As we all know, Sears/Kmart and JCPenny are in serious trouble. Another company I have noticed is in a major downward spiral is Sodastream. 6 months ago, there were 5 stores in my local mall with a huge selection of Sodastream machines, accessories, and syrup. Now there are none. The only place near me that sells it anymore is Target, and their selection is dwindling.
What are some other companies teetering on the brink? I wouldn’t give Mitsubishi much time in the USA either, at least for their cars.
Is Radio Shack too obvious? (It’s still alive, but with many fewer stores.)
I get a bad feeling about Toys’R’Us every time I walk in there.
AMD (the semiconductor people) are looking pretty shabby nowadays, but they could turn around with a new killer processor - if they can come up with one. I was in Best Buy not too long ago and I only saw one PC that had an AMD chip.
Xerox is plenty strong right now, but they could be killed by the lawsuits from their copiers that were changing what they were copying.
Are there many retailers we should feel GOOD about?
AMD is in both the XBox One and PS4 (and I think in the Wii U). So I don’t think they’re going away anytime soon.
7-11s seem to be disappearing everywhere.
Also, stand-alone arcades seem to be barely hanging on like the relics of the past they are.
I dunno, they’re a weird case for me. You know how some types of stores still survive because they sell a product people inherently want to try and look at before they buy, like clothing? Is that necessarily the case with kids? Will, or have, their desires be entirely influenced by advertising and not just coming across something neat on the shelves? It’s not like they have the patience, generally, to browse toy websites like adults do with books.
I have no idea either way.
A lot of people are buying toys from Walmart or Target, which is one reason Toys’R’Us is hurting. Plus I get the impression that kids today are more interested in electronics like iPhones and iPads rather than traditional toys and games.
And I saw an article years ago that blamed some of their problems on separating Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us stores. People would only go to a Toys’R’Us store once a year or so, but would go to Babies’R’Us stores once a month or more frequently (to buy things like diapers, formula or baby clothes). When the stores were combined, the parents would also spend money at Toys’R’Us (perhaps for the older child). But they didn’t need to do that when the stores are separate.
I wouldn’t be quite so sure, it’s clear their finances are in serious trouble and the current rumour is that Microsoft is eyeing them for acquisition. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/84168/20150914/amd-shares-soar-as-rumors-swirl-microsoft-intel-want-to-take-over.htm
7-11 looked in its death throes here, then about a year ago they purchased the corner stores at all of the Exxon stations and most of the Chevron stations in town. Now they are everywhere again.
They’re pretty strong in the commercial print market. We have 3 Xerox direct-image presses.
Also, about five or six years ago, Xerox bought ACS, a large computer services business. So they’ve diversified beyond just copiers.
That has to be one of the more bizarre technology clusterfucks I’ve read about.
What’s happening on the lawsuit scene with that? I haven’t seen anything much on that. I just googled it and found page after page of other kinds of lawsuits against Xerox, but nothing on the weird image changes.
They seem to be multiplying like rats in New York City
Volkswagen isn’t long for this world.
They bought the BP store by me, which is kind of odd because I am not aware of any standalone 7-11s in the area. Like they expanded their geographical reach by buying gas station stores.
They are? That’s the best news I’ve heard all day! Their purchase and destruction of White Hen was unforgivable. They took a great Chicago area chain with delis in each location and experienced employees and replaced them with plastic wrapped sandwiches and people willing to work for minimum wage.
Hopefully QuikTrip will move north and drive the evil 7-11 chain back to whatever hole it crawled out of. For those of you who don’t know, QuikTrip pays a living wage, thus they get bright, friendly employees who stick around for years. They are expanding their stores with kitchens to make sandwiches and pizza. They are the best convenience store I’ve ever visited and have pretty much eliminated 7-11 in the Kansas City area.
If you’re referring to the current scandal over the emissions cheating, I think they’ll survive that.