Contact Information: Contact: Rachel Friedman rachel@newsandexperts.com
LONG BEACH, CA--(Marketwire - March 11, 2009) - CLOSED. It's more than just a sign on a door
-- it's a sign of the times.
The current recession is claiming more victims, and they aren't just mom
and pop retailers -- they are big national chains who are shuttering
thousands of locations, according to a new list of troubled retailers
recently released by Forbes Magazine.
You know the names -- Eddie Bauer, Lane Bryant, Zales -- and there are many
more. Their demise didn't start with the recession, however, according to
Darlene Quinn, a former senior executive with the Bullocks Wilshire
department store chain and author of the novel "Webs of Power," from
Emerald Book Company (www.darlenequinn.net). Quinn was there when corporate
raiders started consolidating the big chain stores and siphoning them dry.
Quinn has a unique insight to how the industry has found itself sitting on
the ledge, looking down.
"Many of our favorite department stores are vanishing," Quinn said. "While
the predatory, corporate raiders got the ball rolling through hostile
takeovers in the '80s, we are all, in part, responsible for their demise."
Having announced 11 store closings, Macy's, one of the country's most
beloved department stores, is in trouble. Still, Quinn has high hopes for
the chain.
"I think personally that they will lose a lot of stores, but I think in the
end, they will survive," Quinn said. "Typically, in a downturn, big chains
close down underperforming stores, like what Macy's is doing, so they seem
to be on course."
A wave of leveraged buyouts in the retail sector in the 1980s led to a
great number of popular chains being owned by a smaller number of
conglomerates and holding companies, Quinn added.
"The buyouts allowed corporate raiders to swoop down on businesses (many of
which they knew little or nothing about) purchase them, using mostly Other
People's Money and drive them into chapter 11," she said. "In many cases,
the raiders cared little about the businesses they were taking over. The
goal was not to grow these businesses; the goal was to line their own
pockets."
About Darlene Quinn
Darlene Quinn is an author and journalist. As part of a nine-member
management team for the Bullocks Wilshire Specialty Department stores,
Quinn has the insider's perspective on the rise and fall of major
department stores.