There is a lot to talk about this week.

 

However, I have a couple of updates,

 

Sephora opened its store inside JCPenney about a week before the official grand opening a couple weeks ago.  It actually looks just like a mini version of the larger store in the mall complete with its own little entrance and large neon sign within the JCPenney store.  Did we really need a third one of these stores in the mall?  I really doubt it.

 

It is official:  Sports Authority is closing up all their stores and while at this writing there were no signs around, I expect them within the next few days.

 

Across the hall in the mall, Aeropostale is heading toward bankruptcy as their stock is valued under 10 cents/share.  This store is located across from where the GAP store was located and runs down the entire right side heading to Bon Ton store.  I expect that this company will start shutting down these stores within the next few weeks.

 

On the other hand, Finish Line store is almost ready to open as they are starting to stock the store.  This is now going to be one of many shoe stores that clutter up the mall.

 

Now the big news is that a federal judge has denied the merger of Staples and OfficeDepot.

 

This certainly was not a surprise to me as this merger would have completely wiped out all the competition.  However, the real competition is Amazon which continues to crush all the brick and mortar retailers.

 

Because of this denial of merger, OfficeDepot stock has now sank to just a little over $3.50/share and Staples is now at roughly $8.50/share.

 

So with these stocks sliding so much, the real question is now what?

 

Well, first off this merger dragged down retail stocks like Best Buy, Macy’s and GameStop as the entire retail sector seems to be affected by this chain reaction downturn.

 

I expect that some companies will start accelerating their store closures in a way to try to save themselves.

 

With OfficeDepot sinking fast, I expect that the days of this company are definitely numbered and Staples probably will close at least a third of their stores just to survive.

 

Ultimately, neither of these companies will survive this rejection.  I expect that there will be big meetings among store employees in the weeks ahead to try to cope with cutbacks and more expected firings.  Chances are that if they fire people they will do it as ungracefully as they terminated me.  When you are desperate, you do desperate things.

 

And Staples is at the point of doing desperate things.

 

It seems that every week now some retailer announces either store closures or going out of business.  The reason for this is simple:  people don’t shop anymore and there is too many stores selling the same types of things.

 

Just like the big retail meltdown in the 1970’s, that took down several large retailers of its day, we are now at the point of seeing many stores whose only footprint in malls being eliminated.

 

Unfortunately, I think that for many retailers, death is inevitable, just like the Staples/Office Depot merger.