Markets Can’t Save Us from Retail-less Economy

Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of political economy, joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the ongoing restructuring of the US economy and how it enriches big businesses at the expense of ordinary people, whose jobs will continue to disappear. He says “the financialization of the global economy is getting worse” and that unregulated markets are incapable of rescuing Main Street or averting the coming economic crisis.

Thousands Jobless as Canadian Retailer Sears Closes over Bankruptcy

One of Canada’s largest retail chains, Sears, is shutting down, after serving customers for more than 50 years.

The company declared bankruptcy last week and began selling off all of its assets. More than 12,000 people will lose their jobs.

Al Jazeera's Daniel Lak reports from Stratford, Ontario.

Stitch In Time Makes Billions for Zara and Its Founder
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Amid the pervading gloom in the retail sector, one fashion chain is so dazzlingly successful its founder has overtaken Warren Buffett as the third-richest man in the world. Amancio Ortega, the major shareholder of fashion retailer Zara, was the fastest mover on the annual Forbes magazine rich list released this week. The personal wealth of the 76-year-old Spaniard grew by almost $20 billion to $57 billion in the past year on the back of Zara's record profits. Only Mexican telecommunications giant Carlos Slim and Microsoft founder Bill Gates are wealthier.

Zara has cracked the secret recipe for fashion retail success, and customers love it - but it is not a model that impresses all observers.

''Zara has really driven the formula for modern-day chains in that what they are capable of doing is getting on-trend fashion into store faster, higher quality and better priced than most of its competitors,'' said Karen Webster, chairwoman of the Australian Fashion Council. ''They're able to get the Prada look in store before Prada does.''

Since opening its first store in Galicia, Spain, in 1975, Zara (owned by fashion distributor Inditex) has grown to a worldwide success story that can lay claim to developing the philosophy of ''fast fashion''.

It's a model that relies on fast turnover of stock at its 1700 global stores to always keep the customer enticed, always seeing new products and hopefully coming back to buy more.

While even the best-run traditional fashion retailers might have new stock in the store every four weeks, Zara has compressed that to between two and three weeks and is believed to launch 10,000 new designs a year.

This model led one fashion industry executive to describe Zara as ''possibly the most innovative and devastating retailer in the world''.

Zara's success is based on not exactly copying, but ''editing'' the latest catwalk looks from premium fashion houses, insiders said. » | Eli Greenblat, Kelsey Munro | Saturday, March 09, 2013

Comet Close to Administration, 6,000 Jobs Under Threat
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Electrical retailer Comet could file for administration as soon as Thursday, putting another 6,000 jobs under threat on Britain's struggling high street.

The retailer has been under increasing pressure from suppliers to pay upfront for stock before the critical Christmas trading period. The company is trading without credit insurance, which protects suppliers against the failure of a retailer.

Those demands are understood to have intensified in the past fortnight after it emerged that OpCapita, the private equity company that owns Comet, had received approaches for the chain.

Deloitte has been lined up as an administrator in what will be the 29th high street retailer to go into administration since the turn of the year.

The prospect of Comet's administration is the latest blow for a brick and mortar retailer grappling with the [the] increasing popularity of online shopping and UK consumers with less money to spend. » | Richard Blackden | Thursday, November 01, 2012

Volcanic Ash Cloud Leaves Shops Facing Shortages of Fruit, Vegetables and Medicine
THE TELEGRAPH: UK retailers face significant disruption to their supply chains due to a ban on air freight following the volcanic ash crisis.

Store groups face potential shortages of medicine, cut flowers and exotic fruit and vegetables due to the closure of British airspace, that was expected to have ended in England and Wales by 7am on Saturday.

Clothing retailers also face a backlog as their stock sits in holding pens around the world waiting to be flown from manufacturing hubs to the UK.

The ban on air freight has meant that fruits such as figs, papaya and coconuts, fresh flowers and pharmaceutical products – all of which are delivered by air – are not reaching their destinations in the UK. Air freight accounts for 25pc of the UK's international goods movements by value.

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) said yesterday that it fears the cost to business – and consumers – will escalate as the volcanic cloud casts its shadow further. >>> James Hall Retail Editor | Friday, April 16, 2010

M&S Shares Plunge on First Sales Drop in Two Years
TIMESONLINE: Sir Stuart Rose's seemingly unstoppable progress towards £1 billion profits at Marks and Spencer has received a major setback after the UK's largest clothing retailer revealed the first fall in like-for-like sales for more than two years.

Sir Stuart, a retailer with 35 years in the business, said that his poorest customers were facing a squeeze and he called for a cut in interest rates to help ease the cost of borrowing for cash-strapped consumers.

“The consumer is facing a squeeze and we have been making sure that our customers continue to get a good deal, but everybody is under pressure, not just us,” he said.

Shares in M&S plunged almost 20 per cent in early trading 94p to 409p as the company reported poor Christmas trading figures. Marks & Spencer shares plunge on first sales drop in two years: Shares of Britain's largest clothing retailer plunge 18% on its first fall in sales for more than two years >>> By Angela Jameson

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