It seems that within the last few months, a number of companies, in some cases large ones, have been filing for bankruptcy or closing their doors. Can you news junkies help me build up a list?

I will start:

Shane Co. Jewelers - Filed for Chapter 11
Circuit City - In Chapter 7; all stores will close
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Filed for Chapter 11
Black Angus Steakhouse - Filed for Chapter 11
Nortel - Filed for bankruptcy protection
Lehman Brothers - Filed for Chapter 11; assets liquidated
(Chicago) Tribune Company - Filed for Chapter 11

Seattle PI -- will close down if no buyer is found in less than 60 days.

MERVYNS........
Linens and Things

Gottshaks (not sure on spelling) Filed for chapter 11
KB Toys Bankrupt.

I expect several Portland area car dealers to close stores and/or go belly up.

My money is on Chrysler or Jeep dealers. Chrysler's products are bland and Jeep has designed a bunch of really unappealing SUVs.

Other brands with poorly operated stores may fold as well. I wonder how dealers that thrive on volume sales will do?

I did notice that the Chevy Suburban is the 10th hottest vehicle sold in December. I also noticed that half of the top ten sellers were full-sized trucks from Ford, GM and Toyota. I don't think many people "get it" just yet.

Black Angus Steakhouse - Filed for Chapter 11

Wow. Is that right? I mean, I guess I'm not all that surprised. But I worked for them for a long time and just hadn't heard about that.

Starbucks is closing some stores down in portland.

Instead of having 6 starbucks at every block in downtown portland, there will be 3.

And what about Toys R US??????
For the longest time I have been reading about How Toys R US is really hurting and might have to file chapter 11. Yet I haven't seen any of the stores closing down. The one off of 217 is still open.

DEFINATELY the party's over

Mrs. Fields filed for Chapter 11 last August.

That Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut Cookie might be your last. Already $20 million in debt, Mrs. Fields crumbling cookie empire is planning on filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next month, according to a scoop from Forbes Magazine.
Mrs. Fields also owns TCBY Yogurt.

http://www.popcrunch.com/mrs-fields-bankrupt-mrs-fields-cookies-chapter-11-bankr uptcy/

Here is the article on Mrs. Fields.

> Black Angus Steakhouse - Filed for Chapter 11

Yep. See http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/01/12/daily68.html

The name of the parent company that has filed for bankruptcy is Pecus ARG Holdings, Inc. The story that I heard Friday morning on KPAM said that the restaurants are expected to stay open during the re-structuring.

Re. Mrs. Fields: I like the reporter's choice of words: "crumbling cookie empire"

Watch as the dominos fall ever quicker:

-------CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCIES BY DATE AS OF JANUARY 1ST-------

January 10th
"Equal" sweetener

January 12th
"Flying J." Travel Plazas
"Lehman Brothers"

January 13th
"Shane Co."

January 16th
"Black Angus Steakhouses"
"Death Row" records
"Circuit City" Stores, Inc.

January 18th
"Tribune Co."
____________________________________________________________

Mentioned above but were in 2008:
"Linen's 'N Things" May 2008
"Mervyns" July 2008
"KB Toys" December 11th

Whitehall Jewelers 7- gone!
Compusa 7- gone
=======================
Companies in serious trouble:
Macys- Bailey Banks Biddle-Zales- Ruth Chris Steak houses.

LEFT OUT WICKES

....Ruth Chris Steak houses.....

You can sell the sizzle, but if the sizzle is too expensive it gets tough......

I was suprised to learn several years back that many restaurants close despite being profitable. The reason is they are not profitable enough to satisfy the investors

Squeeze the middle class and this is what happens!

I've been reading about the business cycle (as it applies to our current economic woes) and learned an interesting point. The regular cycles of boom and bust are necessary to maintain a healthy business environment- by weeding out the underperforming businesses! The failure of this process during the recent extended boom has the end result of too many businesses at the feeding trough - killing off the weaker businesses is good for the survivors in the long term.

Since we've been delaying the inevitable bust for a while, there are a lot of businesses who have no business being in business (so to speak!), and need to go, for the greater good of the "herd".

Some of these places, I can't understand how they have managed to last this long. Circuit City? CompUSA? Chrysler? Even Daimler couldn't turn that barge around.

