Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Retail Apocalypse is Real

Episode Date: May 9, 2015

Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeff at twitter.com/JeffyMRA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. So anyway, the U.S. economy, they keep telling us it's improving, improving, improving. Yes, it's wonderful. And actually, where I live here in Texas, it sure seems that way. This is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. This particular area, Dallas and Tarrant and I think there's another county in there, too, Denton, maybe. I'm not sure which one, are some of the fastest growing counties in America. and then Dallas and then Texas alone, you know, been on fire for a number of years.

And so it's hard to see. You can get a glimpse of how things are struggling with some of the businesses, but things are really still booming here in Texas. But when you go outside of Texas and you realize, wow, you know, it's not really that good. And if you look closely, it isn't. And when you think about all, you think about all, you know, it's not. the U.S. retailers, and you hear the news a little at a time, it leaks out, you know, this place is closing, you know, 30 stores. And we hear that some of the else is closing, you know, maybe 20 stories.

It's 20 stores. Or they're looking at restructuring and they're going to be closing, you know, 150 stores. Well, that stuff adds up. And you're looking at, I think now we're looking at over 6,000 retail locations are closed. closing. I mean, that's amazing. Amazing. Now, a list compiled by About.com, they have a list here of the businesses, brick and mortar businesses that are closing at least 10 stores, and I'll give you the time within the next two years. And it looks like most of these are this year and next.

It's unbelievable. And when you think, well, you know, maybe we're struggling on the internet, yeah, sure, I'll give you that. I'll give you that, you know, a lot of places are trying to catch up to the internet purchases that we're all doing and maybe trying to see that, you know, if we, you know, reallocate some funds toward this direction, that it will, you know, We'll add to the company's bottom line. But think about all these shops and all the people that are going to be affected and it's affecting from everything, from cleaners to tile makers to air conditioning companies.

I mean, everybody is affected. And right now, with this great economy that we all live in that's been created, the last. six years from our president in this administration, you'd think that this is not going on. Well, by gosh, it is. Think of this, Abercrombie and Fitch, closing 180 stores. Aristotle, 75 stores. American Eagle outfitters.

American Eagle outfitters are 150 stores. Barnes and Noble, 223 stores. Now, this is through, like, the next seven or eight years. And Barnes and Noble, you say, are they still exist? They do. And they've actually, you know, restructured a little bit to help them. Their stores that are open are really big and new and modern, and they do a lot of business. And the, you know, the older style stores because, you know, the Internet has affected Barnes & Noble's business a lot.

And I'm hoping that they handled it well. Bottom dollar food, 66 stores. Build a bear. 25 stores. Sea Wonder, 32, Cash, 21, 120. Chico's through 2017 200 children's place

Wow 17 Christopher and Banks 70 coach 70 Cocoa caros Some of these stores You may I don't even know What those stars are Well they might not be in your neck of the woods

But they are Some of these are small businesses Right? I mean you think Those are the people The one percenters Yeah And they've got

You know 100 stores And they're closing 70 of them That's not good Debs shops, 300 Debs shops. 92 DeLah is $340. $340-4-340-family-dollar stores. Now there's a store that's a strange because you think that's a good name,

a dollar, but they trick you. It's not the everything's a dollar store. It's just the name of the store. They trick you to get in there. They're closing 340 stores. Einstein Brothers Bagels. Einstein Bagels, 39 stores, 50 Express, Fredericks of Hollywood, 31.

I'm sure they have a very booming internet business, however. Fresh and easy grocery stores, 50 stores, friendlies, 14, 65 future shops, which is Best Buy in Canada. Golf Galaxy, 54, gas, 50, 26 Jim Burries, 40, 40, 40 JCPenys, 40 JCPenny's. amazing man that guy when they restructured j c penny and they brought in the guy it was man four or five years ago

and because I was working in new york at the time so it's been four years ago five years ago now they decided to change j c penny they brought in this new CEO and they said jacc penny needs to change

and they were actually doing pretty good business i think and they may have been struggling a little bit. But I think that they were still holding strong on who they were and doing business. And they had sales and discounts. And they were, you know, marking down and had some big ads and stuff. And he decided that that needed to go away. And it was reported as J.C. Penny gets rid of discounts.

