Tell It To Al

Who knew we’d never get bored of downloading photos of badly dressed shoppers at Wal-Mart?

I first wrote about People of WalMart in 2009, and the site is not only still displaying America’s finest fashion offenders, but has expanded into several new genres, including “dumbtweets,” “White Trash Repairs,” and “Your Kid’s Art Suck.”

If you think it’s mean that they’re making fun of the poor shoppers at Wal-Mart, don’t have a look at what they’re saying about the kids’ artwork.

Click here to read my column on the site from 2009. And enjoy this music video someone sent me.

With so many retailers filing bankruptcy, closing stores and reporting flat to shrinking sales, it’s been hard for shopping center owners to keep breathing life into their properties.

“A shopping center is about the people,” says retail property investor Allen Ginsborg. “It’s not the bricks and mortar.”

Amid a protracted economic slump, Ginsborg does not have a rosy outlook for the commercial retail real estate space. Yet his company, Woodland Hills, Calif.-based NewMark Merrill Cos., has maintained 95% occupancy through the worst of it.

Ginsborg’s secrets to keeping things bustling in a bust don’t sound like secrets at all, but he says it’s surprising how many retail center owners don’t attend to these basics.

Click here to read my column on Ginsborg.

Borders has been bordering on bankruptcy for a long time. Today, it finally filed.

Borders Group President Mike Edwards said this to say in a prepared statement:

“It has become increasingly clear that in light of the environment of curtailed customer spending …. and the company’s lack of liquidity, Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor.”

Hardly an ephipany. More like surrender.

Borders hopes to reorganize under Chapter 11 and start all over again, but that’s going to be a tough battle, even with all its planned cuts and store closings.

What’s Borders going to become other than another outlet for digital reading devices? Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, et al, are selling most of those already.

Borders is about as useful to the American consumer as Blockbuster video.

Not long ago, it was no fun watching Borders and Blockbuster putting all the little mom and pop stores of their respective industries out of businesses. Now it’s their turn.

When was the last time you visited Borders?

Maybe RadioShack should have changed its name to Cell Phone Shack.

The Fort Worth, Texas,-based retailers seems to have made a big bet on selling cell phones that are available just about everywhere.

Now margins on cell phones are shrinking. And guess what?

RadioShack’s warning of disappointing fourth-quarter earnings.

It’s chairman and CEO Julian Day is stepping down in May.

Go figure.

RadioShack’s problem – besides intense competition, a prolonged downturn in the economy, etc. – is that nobody knows what it is anymore.

Click here to read my column.

When was the last time you went to RadioShack? What did you buy?

Holiday spending was better than last year, but does not yet mark a full recovery. I talk about it with 9News anchor Eric Kahnert.

Another sluggish year for retailers. Is consumerism dead?

Black Friday sales, if nothing else, marked a third year of sluggish consumerism since the recession officially began in December 2007.

So many nameplate retailers – from Circuit City to Linens N’ Things – have simply vanished  over these years. But what I find amazing are some of the stores that survive. Who’d have thought, for instance, that as the great slog went on, we’d still be shopping at Sears. 

Click here to read column.

Ever have that feeling you’re shopping in a store that should have been wiped out? Tell me your “I can’t believe it’s still here” story.

Expect underwear for Christmas, a top Wal-Mart executive predicts.

Fruit of the Loom may be all anyone can afford these days, and it’s probably a better gift than fruit cake.

With American’s poverty rate is on the rise, Wal-Mart is learning how to deal with a customer base that is increasingly living on government assistance, Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart’s U.S. business, said last week.

See how Simon describes a typical end-of-the-month shopping spree at Wal-Mart.

 Click here to read column in The Sunday Wall Street Journal.

(PHOTO: Fruit of the Loom.)

What comes first? The end of the world, or the end of the world for Blockbuster?

Put “2012″ on the list of movies Blockbuster people, from teenage store clerks up the CEO, should watch as the behemoth video store chain slouches toward bankruptcy.

Click here to read column. When was the last time you rented a video from Blockbuster?

Does the Second Amendment give you the right to carry a loaded gun into Starbucks? Starbucks seems to think so.

Click here to read my column on Starbuck’s decision to allow its customers to openly carry guns into its stores in states where carrying firearms is legal.

I’ve received several emails from people suggesting that I am somehow against the Second Amendment, and would like to take away everyone’s guns, just because I wrote a column suggesting that maybe carrying a gun into Starbucks isn’t such a great idea.

I’m a gun owner myself and have no problem with responsible people owning and carrying guns. I just don’t get these people who show up at private businesses with guns strapped to their belts.

Starbucks has the right to ask customers not to bring their guns into their stores, but it has chosen not to do so. This decision has upset thousands of its customers. Here’s an email I received from one of them:

———-

I’ve already e-mailed Starbucks and given them my view regarding their “gun” policy. I’m just waiting for the headlines “Gunman shoots Starbuck’s staff member because he did not like his latte.”

Since my 14 year old son was accidentally killed when my neighbors son took a gun onto a public golf course to hunt jack rabbits, I have actively supported the Brady organization and am active in supporting proper gun controls at state level. For the past twenty years I have repeatedly given testimony in the Colorado State Capital fighting the gun advocates. You see what really hurts is the fact that no-one was held responsible for my son’s death, it was and still is perfectly legal for a 15 year old to take and discharge a gun on a public golf course!

I am not against guns and have many hunter friends who have several guns all securely locked away. But the difference between a sensible gun owner and a gun lobbyist is that the sensible gun owner support sensible gun controls and also cannot see why the extreme gun advocate’s want to openly display guns in public like bullies trying to intimidate the public. What is the point of wanting to display their guns, “don’t cross me I have a gun” it is certainly not for protection?

I have come in direct contact with some of these “over zealous gun advocates” many times. It has not been a pleasant experience. I’ve received comments from “get back where you came from bitch”, (I’m British by birth American by choice) to being tugged at with the comment “we’ll save you.” OK but who is going to save me from them?

Flu epidemics make the front page. Gun deaths the back page, that is if they are reported at all. Yet there were more gun deaths during the flu epidemic than from the flu.

I wonder what our forefathers would think of all this? I wonder, would they have the courage, unlike our present politicians, to legislate proper & sensible gun controls.

Thank you for your article.

Respectfully,

Carole Bell.

Incidentally, my California son & his wife did spend more than $10,000 a year on coffee and gift cards for their clients. They also support gun control but because of the Starbuck policy no longer buy the gift cards or drink Starbuck coffee.