A little independent business called "The Mole Hole" in "Beaverton Town Square" will close this Sunday. They've run radio ads in the past.

Well, with a name like that, they dug their own grave. Not a restaurant I hope.

Sirius/XM - Chapter 11
MUZAK - Chapter 11

This is why you can't let corporations get too big. Sooner or later they will collapse. I've seen this coming with every merger for years.


Thanks again Republicans for no corporate oversight.

I think the main reason for the collapse of most business today is called BIG GREED.

Nope. It's called GEORGE W BUSH.

I see this as an issue with a lack of competence in the management teams of these companies if either they can't see that too many mergers will put the company in a precarious position or they can't figure out how to deal with the management challenges of running a larger organization. I hate to sound callous, but in this case, I say, let those knuckleheads sink their own ships. They need to learn a lesson.

>>let those knuckleheads sink their own ships

part of the problem here is that our taxes are bailing out some of these companies with most of them paying millions in bonus monies to outgoing exec's as even noted by our current Prez.

Not bonuses....awards.

1. The free market theory failed us. Many folks (primarily Republicans, because free market economics is a pillar of Republican theory) believed that an unregulated marketplace would take care of itself. Like Pollyanna, they believed that business would act responsibly and in the best interest of the people.

2. A lot a very greedy and unethical people in the financial world decided to act as if ridiculous growth rates could continue forever, and therefore leveraged their (shareholders,depositors,mortage-ees, etc) capital at 30 and 50 to 1 and then paid themselves monumental salaries and bonuses, because everytime "reality" went up 1%, they made 30 to 50 times that. Eventually, the monster got too big to sustain itself and just collapsed.

It was a perfect storm.... a republican government willing to wager the financial security of every American and the country itself on the theory that markets will take care of themselves without regulation; and (another) era in world history where all rational ethics fail an entire industry. Robber barons.

The next major shoe to drop.... American financial institutions including quasi-government ones like Fannie and Freddie, palmed off much of their bad bets on foreign countries... who are now stuck with a whole truckload of bad American debt. Their economies are going into a tailspin because their companies and governments bought our garbage paper. They're kinda angry. Some of those countries were poor enough that our bad paper may cause entire countries to collapse. The rest will just hate our guts for ruining their economies.

Anti-Americanism. It's not just for Muslims anymore.

No kidding.

...and congress today stripped the provisions anyway, rendering this discussion largely meaningless.

It's clear the very wealthy have some real entitlement the rest of us do not have. Congress is coddling them, and I don't see why.

My vote is sure gonna reflect who is who in this.

There is no way they should get their full measure of compensation when the job was flat out not done! They lost our asses!

When I lose, I don't have stuff anymore. When they lose, a bonus turns into an award. Hell, when they lose it for me, I don't have stuff anymore, but they have an award!

And what's this "we need them" and "gotta pay for the best to get the best". Do we look stupid?

(maybe so)

Feeling militant right now.

I had a friend who used to scream at baseball games..."if we paid you another 20 million do you think you could actually catch the ball?"

If we "award" them 4 billion dollars for their efforts last year, do you think they might actually not f*** us over this year. Exactly what kind of best are we paying for, and how bad could it be if they quit and went elsewhere. For most of 'em, I gotta list of places I'd like to see them leave for in a huff.

Time Magazine names the 25 people most responsible for the mess we're in. Very fine article. Take the time to read about each of the 25. It's worth it

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350,00.ht ml

That first picture, the one of Angelo Mozilo, looks like something from the George Lopez show!

Huge head and small body!

Good article.

Thanks.

Some people wouldn't notice a photoshop even if it hit them in the head

Now for some good news. This company is doing WELL!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2009-02-11-cash-strapped-condoms _N.htm

From Business Week:

A company that opened a $200 million ethanol plant in Clatskanie, Ore., last year has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Joe's (formerly GI Joe's) files for Chapter 11.

From the Oregonian:

Joe's Sports & Outdoor filed for Chapter 11 reorganization today, seeking to keep its stores and Wilsonville-based distribution center and headquarters open until the longtime Oregon retailer is sold -- possibly within 30 days.

