Are we going to have to bailout Macy's, JC Penny's, and Target next?

[thewiseguy]

I was looking at the stock prices for those companies and they seem to be in big trouble, particularly Macy's...

On the other hand, Family Dollar Stores is the only retail store whose stock prices have been trading sharply higher this year!

So how much of a bailout are we talking about when it comes to the NEXT big 3?

[Idealism]

1. Does the 'next big 3' have 8% of our workforce relying on it for a job?

[dflprincess]

2. I can't quite understand why Target is in trouble

they did make a smaller profit that they had expected and smaller than last quarter - but they made a profit. I would think in this economy any profit would be a good thing - even if it means the share dividend is smaller than what they thought it would be.

[thewiseguy]

3. Target's shares fell more than 10% today

Which was worse than what GM did.

Their stock prices have fallen from 60 dollars to 26 dollars within the past two months.

[dflprincess]

6. I believe it was yesterday they announced their earnings

but, as I said, they're still in the black which should be a good thing. You'd think that a company's profit/loss statement would say more about the health of a company than it's share price.

[Touchdown]

4. Let Macy's die. I still owe $300 on their credit card.

:evilgrin:

[Double T]

5. A ZILLION DOLLARS!

Let's bailout the entire world.

[sjdnb]

7. I'd rather spend $25b to retain US mfg jobs vs

$700b protecting Wall Street and the greedy who preyed upon the mortgage markets.

[LSdemocrat]

8. Macy's made some really boneheaded decisions when they bought May a few years ago

They just simply assumed that shoppers who had never had a Macy's in their area already knew and liked their brand while replacing stores that had a mid-market reputation and prices with Macy's stores that were decidedly more upmarket, at least in terms of price. They also, for a time, eliminated coupons that had traditionally brought May's customers into the stores, where they would proceed to buy other things.

Naturally the traditional customers balked, and their intended upscale audience already shopped at other upmarket retailers in their new areas, so sales started tanking at their "new" Macy's stores even faster then they did under the "struggling" May management. So now the whole company is now worth less than Macy's purchase price of May.

As a formerly loyal May customer, I say good riddance to Macy's.

[Berry Cool]

9. They really underestimated people's loyalty to their local department stores, too.

People who have grown up in a town and lived there all their lives develop an emotional attachment to the department stores there. Department stores (and even discount stores) used to be very local or small-regional, and people came to know their area's chains and each one seemed to have a distinct personality. That started to die in the '80s when Campeau began buying up everything, and now we've come to the point where all our large-store retail is pretty much nationalized. Now it's like everything is Wal-Mart, Target and Macy's.

People have not been happy that Macy's came along and bought out their old department store they grew up with and took the name off it and plastered "Macy's" all over it. It's the reason Macy's has been advertising lately using clips of old movies where Macy's is mentioned (such as "Miracle on 34th Street") and of the Thanksgiving Parade. They want to get the whole country feeling as sentimental and old-timey traditionalist about Macy's as New Yorkers do. Only it's unlikely to work because the Macy's that took over your local downtown department store has stolen a chunk of your past from you, and the Macy's branch down at the mall, well, there's not much of a feeling of tradition there anyway. Besides. you already did your crying when Kauffmann's bought your local chain out in the '90s.

[susanna]

11. Excellent points.

In Detroit, we were Hudson's (big sentimental favorite)...then we were Marshall Field's (OK, they at least were out of Chicago, another midwestern enclave)...and now we are Macy's?!

Added to that, Michigan is fast going down the drainpipe. So it isn't like we have boatloads of cash we can spend at a NY store "dumbed down" for the midwest. But marketing folks are king, they've got it all figured out, dontcha know?


on edit: clarification

[Berry Cool]

12. Cleveland lost its stores a long time ago.

Sterling Lindner was one of the first to go...so long ago I don't even remember them...Linda McCartney's mother was a Lindner, as it so happens...then later we lost Halle Bros. (for which Halle Berry was named) and after that Higbee's and the May Company to stores like Dillard's and Kauffmann's. Eventually everything became a Kauffmann's and then they all got bought out by Macy's...

I saw the stores in Rochester, New York die too when I lived there. They used to have Sibley's, McCurdy's and B. Forman. All gone now.

[susanna]

13. Well, I know any loyalty I felt died with Hudson's.

I go to Macy's occasionally for a kitchenware item, but find it too different from my former store. I just don't like it. Is it the same for you in Cleveland?

[JNelson6563]

10. Well let's see

Retailers who import most of their goods and provide shitty jobs compared to manufacturers who create goods and provide jobs to smaller companies who manufacture parts as well as those who assemble all the parts. Oh and most of those workers are organized.

Yeah, that's a fair and balanced comparison. Any other brilliant insights on this nightmare that will ruin the lives of countless hard-working, far-from-rich Americans?

Julie

[dysfunctional press]

15. large retailers have suppliers and service companies as well...

it may not be an as expansive or solely-dedicated network- but there will still be lots of ramifications and ripples across the economy when major retailers start going belly-up.

not to say that i support a bailout for them as i do for automakers- just pointing out their effect as well.

[amandabeech]

17. I live in the DC area now, and I miss Hecht's.

We already had Macy's and I found more stuff that I liked at Hecht's.

Back home in W. Michigan, I miss Steketee's and Herpolshimer's.

Now that's dating me!

Sometimes I drive up to Pennsylvaia to go to Boscov's and another department store whose name slips my mind at this hour. They carry lines that Macy's doesn't, and that suit a less-than-trendy middle-ager.

[Neshanic]

14. Come mid-January there will be a whole slew of stores going belly up.

[Zhade]

16. Just wait until WALMART demands a bailout.

NT!