Looks like a lot of people are going to be jobless. We are on the road to hell.

Some of this can also be seen as a, playing Devil's Advocate, market correction due to over-saturation (I'm thinking specifically in this case with BestBuy). Where I live I have three, that I know of, BestBuys that I can drive to with only a couple minutes difference in time spent on the road. They're all three different sizes, with different pluses and minuses.

One of them, the Pflugerville store, I have never, even on Christmas, ever seen it busy. It's in a prime location as well with easy access from either surface streets or Austin's two major toll roads (literally at their intersection). I'd taken to calling it my "private BestBuy" because I've never had to wait in line, never felt crowded and sometimes wondered if it was even open by how few cars have historically been in the lot, during the week, on the weekend or during a holiday. It's one of the smaller stores though so their selection is sometimes lacking.

Just a couple minutes away is a Round Rock BestBuy which is always, when I've been there, at a "normal" level of foot traffic. It's also at a similarly easy to find, easy access location but bigger. Consequently it's also dirtier, more crowded and more everything else you'd come to expect from a busy retailer.

Book stores have been getting the shit kicked out of them by online since the invention of Amazon. Harder economic times only magnify the impact of online sales. They've been dying a slow death like BlockBuster but the poison was administered a long time ago. The arbitrary fluctuation of the market and economy, which is based on perception and not reality, only serves to hasten their demise or return it to its normal rate of decay but it's sorta just a matter of waiting for the final flat line now :(

Similarly, I can think of three GameStops, at least, all within minutes of each other. At some point you have to kind of wonder if, at the time each franchise was set up, was one more, this close to another, really needed? Is living in a never-ending web of strip malls indicative of a healthy economy (not to mention, culture)?

Service economies come with a sell-by-date.

I don't want anyone to lose their job or have a harder time. But retail is living the life of a pawn, the piece on the board with the least amount of security.

edit: I don't understand how people think the retail sector, houses, etc. can just keep expanding and expanding indefinitely. The houses in LA are a prime example. At a certain point people are realizing they're being asked to pay a million dollars for an absolute piece of crap. They all pretended like there was no place to go but up but, really, we would need an endless supply of stupid millionaires content to live in houses and neighborhoods other parts of the country might consider "the ghetto."

Radio Shack makes me sad. They are everywhere and VERY necessary in a production pinch on the road...

Of course, every time I go into one, I end up waiting forever as someone is getting satellite tv or a new phone and service plan. Neither of which, are big profit makers for them.

@jfilmmaker

Issue here is not taxes, but consumer credit. Whole system lived on consumer credit, money people never had.

If you can wait a little, why drive to the store only to pay more for the same thing and with sales tax?

One of the reasons can be to get your goods at the place who is made to make profit selling goods, not to run in constant minus. like Amazon. Problem with biggest online US retailers is that as soon as free money float from banks and investors will stip whole construction will crash.

Haha. Online sales tax coming soon!!!

Can you elaborate on your VAT remark, as for sales tax it exist in many states already.

Problem with biggest online US retailers is that as soon as free money float from banks and investors will stip whole construction will crash.

Not sure I follow what you mean. They are being as competitive as they can given the current market. Not sure how this makes them crash. When interest rates increase they increase for everybody, net and brick & mortar.

As to VAT, yes I am all for dismantling the IRS and going with a federal sales tax. The tax laws are riddled with loopholes given out as political favors. That's part of the reason that effort can't get any traction is because its one of the most powerful tools a politician has.

Imagine you have a bar or any business with a cash register. You go into the cash register at the end of the day and pull out a few hundred for yourself. There is a lot of unreported income out there without even mentioning illegal income. If your income is documented and above board you end up paying the difference. I am not suggesting that govt is efficient or doesn't need to be reduced, just that the means of collecting revenue is not applied equally.

Nope, biggest online retailers work in deep minus if you cound real consumer goods. They get free money from banks and investors to finance deficits.

What free money do they get from banks that brick and mortar business's cant get?

So iTunes will crash and people will start buying CD's again? Personally i would like to see that but I'm not holding my breath. There are many products that will never go back to brick and mortar. Blockbuster Video rentals comes to mind.

What free money do they get from banks that brick and mortar business's cant get?

Keep level of discussion, here it is not flame place.
I am referring to actual financial results and money this guys actually get.
I am almost sure if you make research of B&M stores, you'll find that they also used big piles on money to cover their holes.

Some retrospective of 2012:

76 USA Drug / Super D / Drug Warehouse / May's / Med-X

14 United Carpets

60 SuperValu (Albertson's / ACME / Save-A-Lot)

25 Sonic

172 Sears

24 Ruby Tuesday (Marlin & Ray’s, Wok Hay, Truffles Grill, Lime Fresh)

137 Ritz Camera & Image / Wolf Camera

120 Pacific Sunwear

25 Lane Bryant

600 Fashion Bug

113 Food Lion

12 Fred's

100 The Gap

93 Esprit

100 Family Dollar

30 Coldwater Creek

123 Collective Brands

500 Blockbuster

180 Abercrombie & Fitch

96 Avenue

I am wondering when China will step in to stem the rot. May be when their dollar surplus reach 10 trillion :)

Barring B&N and Gamestop (edit: may be only to an extent of software), it is all China's loss ;)

@DouglasHorn

Most of this things is not about social shifts, but about of less actual income and higher costs required to run shops.

Perhaps you are right. I think both factors are significant.

Socials shifts you are referring to is just attempt by elites to decrease impact of energy deficit. It won't work in the end, in fact, it will make things much worse. But right now they thing it can buy some time.