Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

There's a strip mall near me with a closed Staples and a more recently closed Kmart. Last year a halloween costume shop opened up in the former staples. This year it is in the former Kmart!

I don't know how the hell they'll fill an entire goddamn Kmart, they'll likely end up partitioning off half the store at least. Which makes me wonder why they didn't just rent the old Staples spot again.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2017 22:54

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 00:18

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

TheHomerTax posted:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

Aaaaaaaand Sears is done.

quote:

The company issued a statement saying it intends to stay in business, keeping stores that are profitable open, along with the Sears and Kmart online shopping sites.
But it said that it's looking for a buyer for a large number of its remaining stores and that it will close at least 142 stores near the end of this year. That's in addition to the 46 store closings already planned for next month.

It's just a little bankrupt! It's still good, it's still good!

# ¿ Oct 15, 2018 11:34

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

You can't talk about supermarkets without bringing up the New England based chain Market Basket https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Basket_(New_England)

They have very low prices, pay their employees well, offer profit sharing, and have no self checkout lanes. Employees have how many years they've worked on their name badges, you'll see people with 10, 20, even 30 years or more.

It also has a messy history of family drama, which came to a head in 2014:

quote:

On June 23, 2014, three top-level executives - CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, Vice President Joseph Rockwell, and Director of Operations William Marsden - were fired by the board.[26] The Chief Executive position was filled by James Gooch, a former Radio Shack executive, and Felicia Thornton, formerly of supermarket company Albertsons, sharing the position.[27] In response, six high-level managers resigned, and 300 employees held a rally outside Market Basket's Chelsea, Massachusetts flagship store on June 24.[27]

Beginning on July 18, 2014, additional protests with as many as 5,000 employees and customers were held at the company's Tewksbury headquarters and other locations demanding the reinstatement of Arthur T.[20][28] Many warehouse and corporate office workers including delivery truck drivers went on strike, leaving some shelves bare at many Market Basket locations.[29][30] On July 20, seven employees were fired for their roles in organizing the protests.[31] In the midst of the protests, Arthur T. offered to buy the entire company from his cousins, an offer that the board (controlled by Arthur S.'s family) said it would consider. The board was reportedly also reviewing additional offers.

Arty T was able to buy the company, and despite the cost it has been doing fine and has even expanded

The strike and boycott was absolutely crazy, even suppliers who relied heavily on Market Basket's business stopped selling to them. Also of note is the employees are not in a union!

They made two movies and a book about the event. Don't gently caress with our supermarket!

# ¿ Nov 27, 2018 19:59

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Ariong posted:

I am 100% sure there is a middle ground between letting child pornography (the reason it got killed from the app store) run rampant and deleting every blog that an algorithm tagged as NSFW.

That would require some sort of actual moderation, and that will cost money verizon doesn't want to spend.

Ariong posted:

I highly suspect the answer to those questions will be "we'll let an algorithm do it" and "posts/users which the algorithm flags will be automatically removed" respectively.

Sure looks that way already!

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 23:37

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

You know, it's going to be really fun in a few years when imgur inevitably falls apart completely for whatever reason and shuts down.

The internet is an ephemeral thing. Host everything yourself and right-click, save-as liberally, I guess.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 23:39

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Gann Jerrod posted:

The ThinkGeek website is shutting down, with a remnant surviving on GameStop’s website.

This news combined with GameStop’s current woes makes me wonder if it’ll last the year.

I remember when thinkgeek was a small independent company with a variety of linux T-shirts! :corsair:

This seems like a bad idea as I figure the only way gamestop will survive in any fashion will be to convert entirely into a pop culture store. Why remove any of the thinkgeek brand, do they really think anyone thinks positively of gamestop?

Whatever, hot topic or someone will probably buy the scraps when they finally go bankrupt.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2019 13:14

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

BloodBag posted:

What do?

Move to somewhere with a Microcenter :getin:

# ¿ Aug 2, 2019 12:51

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Automattic (company which owns wordpress) is buying tumblr for reportedly less than $3 million, and they're keeping the porn ban in place. el oh loving el.

https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1161015743531618305

https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1161038705295089664

# ¿ Aug 13, 2019 01:18

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Krispy Wafer posted:

No, EXPO was a regular business. This was something you paid hundreds of dollars a year to shop at and then rolled up on a flatbed trailer to haul all your discounted stuff home on. The scam was to get you to sign up for a membership and then it�s a sunk cost thingy. The prices were good, but that whole �no shipping� thing and �inconvenient locations� messed people up.

Pretty sure it's DirectBuy https://www.directbuy.com/

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 02:25

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Speaking of The Gap...hoo boy: The Gap posts a record $932 million loss

They're also shuttering Hill City, which I guess was a men's Athleta?

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 17:01

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

OK so it's obviously not as convenient as just getting a pair of pants ready to go right off the shelf...but you do know that tailors exist, and pants can be hemmed, right?

# ¿ Jun 5, 2020 22:25

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Subjunctive posted:

Yeah, a lot easier than getting someone to stretch a pair of slacks out to a 36.