Joe's, purchased by the private equity firm Gryphon Investors of San Francisco in 2007, listed both assets and debt of $100 million to $500 million in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

Holy crap! Did I not predict this years ago?

While I'm sorry to see employees take this potential job-loss hit, the demise of a employee-unfriendly employer is no big loss.

Bad decision making over the years brought this company to its knees -- not just the Bush economy. Now they've this ultra-huge newly built distribution center and they've yet to open enough new stores to help pay for this new debt load. Although I've yet to see the details, I can't imagine "Joe's" as is, being a good buy.

The founder, Mr. Orkney, was a savvy businessman, his son, David, blundered around for far too long. Firing some of his Dad's pals would have helped too.

Hopefully some local people with a smarter business plan will fill this sporting goods void. "Joe's" is one retailer not deserving of rescuing by the bankruptcy court. We'll see.

......Thanks again Republicans for no corporate oversight......

Thank the greed mongers with no sense of responsibility for sucking the life out of so many of these places. Plenty of companies with liberal democrats on the board took the money as well.

Roger, it's useless to point those facts out to the Democrats.

EVERYTHING is Bush's fault. Why don't you understand that???!!!

OH, and BTW, if lord Obama tries something and it doesn't work, that will be Bush's fault too. Watch and see.

Of course it will be Bush's fault if Obama tries something and it doesn't work. Had Bush done his job better, Obama wouldn't be in a position to HAVE to try stuff to get us out of the hole Bush dug. Remember, this mess was inherited in full from the Bush Administration thanks to GOP economic policy.

See, told you so!!!!!

And Obama hasn't even had a failed program yet.

lord Obama can do no wrong.
lord Obama can do no wrong.
lord Obama can do no wrong.
lord Obama can do no wrong.
lord Obama can do no wrong.
lord Obama can do no wrong.

The new Democratic mantra.

Talk about sheeple.

"EVERYTHING is Bush's fault".

He was the "decider" these past eight years. He deserves the credit. From "Mission Accomplished" to "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job", to "You work three jobs?". The man was pure genius.

Damn that Boosh, Intentionally blew up the Maine in Havana Harbor just so we could take the place from Spain to open a terrorist detention center at Gitmo!

According to The O, Tom Peterson's and Gloria's too has filed for bankruptcy.

The conservatives are still in total denial of the Bush economic death spiral that brought us here. They never will really understand how supply side models, under several conservative or faux conservative administrations, have flaws that can be easily exacerbated by mismanagement.

George W. Bush immediately reversed Clinton’s policy in order to revive Reagan’s, once again showering an embarrassment of riches on the already most embarrassingly rich, his “base” as he calls them. He ladled out some $630 billion in tax cuts to the top 1% of income earners. In true Republican fashion, they returned the favor by investing over $200 million to ensure Bush’s re-election. Do the math. A $630 billion return on a $200 million investment: $3,160 for $1. I’ll give you $3,160. All I ask is that you give me $1 back so I can keep the goodness flowing. Do we have a deal? Republicans know return on investment.

But the cost to the public has been a return to the exploding deficits of the Reagan years. Bush blew through Clinton’s surplus in his first year. The 2004 deficit reached $415 billion, a record.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1022-26.htm

So before you let someone like Deane get under your skin with misguided and defective accusations about deficit management, constantly remind him that the current times are the effect, not the cause, and that there are few options.

All the malls used to have WILD PAIR shoe stores...

Edison Brothers had Leeds, Oak Tree, Wild Pair, and a couple other Specialty Clothing stores. I don't know if the company still exists, (too lazy to look)

It looks like the Jewelery store "Zell Brothers" is now going out of buisness.

Too bad for them, they have been around a long time!

This from Oregon Media Insiders regarding The Columbian newspaper of Vancouver:

The Associated Press is reporting (via OregonLive) that the Columbian is facing foreclosure on debts in excess of $15 million:

The publisher of The Columbian newspaper, Scott Campbell, says the action is not unexpected and the company is prepared.

Campbell says [Bank of America] will likely go to Clark County Superior Court to foreclose on $15 million in primary debt and $800,000 in accrued interest.

The move is expected to spur debt restructuring negotiations between the family-owned daily and the bank, which financed construction of a $35 million six-story office building three years ago."

