I think I know why one of these stores is on this deathwatch list...

[jaderabbit]

Forgive the lame link, but this is where I found the story about major chain stores expected to close down many--possibly all--stores.

This is interesting to me because I was just in #1-Least-Likely-to-Succeed, aka Sears, the other day. Having suffered through a few seasons of really cruddy kids' clothes that couldn't stand up to washing, I decided

Comments

[cynodd]

Huh? Lands' End and Sears are related? I think the reason Sears is going down is they affiliated with people who don't know how to use apostrophes, and flaunt it unapologetically

P.S.

[cynodd]

Time Magazine had a really scathing article on Bennigan's demise this week in their "The Moment" column: "Americans who want to peruse oversize menus for oversize portions of unremarkable food in unremarkable settings may soon have to check out Applebee's or Chili's. Or Ruby Tuesday or T.G.I. Friday's. Or the scores of other family-style restaurants serving deep-fried mozzarella sticks beneath hypnotically rotating ceiling fans."

Funny enough to forgive the sentence fragment. (You see, I'm gearing up for the Freshman comp.) :)

Article here.

[jaderabbit]

I love Cost Plus, too. I'm sad to think of it doing poorly. I've never been a big Pier 1 fan; the last few times I was there, it was pretty much Wicker Hell.

I don't really know what the relationship between Lands' End and Sears is. Maybe someone else will provide the answer in the comments.

[just_the_ash]

Boscov's, an East Coast department store chain (where my dad's mother shopped for literally decades, and got everything from eyeglasses to a fridge), just announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy. If the chain goes under, this will hurt jobs in rural Pennsylvania and up into New York State a bit -- not exactly the area that can stand job losses. Reading, PA, for example, already has a raging heroin and meth problem.

Cutting their nose to spite their face.

[drj0402]

It reminds me of the Marshall Fields in Oak Park, IL where everyone went to return stuff they bought in Oak Brook, IL.

And that was the late eighties.

I always thought Pier One was too expensive and never had the things that appealed to me. There's a Tuesday Morning in the Hollywood District of Portland, OR where we bought some wash clothes for cheap, but it's not a place I go to seek out stuff. I would miss Cost Plus World Market if it went away.

Re: Cutting their nose to spite their face.

[jaderabbit]

Yeah, Tuesday Morning is kind of a stroll-through impulse buy place. I've bought a few things there that I really like--and they're great for gift wrap and bags--but mostly I think it's where folks go to buy presents for teachers and the like.

[randomlinenoise]

I'll admit, I don't go to most of these places.

Cost plus is one of those stores I like to wander through, since they usually have interesting stuff. It's generally not stuff I need, though.

[clair_de_lalune]

I never really go to any of those stores, though the only ones I actively boycott are Circuit City and Blockbuster.

Recently, Sears was the only place I could get my watch battery changed. The store where I bought the watch wouldn't touch it because it was too expensive and they didn't want to be liable for damage - they wanted to send it to the manufacturer to have the battery changed, but wouldn't do it without my receipt. As if I would keep the receipt for 4 years and know where it was! *eye roll*

[jaderabbit]

Why do you boycott Blockbuster? I stopped using them after realizing I was seeing an edited movie that wasn't marked as edited. It made me mad that they did that and didn't even tell us.

[clair_de_lalune]

I got really irritated with Blockbuster a few years ago after they instituted their "no late fee" policy. I got really busy at work and didn't have time to watch or return a video I'd rented in a timely manner. They sent me a notice saying that, although there was no late fee, I needed to return the video by a certain date or they'd charge me for the cost of the video plus some kind of restocking fee. So, I watched the video and returned it just before midnight on the date specified

[jaderabbit]

Wow. I'd love to see their nonexistent surveillance camera footage of you deliberately dropping it off a day late. That's really obnoxious of them.