Retailers Hit The Skids

It turns out things are tough all over. Several major retailers, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Restoration Hardware, abercrombie & fitch, and Blockbuster are closing stores around the US. American Apparel is dangerously close to implosion - or at least bankruptcy - aside from the fact that the CEO, Dov Charney seems like a creep (find article here). In fact, the company's auditor, Deloitte and Touche, dropped American Apparel after finding "material weaknesses" in the company's financial practices.

Not to be an ambulance chaser, vulture or anything distasteful, really, we shoppers can take advantage of savings at the locations that are closing soon. Restoration Hardware is closing many stores, including downtown Seattle and in a mall located near Boulder, due to corporate downsizing. I have a theory as to why the company is downsizing. After luring Gary G. Friedman away from Pottery Barn and crowning him Co-CEO, he took the company in a direction á la PB but at a much higher mark-up. I think consumers rejected the strategy because PB offered similar merchandise at lower prices. Frankly, I miss the original Restoration Hardware full of period light fixtures, and you guessed it, furniture hardware.

The Boulder location is scheduled to close in late January having already reduced everything in the store by 40% before the holidays. I'm waiting for prices to come down a bit further. I've got my eye on some accessories and possibly, floor furniture/art samples.

It's a bit sade, but retailers come and go, a brutal consequence of a "free" market.