Just heard at midnite that Joes is going to Liquidate all stores.

I started going to GI Joes when it was on N. Vancouver Ave. I stopped when they changed the name. Pretty much stopped going to Meier and Frank when they changed the name to Macy's.

Just heard at midnite that Joes is going to Liquidate all stores.

Wow, I wonder if that pension plan promised to all employees by former GI Joes CEO (and founder's son) David Orkney if they voted out the union survives the bankruptcy?

I think not. I crossed town to work at the competition after this happened, and now 20+ years is held in a pension trust that neither the Teamsters OR management can touch.

The ones that stayed behind are going to be hit hard. Man, we're talking about a lot of good Portland area people.


ps, if you're a GI Joe's employee, keep in mind Mr. Orkney made this promise in writing, so you better bust a move and get a lawyer to tap into some of that liquidation dollars before its gone. There's no union to help you here.

What going to happen to the Ticketmaster outlets? That have been inside G.I. Joe's for years.

Damn good question. I think there is no real connection between them and GI Joe's other than that they shared locations that would have concerned the bankruptcy judge. Joe's may owe them money though.

Are they homeless now? How many other Ticketmaster locations outside of Joe's are there?

....Had Bush done his job better, Obama wouldn't be in a position........

EXACTLY!!! everything after this part was just filler.......

Today, I was shopping at Safeway, and "Rock You Like A Hurricane" by The Scorpions came on the PA system. Years ago, store background music was a carefully researched and designed product, put together by the likes of MUZAK, which is not filing for Chapter 11. Today, it sounds almost as if the store employees just connected a CD changer or an employee's MP3 player to the PA system. I don't have a problem with The Scorpions, but I don't think their music is a good fit for Safeway.

"Rock you like a hurricane" was on at safeway!

Thats AWESOME!!!! Finally some good music while shoping! Im guessing those Bruce Murdock pre-recorded sayings are also gone!

That means you are getting old!!

Me thinks somebody at Safeway gets a two day suspension. Safeway is a bit no-nonsense when it comes to rules. Fred Mayer is more lax. Albertson's on the other hand, you risk immediate termination!

"Money for Nothing" would be a more fitting title to be played in Safeway. I don't ever shop there, most expensive grocery store in town! For the price of one full Safeway cart I can get three carts from Winco!

But Safeway products are usually rat-free!

We do "on sale" only items at Safeway. Average savings for us is 35 to 55 percent. (they bitch too, when we do a big buy)

Meat, special items, and other items that make sense. Basically, that is stuff we can shove in the big freezer and nibble away at over a coupla months.

For everything non-meat, Win-Co works fine. I'll add rice to that. Got a batch with worms in it once. Never have been able to buy it again from them.

Win-Co meat, rice and produce seriously worries me at times. Can't do it usually.

Heat it up enough and Win Co meat works fine for me.

Made a stew in the 6 quart crock pot today. 3 lbs of Winco Beef Stew meat , 1/2 lb of turkey bacon. Veggies , Garlic and tomato spagehtti sauce, and small jar of beef gravy for a base. water, half an onion chopped, some minced garlic, brown the stew meat first in a SW style dry saute seasoning mix seared in Virgin Olive oil. Crock-Cook the whole thing on high for 4.5 hours...

mm mmm good, and its relativly low in Carbs for us diabetic types, no potato or rice in this, for low starch content. It will last till tuesday.

I have a crock pot, and it is probably one of the most convenient gadgets that I have. I can take any meat product that I have--beef, pork, or chicken--add vegetables and/or beans, and voila! It really brings out the flavors, no matter what I build the stew around!

Back to the subject of failing businesses--should these businesses be allowed to fail? I don't have really good answers here (does anyone?). To some extent, I am inclined to say yes in that if a particular market is being over-served, government aid to the under-performing companies is only a band-aid, just like Mark Hemstreet's plan to subsidize mortgage interest payments for a year is only a band-aid. In either case, a situation exists that is not sustainable, and band-aids can only postpone the collapse of that house of cards.

