Plagued Retail: View from the Trenches

[Warpy]

1. Retail was on the ropes before this started

with strip malls around here sporting lots of empty store fronts.

Part of the reason is the number of chains taken over by vulture capitalism that then bled them dry. Another factor is the relative ease of online shopping for things like electronics and small appliances. The biggest factor is the decline in the purchasing power of wages over the last 20 years. People just don't have money enough to go recreational shopping, that's the main thing driving the collapse of the indoor shopping mall.

Now that people who have been out of work for 2-3 months are having to play catch-up on bills like car and credit card payments, that process is only going to accelerate. There is no seed money out there for entrepreneurs to take their places.

With the death of all but the big box stores, the jobs of last resort will go too.

I don't think the Republicans have any idea about what's going to hit them in the next 6 months as they try to prop up the stock market in the face of a collapsed economy.