Michael Snyder<\/p>\n
Barack Obama recently stated that anyone that is claiming that America\u2019s economy is in decline is \u201cpeddling fiction<\/a>\u201c.\u00a0 Well, if the economy is in such great shape, why are major retailers shutting down hundreds of stores all over the country?\u00a0 Last month, I wrote about the \u201cretail apocalypse<\/a>\u201d that is sweeping the nation, but since then it has gotten even worse.\u00a0 Closing stores has become the \u201chot new trend\u201d in the retail world, and \u201cspace available\u201d signs are going up in mall windows all over the United States.\u00a0 Barack Obama can continue huffing and puffing about how well the middle class is doing all he wants, but the truth is that the cold, hard numbers that retailers are reporting tell an entirely different story.<\/p>\n Earlier today, Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert released a letter to shareholders that was filled with all kinds of bad news.\u00a0 In this letter, he blamed the horrible results that Sears has been experiencing lately on\u00a0\u201ctectonic shifts\u201d in consumer spending<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Lampert said the impact of \u201ctectonic shifts\u201d in consumer spending has spread more broadly in the last year to retailers \u201cthat had previously proven to be relatively immune to such shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWalmart, Nordstrom, Macy\u2019s, Staples, Whole Foods and many others have felt the impact of disruptive changes from online competition and new business models,\u201d Lampert wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it is very true \u2013 Sears is doing horribly, but they are far from alone.\u00a0 The following are 13 major retailers that are closing down stores\u2026<\/p>\n #1<\/strong> Sears lost 580 million dollars<\/a> in the fourth quarter of 2015 alone, and they are scheduled to close at least 50 more \u201cunprofitable stores<\/a>\u201d by the end of this year.<\/p>\n #2<\/strong> It is being reported that Sports Authority will file for bankruptcy in March<\/a>.\u00a0 Some news reports have indicated that around 200 stores may close, but at this point it is not known how many of their 450 stores will be able to stay open.<\/p>\n #3<\/strong> For decades, Kohl\u2019s has been growing aggressively, but now it plans to shutter 18 stores<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n #4<\/strong> Target has just finished closing 13 stores<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n #5<\/strong> Best Buy closed 30 stores<\/a> last year, and it says that more store closings are likely in the months to come.<\/p>\n #6<\/strong> Office Depot plans to close a total of 400 stores<\/a> by the end of 2016.<\/p>\n The next seven examples come from one of my previous articles<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n #7<\/strong> Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores<\/a>, including 154<\/a> inside the United States.<\/p>\n #8<\/strong> K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores<\/a> over the next several months.<\/p>\n #9<\/strong> J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores<\/a> after closing a total of 40 stores<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n #10<\/strong> Macy\u2019s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores<\/a> and lay off approximately 2,500 employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n #11<\/strong> The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores<\/a> in North America.<\/p>\n #12<\/strong> Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores<\/a> all across America.<\/p>\n #13<\/strong> Finish Line has announced that 150 stores<\/a> will be shutting down over the next few years.<\/p>\n These store closings can be particularly cruel for small towns.\u00a0 Just consider the impact that Wal-Mart has had on the little town of\u00a0Oriental, North Carolina<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n The Town\u2019n Country grocery in Oriental, North Carolina, a local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors in October after a Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three months later \u2014 and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived \u2014 the retail giant is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery store and no pharmacy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Though mom-and-pop stores have steadily disappeared across the American landscape over the past three decades as the mega chain methodically expanded, there was at least always a Wal-Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts are disappearing, too<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course there are many factors involved in this ongoing retail apocalypse.\u00a0 Competition from online retailers is becoming more intense, and consumer spending patterns are rapidly changing.<\/p>\n But in the end, the truth is that you can\u2019t get blood out of a rock.\u00a0 The middle class in America is shrinking<\/a>, and there just isn\u2019t as much discretionary spending going on as there used to be.<\/p>\n And now that we have entered a new economic downturn<\/a>, many retailers are finding that there are some local communities that can no longer support their stores.\u00a0 The following comes\u00a0from CNBC<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n Though the shift to online shopping is no doubt playing a role in lighter foot traffic at malls, there\u2019s more to their changing economics than the rise of Amazon<\/a>. Changing demographics in a town are another reason a shopping center could struggle or fail \u2014 for example, if massive layoffs in a particular industry cause people to move away to find employment.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people want to try and tie it to the Internet or \u2018that\u2019s not cool,\u2019 or teens don\u2019t like it,\u201d Jesse Tron, a spokesman for industry trade group International Council of Shopping Centers, told CNBC last year<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to support large-format retail in those suburban areas when people are trying to just pay their mortgage<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In order to have a thriving middle class, we need good paying middle class jobs.\u00a0 Unfortunately, our economy has been bleeding those kinds of jobs quite rapidly.\u00a0 For example, Halliburton just announced that it is eliminating\u00a05,000 more jobs<\/a> after getting rid of 4,000 workers at the end of last year.<\/p>\n During the Obama years, good paying middle class jobs have been getting replaced by low paying service jobs.\u00a0 At this point, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n And there is no way that you can support a middle class family with children on $30,000 a year.<\/p>\n