On the flip-side of our current situation, every now and then, I hear people wigging out about the fact that consumers aren't buying enough big-ticket items. Although I am a bit skeptical about the claim that American consumer culture has been fundamentally altered, so what if it has changed? I believe that we do have a culture that blurs the line between necessities and the frivolous and that, to some extent, celebrates conspicuous consumption. I don't appreciate attempts to make me feel guilty that by not purchasing a new car, a new TV, a new computer, etc, I am not doing my "duty" to stimulate the economy by supporting retailers and the corporations that manufacture and distribute those products.

Crock Pots rule.

I think private business should be allowed to fail. If we are good about not letting them get too large, this isn't a problem.

When it gets to the size where people say, "It's too big to fail", then it's not really a private business anymore, IMHO. Regulation is needed, and anti-trust is needed to both sort things out, and break them up, for the greater good.

People aren't buying big ticket items because they are carrying too large of a burden. This is what happens when we have strong downward wage pressure, combined with poor safety net type programs.

When health insurance is basically 1K / month for decent coverage, and a person makes 50K / year, that big ticket item just doesn't make sense.

If we make more things here --and that's anything really, then we can deal with that. There will be more jobs with better wages. If we close corporate tax loopholes and apply some tariffs to those things we choose to build here, then that burden goes down, providing for health care, for example.

Business won't make as much, but they will still make plenty, if they run well. And there will be more liquid, uncommitted dollars for people to buy stuff with.

The only reason so much was purchased in the past was unsustainable credit card debt, and people using houses as ATMs. That's over now, meaning the big ticket stuff with suffer.

Wages have been essentially flat for a very long time. I know that among my peers, I'm doing pretty well, with year over year increases for all but the last few years.

Those didn't keep up with the rising cost of health care and inflation in general.

Frankly, I've doubled my income since the late 90's, and my buying power per hour worked is less than the late 90's. Not good.

Many people I know have not done that, living on credit or their house instead. Not good.

Rather than focus on the needs of very large business, I think the smarter thing to do is focus on small business. Lots of competition, lots of diversity, and they are the majority of employers. All those multipliers add up to a good return for us.

I feel that guilt trip too, and it sucks. In these times, the right thing to do is scale down and live small. I don't want debt. What I do want is monthly liquid income that I can do stuff with, save, etc...

That is very, very hard to do right now, even making money that puts me in the upper 25 percent! (and that's not a boast, just facts for discussion)

Until that can happen, where people living modestly, can actually save and retire reasonably, we've a growing problem.

Yeah, doing your duty "spending huge", really just sends a lot of dollars overseas, where other people get their safety net funded. I'm not buying squat until I've got some retirement put back (it's all gone), a modest savings, and the monthly nut stops rising faster than I can increase wages.

...and that's doing part time contract stuff too, when I can get it! How much does one have to work? Most families I know have both parents work. That's too much, and causing problems with kids. One hard working parent should be able to provide the basics, with few worries.

That ain't happening. It needs to.

We've transferred our ability to build wealth overseas, and they've taken those dollars and have purchased other streams of wealth that still originate here. Most of the dollars spent end up somewhere else, or sheltered to avoid taxes.

In the CAD industry where I work, one of the largest and oldest and most profitable companies is now owned by the Germans. Notice they are not struggling very much in this economy. They have a good safety net, and their GDP is solid and their overall debt is low.

Every single quarter we work to make our nut, we contribute to that, not the same here in the US.

It's going on everywhere, which is why I think focus on small business and innovation for new industry is what we need to do. It's not practical, nor do I think it's possible to undo the ownership problem and the outsourcing problem.

It is completely possible to just build out new things. Spending for that, even if it's high, will deliver returns we need. Spending just to get money moving again is really asking people to just sell off more of what they own, or leverage it more fully than they are right now, and that's like pumping water into a dry oil field looking for that next fix.

In the end, failure is certain.

We pump billions into GM, while Tesla is struggling to establish themselves. Seems to me, it's not much to fund them nicely, and if they grow, it's a new car industry that owned here, with dollars that stay here. Multiply that by small business everywhere and the build out might not even cost as much as what we've already spent to plug the hole in our existing system.

...and that's kind of free spending!

If we spend on those things that create value and keep metrics on that to make sure the value is real, we won't have inflation because of those dollars. We've discussed that, and I've researched that. 100 percent true.

How come nobody is talking about that?

