players, they seem to be fostering, not fixing, the public’s false impressions.

So what should we be doing? Keep pounding away at the truth, I guess, and hope it breaks through. But it’s hard not to wonder how this system is supposed to work.