Well, what he was trying to say is that what he was trying to say was that, you know, we're getting rid of discounts because our prices are going to be. better and we don't need the discounts but the way it was reported was that we're getting rid of discounts and they took a dive and I remember in New York if you take the subway to a number of places and there are different ways that you can come up to get up to the street level and if it's raining out you may want to take another way especially like in the winter when it's cold and it's snowing or if it's raining in the city you can take a couple different ways and you come up through the mall in Manhattan when you come into,

when you come into Grand Central, but when you come into Penn Station, you can come up and walk through a couple of tunnels and then come up through the Manhattan Mall. So you don't have to go outside until you get close to where you have to be. It's New York living. And so you cut through the mall. And I remember cutting through. And one of the ways that you cut through was through a JC Penny. and they had like, I don't know, two or three floors there in the Manhattan Mall. So you come out of the subway and you hit the one floor and you pop up to the second floor.

And then you cut out back into the mall and back into the street. But I remember that when they first did that, that place you could see that there was no discount signs and it looked nice and everything's backed up. But, man, it did not look that busy. and so they've really been struggling since then. And they really, I like JCPenney. At least I used to. 127 Jones, New York outlets. Just baked Macy's Ford.

Office depots, 400 office depots. Yeah, I mean, sorry to see them go. Goodbye. Pep Boys. Wow. 100 peer ones. Radio Shack down. Close.

They were based here. in Dallas, in the Dallas, Texas. Gone. Have a nice day. Ruby Tuesdays. You know why Ruby Tuesday's closing? 13 Ruby Tuesdays? Because they don't have Heinz ketchup.

77 Sears stores. I can't tell you the last time I was in a Sears. I don't know why that is. Sporting Nash grocery stores. Staples. Oh my gosh. Staples. Who hasn't been to a Staples or an Office Depot?

They're closing 55 more stores. Tiger 200 Walgreens by 2017. Now let me ask you a question. In your area, in your local area, when you drive around, what do you see on almost every damn street corner in America, a Walgreens or a CVS? It's amazing. Now, when they were doing that,

when they were going across the country in your local neighborhood, And seeing that, hey, let's put a Walgreens here. And let's put a Walgreens here. And let's put a CVS here. Did they, obviously they didn't stop and think, you know, maybe, maybe we don't need to have that many. Maybe we don't. Now, I will admit, it's nice having them around. They only have, you know, there's only several in, there's only several in your local area that are 24 hours.

you know, 24-7, business, pharmacy, all of it. The rest are, you know, pretty scheduled out. And many of those stores are much better than others. And actually, I prefer Walgreens over the CBS. The CBS thinks they're so highfalutin. I think they're so highfalutin with their, we're not going to sell cigarettes. Okay, fine, CBS, be that way.

Now, amazingly, I still go in them. and I have spent money there since I got mad at them. But, you know, it doesn't mean I have, they're just so highfalute. It doesn't mean I have to like it. But there's so many Walgreens. I mean, I get that they have to close some. My gosh. I mean, the saturation point has got to be there.

Now, I will give you a million dollar idea. I've had this idea for a while now. And I think it's a tremendous idea. Once again, from me to you, a million dollar idea. Take it. When I see it, I'll be mad, but then I'll realize, hey, it was from my heart that you took the idea and made a fortune. I think a tremendous thing to do. It would be great fun.

It would be huge. The kids, those young folks, would love it, okay? In your local area, would love it. It would get press. You would do great business, and it would be fun. take one of those old stores, and now you've got some Walgreens closing down, but there's plenty of old CVS stores that open and closed, and some of them are Walgreens.

And you could tell the difference, obviously, the way their buildings are built. And I like the CVS buildings better for this idea than the Walgreens, just the way it's laid out, the way that they built the buildings with some of the CVS is built with less windows than the Walgreens. So when you look at the front of it, The front of it's kind of windowed up with the front,

but the sides are usually not so many windows. It's usually just the brick stores and stuff. So I say turn them into a nightclub and call it the pharmacy. That place would be packed. It's a great building for it. It's good size. Not too big, not too small. Plenty of dance room.

Plenty of room for bringing a band. The band could play, you know, Put them on a stage and you call it whatever you want to call it. Call it the drive-through, call it the band through, whatever. And, you know, the pharmacy. I think it would be huge. I know what you're thinking right now. Why didn't I think of that?

Well, that's what I'm here for. Okay. So you're welcome. Take it, go with it. So all these companies are closing. Stride rights, Wolverine, wide, stride rights are closing a bunch of stores. Oh, my gosh. Thousands of stores are closing.

According to this, what we find, this report, okay, most families are just scrapping by financially for month to month, and I probably certainly don't have to tell you that. And I'm pretty sure that's even true here in Texas, even though I saw Pier O'Pelka sent me a tweet talking about Texas and jobs. and he's used a, he gave me a chart where he used, I guess it's blue and a red highlighter. I was looking forward to the yellow stunt brain Piro Pelka highlighter as a gift today. But apparently there's a possibility of getting a blue and a red highlighter with stunt brain on it. But you never know.