My gut says big business does not want the competition, and it has significant ownership in our media and in our government still. Campaign finance reform is an essential thing we seem to ignore after elections too. Don't think we can really dig out and set things running good for ordinary people without ongoing efforts in this respect.

Obama isn't really owned in that way, but most of the people he has to work with are. Got my fingers crossed that some damage can be done to this part of the problem before too long.

..when I do buy, it's local. Skip the big TV, and buy plants, crafts, and other things made here. ...or I build. Frankly, I'll probably spend big on a shop before I'll ever buy a new car again --unless it's an American car, mostly made here, produced by a company that is owned here and that pays taxes here.

30K for a shop means fixing the stuff I have, doing it for others, and building things I can sell here, and I can pay taxes here. Much smarter deal longer term.

Small business needs cheap money. The moment we get that, you can multiply that by a whole lot of skilled, pissed off Americans, and see rapid returns and happier times.

I would do this right now, if money were available. I know 10 people that would also jump at that chance. Not gonna get there spending money on overseas goods. Screw the retailers. Fund USPS, Internet, and let's start doing business here the 21st century way.

..and the beauty of this kind of thinking is that it is widely distributed. No high risk stocks, and investment opportunities abound, and it's private for the most part.

Being all small enterprises, all competing for dollars, Uncle Sam needs to only regulate for safety, financials, and the usual low key things we all agree need to be done.

The stock exchange will do what it does and a whole lot of people won't care. Just like it used to be. Those numbers are for the very, very wealthy. Meaningless to most of us.

I almost wish they would let a few very large banks and companies fail. It would hurt, but then the incentive to get cracking on smaller business would get top billing, and that's what we need.

...and if those small businesses operate in a lower risk environment (read: single pay health care for everybody), they will see a greater chance of success and would be able to pay wages that make sense too.

Some of them will grow to be big business, and experience and enjoy all that comes with that, and we have a slow changing of the guard over the next 20 years. Those of you with young kids will have good opportunities for them to look forward too, and you might be able to afford to put them into school.

That's what a new build out looks like. We can afford to do that, we need to do that. We are the ones that suffer because we are being convinced that foreign owned big companies, or American owned big companies that don't pay much tax are more important than our own lives and our own potential.

Screw that.

A good exercise would be to track ownership and contributions. I suspect the number of serious revenue streams either being sheltered, or that are owned by foreign companies, relates directly to the opposition we see to thinking like this.

Heat it up enough and Win Co meat works fine for me.

Serious? Winco meat is by far the worst I've ever eaten. I buy my meat at New Seasons. Country fed beef for me and my family!

One more to add to the deceased list.

Brownell Sound.

Their web site is gone (actually their link takes you to an FTP server) and their phone number gets a disconnected intercept.

Bummer.

That being said, I need to get a couple of sub woofers re-coned for Church. The voice coils are open.

Anybody have any suggestions?

There is a place on Sandy, just east of 82nd.

You can get speakers reconed there.

(Posting from my IBM Thinkpad, running OS X!)

Missing, Thanks! I had an epiphany and called the manufacturer (Bag End http://www.bagend.com) and they told me there was a 6 year warranty on them!

Way cool! Factory fresh drivers for only the cost of shipping!

You may be hearing this first on PDXRadio... sources close to the matter say A-Boy Plumming & Electrical is going under, with four of their six stores closing; the remaining two being sold to 'new management.'

Isn't this a bit of old news? It was in The O about 2 weeks ago.

A-boy Plumbing & Electrical is part of the land use law history of this country... the expansion of its store in Tigard generated a legal case (Tigard v. Dolan) which established the concept of "rough proportionality" in takings law.

Sorry for straying off the thread...

I checked out A-boy's website and it still lists six locations. Guess they are slow to update.

And Missing_Kskd the speaker shop I presume your referring to is Jamac Speakers.They have been there for as long as I can remember. It is right down the street from where I grew up.

http://www.jamacspeakers.com/

News about the Circuit City. The company that bought CompUSA is bidding on Circuit City now! There seems to be a lot to be made in online only sales of former brick and mortar stores.
Like Montgomery Wards, Linens N Things Sharper Image.
CompUSA does however have store locations.

http://syx.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=376853

That's the one. Thanks! I could not remember.