Have you considered getting your legs hemmed?

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 00:19

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Biplane posted:

Man the only film I've even considered going to an actual movie theater to see for like the last five years would be Dune and it probably won't even come out this year (god I hope it does though) and if it does I'm gonna have to wear an actual loving stillsuit to not die.

Upside to a stillsuit is you don't have to worry about going to the bathroom, just let 'er rip!

# ¿ Jun 19, 2020 22:52

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Microsoft of course is not a company circling the drain...but, they are closing all but 4 of their retail stores

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/26/..._source=twitter

That will be yet another vacancy in the malls

# ¿ Jun 27, 2020 01:23

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

sweeperbravo posted:

I remember actually watching Muzzy during French class in middle school, just once. In this vague memory I recall Muzz himself plays a really small role in the storyline, the story revolved around two mice (?) and one was named Sylvie and they fell in love, and the bad guy steepling his fingers nad cackling to himself, "Je suis malade, MALADE!"

I also got to watch some of it in 6th grade. I had seen the commercials plenty of times and noted that I couldn't understand what the hell Muzzy was saying because the voice was so deep and distorted.

When actually watching it in class, the worn VHS tapes in a crap VCR on a crappier TV did not help in this regard.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2020 23:07

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Doggles posted:

I've probably shared this photo album in this thread some time ago, but this is a perfect time to bring it up again:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thekog/albums/72157680800428832

Back before the pandemic, I worked in an office across the street from the Citadel Mall in Charleston, SC. The food court was on the far end of the mall, so anytime I didn't bring my lunch I'd get to walk almost the entire length of the mall. I started to notice things changing (stores closing/opening, decorations added/removed) every time I went so I brought my camera to document the changes.

The photos span nearly three years and include the closing of a JC Penny, its conversion into a medical clinic, the closing of a Sears, its conversion into a filming location for The Righteous Gemstones, the addition of a basketball court, the removal of that same basketball court, and finally the empty storefronts in the middle of the mall being Cask of Amontillado'd a month before the pandemic hit.

The current owners of the mall are trying to turn it into an indoor business park. So I imagine the stores that are now covered up are being renovated into office space.

loving

at how half-assed the megachurch is. Why the hell didn't they try harder to remove the shadow of the old Sears sign? "Good enough, just put the new sign up, no one will notice!". And I hope the entrance inside the mall was just a temporary thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just left it as propped up unpainted drywall.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2020 00:03

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Ah, kinda misread that hadn't heard of the show before.

So in that case, nice detail I guess, hah.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2020 01:17

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

After Declaring Bankruptcy Twice, RadioShack Plots Its Comeback

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/declaring-bankruptcy-twice-radioshack-comeback/

quote:

RadioShack, the legendary electronics retailer, found its name and assets snapped up in November by a company called Retail Ecommerce Ventures. REV has since combined RadioShack with other ghosts of retail�s past such as Pier 1 Imports, Linens �n Things and DressBarn to harness the power of well-known brand names while also creating a diversified shopping destination.

�The ultimate objective here is really not reviving [the RadioShack] brand�it is to create a massive online shopping mall,� REV CEO Alex Mehr told Adweek. �Imagine the shopping malls that you and I grew up with. They had a lot of familiar brands, and the collective gravitational pulls brought people in. That�s what we�re creating.�

I'm thinking "dead mall but online". Is there really anything left to these brands? Is the draw here entirely "you can buy a bunch of things from one site, instead of different sites"?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2021 01:02

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

The Moon Monster posted:

The quality of clothing has dropped so far across the board in the last 5 years or so that I don't know how anyone can still buy clothes at Walmart. That poo poo starts falling apart after the first wear/wash cycle. If I buy something at Macy's it will at least last a year or so. Meanwhile I've got ten year old shirts that still hold up just fine...

Anyone know of any secret retailers where you can buy clothes that are anything close to durable these days?

It's been going on for longer than that, but I think in recent years we've crossed a threshold where it's gotten particularly bad across the board. Thin, lovely fabrics and synthetic blends all over the place. Everything is stretch now, which isn't always a bad thing but typically isn't the best for durability.

Anything from major retail brands (common stuff you'll find in the malls and department stores) is an utter crapshoot. I usually end up just taking for-loving-ever to shop, checking out every store and scrutinizing the hell out of everything. Brand X might have good t-shirts this year, but then next year I find Brand Y's are better.

I've been looking into more boutique brands, but most are only really available online, and shopping for clothes online loving blows. All the size charts, detailed descriptions, and reviews will never compare to just loving trying poo poo on in a store. Price can also be a hangup sometimes, like I'm not ready to drop $50+ for a goddamn t-shirt.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2021 03:14

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 00:18

SO DEMANDING: Dec 27, 2003

Man who jumped from 18th floor of NYC tower identified as Bed Bath & Beyond CFO

:stare:

# ¿ Sep 4, 2022 15:33

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > Companies Circling The Drain: What about Chapter Elevenses?