But it talks about the Texas and the U.S. jobs and how good it is. Now, I mean, it is unbelievable between Texas and the U.S. the amount of jobs. I mean, Texas is far and away. Without Texas, the United States job market ain't good. You can quote me on that too, okay? And I just retweeted it at JeffeyMRA on Twitter. The chart is fascinating.

Now, you talk about this. More than one in four Americans are spending at least half of their family income on rent. Half of the family income on rent. So, I mean, what does that leave? That leaves, you know, you still have groceries, clothing, gas, car. That's a lot. And all of those prices have gone up, a dramatic. basically.

Over 11 million households, which is 11.25, but over 11 million households, 50% of more of their income on housing and utilities. So rent and utilities. So you've got more, one in four Americans are spending at least half of their income on rent. Then you have 11 million of those that are using half of their money on rent and utilities. That was from the enterprise community partners and census data. Now, I tell you, I don't know that I understand using half of your money for that, but I do understand not having a lot of money for clothes and food and, you know,

maybe gasoline for your car, so you've got a really super budget. But A, you need a roof. B, you need to have utilities. You need to have lights. You need to be able to cook food, and you need to have water to drink and use for your utilities for your bathrooms, right? To be clean. So those things, those are number one on my pay list. And it used to be even cable TV was in on that.

Soon cable TV is close to being history at the Fisher household, so I'm going to take that off of my list. put back on my list will be some internet access. But I thought that if you had those, if you had a roof, power, water, television, cable television, you know, your entertainment. Then the rest of it, you'd budget around that and you'd be okay because you're able to have a place to live and to hole up. Have a roof over your head. Be able to have lights on to read. be able to drink water if you have to. You can cook what little food you have there.

The rest of it will all come together. 1.8 million of these households, 70% of their paychecks on rent. That is insane. Wow. Now, the surging cost of rental housing has affected the rising number of families since the Great Recess. Oh, you think. Since the Great Recession in 2007. Wow.

We're calling it the Great Recession. Now, it will, that does lead you to believe people are wound up and not making enough money. What really, it just means that, you know, there's no jobs. And what jobs there are, you've got to be able to take. I saw a tweet talking about there, you know, I saw someone tweeted, what was the tweet about no bad jobs, no good jobs, depending on your, what the heck was it, I saw it, not too long ago. Anyway, talking about there is, there are no bad jobs, right? Oh, for the truly self-respecting, there is no bad job.

Just jobs. True. There are jobs that you'd prefer to do and jobs that you'd prefer not to do. However, for money, feed the family, feed yourself, instead of taking money from the government, which we know we have, what, 40, 50 million people? it's unbelievable getting help from the government and

I don't know it's tough to blame them with not being able to get it it's tough to blame them it's there and their advert to the government which I'm against is advertising but then you have the McDonald's workers planning on the biggest ever protest

as they want the fight for $15 and they're going to gate crash the shareholder meeting it's coming up on the 21st of this month and we're going to gate crash it. Okay. No problem. No problem.

Because, you know, McDonald's is having the big struggle now, and the CEO is looking to redesign the business model to address the customer decline. Go back, I've told you before, McDonald's. Go back to who you are. Quit trying to be who you're not. Okay. The kale fry isn't going to help you.

Just want you to know that. Good luck, though. But they're going to crash. and they're talking about they're demanding an end to poverty wages paid to its 420,000 member staff. Okay. Well, that's fine. Good luck. God bless.

Those poverty wages were not wages meant to live on. You flipping a burger or you asking me what I wanted the drive-through was not meant to be a job where you would provide. for your family. It may assist in another job where you provide for your family if it's a second job or a third job, but not a main job. You standing in a window, how can I take your order? What would you like?

Would you like to try our new kale fry today? Sorry. It's not meant to be. Now you're not meant to support a family on that. And McDonald's is working on that for you. They're going to take care of it for you. You say they are? Is everyone going to get $15 an hour?

Well, I would guess that the people still left working at McDonald's will probably get $15 an hour to make your fight for $15 movement look good. And you could say, yeah, we got it. We got it. However, look at what else they're trying to do at McDonald's as they redesign their business model to address customer decline. Let's see what they're doing. They're creating, oh, I see, computer. kiosk at the counter there you can go in and punch in the exact order you want and then it goes back to a new machines that they have that create the food without humans so there's maybe i don't know

10 or 15 less people working there so you got what you wanted fight for 15 you got what you wanted now now what do you got now what you got you got you got money from the good government is probably what you got. This is the Jeff Fisher Show on the police radio network.