I really wish someone would leverage these brands better than what we have seen. Believe it or not people still associate brand names with value. I mean Skep remembered a promise given many years ago by Mr. Orkney. We have comments in here about Meier and Frank and how when Macy's came it just wasn't the same. These brands still mean something.

I never figured that out. We have people in this town with some brains, we also have people here that remember the good old days and I'd be willing to bet they would shop there again. So why not buy up some names... GI Joes, Troutman's Emporium, Meier & Frank, Lamonts, Bon Marche, Payless Drug (I know they live on in long term care only) and start off with one location and see how it goes?

Skep may disagree with me, but I fully believe GI Joes was profitable as a private enterprise until Norm Daniels took it over in '98. People enjoyed the working man's gear. When it became a sports botique store like Dick's and Sports Authority that's when it lost its competitive advantage and ended on this path.

While I dislike the companies like Montgomery Wards, there are those like Systemax who are giving it another go. Sure they won't be back with a national presence right away, but they believe in the power of a brand.

I fully believe GI Joes was profitable as a private enterprise until Norm Daniels

Its really hard to know because GI Joes was privately held, but obviously they did make enough money to offset their losses. But had they not made major mistakes, they could have sunk money into making the brand stronger and paid employees wages and benefits compairable to top tier retailers in the Portland area.

I really don't know what to think about Norm Daniels -- did he save the company or sink it? Just before Norm took over, it was supposedly in trouble. The banks in Seattle took over some of the operations up there.


Unlike lets say, Fred Meyer, when GI Joe's opened a new store, that store would usually never generate anywhere near the revenue as any of their top 4 big "original" stores.

Fred Meyer, on the other hand, would open a new store and have another huge cash cow revivaling earlier high traffic stores -- they literally underestimated how much sales traffic would occur in some newer stores. Hollywood West comes to mind.


GI Joes never did better than their top 4 top early stores. Had they not expanded beyond these few, obviously they'd still be in business today with hardly any debt.

I'm not sure the liquidation company is going to let the "Joes" name go cheap, and I'm not sure if one can legally use "GI Joe's". But like I said earlier, there is a huge hole for 3 Portland "GI Joes"-like stores and perhaps one in Salem.

I checked out A-boy's website and it still lists six locations.

Simple explanation: Newflyer rides buses.

The closing in the newspaper a while back was a place called A-Ball.

The url says it all . . .

http://247wallst.com/2009/04/15/twelve-major-brands-that-will-disappear/

Chrysler Motor Co. -- It has its own thread going!

I've made several visits to Joe's over the last few weeks. Many of the things there aren't bargains, but there are a few items that are. Case in point: I went in last weekend looking for a large backpack. Including the 30% discount, many of these backpacks were going for some $100. I figured that was too much, so I didn't buy one.

While perusing through the store on my way to the backpacks, I came upon a shelf full of yellow SolaDyne wind-up/solar radio/flashlight combo units. I took one up to the register for a price check--they were only $17.49. At that price, I figured I'd buy; I later found out that on the Internet, these things retail for about $25-$99 (!)

From other stuff that I post on this board, some folks might get the impression that I hate everything new and modern, and that I only buy second hand electronics at garage sales, HAMfests, and pawn shops. There is a grain of truth in that statement, but I believe that I got a very good value for the price on this product. My 17 1/2 dollars bought:

* A reasonably bright 3 LED flashlight in which somebody engineered the optics so that beams from the 3 LEDs converge into one bright spot.
* An AM/FM radio that performs a bit better than I expected. It is not a DX machine, but should prove useful unless one is in an extremely remote area.
* A replaceable NiMH battery that will power either the radio or light for about five hours.
* The ability to charge the internal battery from the built-in solar cells, the built-in hand cranked generator, or from 5-6 V DC, supplied either through a mini-USB connector or a miniature coaxial DC connector.
* A DC output jack that provides about 4.5V @ 500 mA for quick charging of mobile phones or other uses.

I recommend this product, if you can find one, for an emergency preparedness kit or for camping. Note that to maximize the life of the battery, it is reccommended that it be kept charged.

Charter Communications - Filed for Chapter 11 on March 27.