Originally Posted by Rmay635703
...3. There is far too much retail and restaurants in general for the population and income levels, government backed loans have encouraged uneccesary building of hotels and retail space that no one needs or uses leading to inevitable decay and foreclosure....
^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the biggest reason. Not one or 2 individuals at the top. Too many stores. Just in my area I have at least 4 Home Depot's and 3 Lowe's stores all within 15 minutes of my house. Much the same with K-Mart / Wal-Mart. And now most every Wal-Mart you see has been transformed into a, "Supercenter". There are 5 huge outdoor sports superstores, (3 Sportsman's Warehouses, a Cabela's, and a Bass Pro Shop). All within 25 minutes of each other.
Every time I go into the closest Sportsman's Warehouse by me, the place is empty. Every time. Weekday or weekend, it doesn't matter. The only time I ever see anyone at the gun counter writing up a sale, is when I buy one. It doesn't matter how much merchandise you put, "On Sale", when there are few if any sales. They have millions in inventory, and the place costs a fortune to cool 6 months out of the year. That store will close. It's only a matter of time. As nice as it is, and as much as I enjoy shopping there, that store never should have been built in the first place.
Many of these big box retailers have simply over built. That, combined with at home Internet shopping provided by Amazon, Wayfair, and many others, are slowly bleeding them to death. Add to that personal spendable income is constantly being reduced. By the ever increasing cost of major necessities such as health care and college. And it's become a doomsday scenario for many of these type of large, overbuilt retailers.
It wasn't that long ago we were awash with electronic superstores. 2 of the biggest, (Comp USA and Circuit City), are long gone. And the 2 Best Buy's near me are always in the same condition as Sportsman's Warehouse when I go in....... Empty. Same with Office Depot and Office Max. Both of which recently merged to stop the financial bleeding they were both experiencing. Sears is going to have a lot of company in the upcoming next few years.