It just keeps snowballing!
Joes (formerly GI Joes) sporting goods~
Seattle Times reports:
Initially, Joe's filed for bankruptcy as a means for reorganization, not long after, this news...
Joe's fate was sealed Thursday at a federal bankruptcy-court hearing in Delaware, where Boston liquidator Gordon Brothers Group offered to buy $128.5 million worth of merchandise for $61 million. It was the highest of three offers liquidators made in the five weeks since Joe's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
No offers were made to keep any stores open.
Going-out-of-business sales begin today and continue until the merchandise is gone.
Joe's said it had suffered, like other retailers, from "very weak sales" in the recession. It was also hurt by poor holiday sales caused by "unseasonably dry weather throughout the Pacific Northwest."
In turn, Joe's pumped up promotional spending to try to boost sales, and its profit margins shrank, according to its bankruptcy filing.
Joe's has 15 locations in Washington state, a dozen of them in the Puget Sound region, as well as 14 in Oregon and two in Idaho. It is based in Wilsonville, Ore., and has about 1,600 employees.
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*OFF THE PILLOW*
An upscale cruise line gave employees notice the company is cutting back on several guest perks, one of which is the *chocolate mint on the pillow*. The end of an era???Also there will be no raises this year. Granted a .23 cent raise for the entire year is not keeping pace with the cost of living. It is an "employers market", and they can get away with this kind of thing, and everyone knows, you are lucky to just have a job.
Ironically they DO have money to purchase TWO brand new ships at $1.4 BILLION each.
You might say the employees are Royally screwed.
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Double take~
I saw a concert advertised in the newspaper
Tickets $38, $30 & $22 bucks.... those prices were crossed out & is now advertised as:
Ticket Pricing: Pay-What-You-Will; At the Box Office
Wow! I have NEVER seen a formal concert advertised as such.
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Mickey Mouse Economy?
Disney has eliminated 1,900 U.S.-based positions since mid-February. Some 900 salaried employees working at Disney's theme parks in Florida were laid off, and 700 open positions were eliminated, said communications Vice President Mike Griffin. In California, 200 workers were laid off and 100 open positions were cut.So kids--- do you still think we are in a recession?
6 comments:
Total synchronicity: "Another one bites the dust" was cosmically balanced by the title of my blog today, "What's the opposite of another one bites the dust?" before I saw yours!
Anyway, who's next to join Joe's? Dillards? Saks? (aside from Chrysler or GM maybe)
Gottschalks went under last week too. 58 department stores.... gone.
To answer your question, I'm guessing GM will be the next to file for bankruptcy.
No matter how many billions the gvmnt "loans" GM,
people without jobs don't buy new cars.
I also wonder if this whole government backing the GM warranty thing is really freaking people out....having the opposite effect-- this company must be on REALLY thin ice if they need the government to back their warranties.... also I have to wonder how does one go through the government bureaucracy to get your lemon of a vehicle repaired & the warranty honored.... sometimes it is hard enough to deal direct with the manufacturer.
Hell the gvmnt can't even fill potholes in the street. Good luck with a blown head gasket repair!
Yet GM is running *Total Confidence ads*, saying if you lose your job, they will pay up to $500 a month for 9 months on your car loan.
We are in a new age of marketing.... since when do they mention job loss in car ads, and accentuate the need to not worry they will be in business long enough to honor the warranty... or the government will back up the warranty??? Big red flags there...
Remember when they just used sex appeal to sell cars?
No more *Like a Rock*, or "This is not your Father's Oldsmobile."
Rocks sink, and "this is not your Father's Depression"
Bah! It's just a recession...... not to worry.
well cancel my global cruise if free bedtime mints don't come with the deal! arrrgghh, geez, makes you wonder how much they were paying for those mints if eliminating them will really make a dent in their profit.
now about covering job loss in car ads as you mentioned in the above comment, that reminds me that mortgage lenders have always had mortgage insurance available (for an add'l cost) for borrowers that would pay their monthly pymts for x-months if they lost their job or otherwise became disabled. a home usually being The Most Expensive Purchase a normal person will ever make, some lenders even required that type of insurance of their borrowers. so I guess it should be no surprise that car loans would now make the same deal available to borrowers, cars having become so expensive. of course, when you are unemployed, a car loan might as well be a mortgage pymt ... when ya ain't got nuthin (as bob dylan would say) ...
DK~ I know - the people living in tent cities, or having pizza parties in order to raise money for a cancer patient with no health insurance could give a rat's ass about chocolate mints on pillows in floating luxury hotels. I get that.
It was just a weird briefing I was in where they made those announcements, no more pillow mints & no raises. Well!
So I did the math:
21 ships
total passenger capacity- 62,040 passengers.
x 365 days in a year
22,644,600 chocolate mints!
But it's not like they are saying we're cutting out the mints & free drinks to guests to give you a less than cost-of-living sub par wage raise. That was my point.
Times are hard. No more pillow mints for anyone!
Someone even quipped in the meeting (in a Gingy-like voice of the Shrek gingerbread cookie character)
**NOT THE CHOCOLATE PILLOW MiNTS!!!**
I guess you had to be there.
The whole thing becomes more surreal.
They just built 3 of the worlds largest ships 3 in a row for 800 M each, and now have 2 on order for $1.4 billion each.
Meanwhile wage freezes, and other strict mandates are put on employees.
If the top dogs had a wage freeze, they are in comfort zones that would not cause financial distress.
I work with full time co-workers who file for bankruptcy, use government assistance programs,
and genuinely struggle financially.
As for vehicles...I'm just saying in the past, the advertising has always been image, and coolness or strength/power of the vehicle, now it's if you get your ass fired too, you are partially covered for 9 months for $500 a month. Again- surreal.
Just sayin' things are really different.
wow..GI Joes...so so sad..if you live in the NW you go to the joe's its a part of the NW....wow...
here there are rows and rows of empty stores...and buildings- they have started bulldozing some...
what is next ?
I don't even know at this point....
here it is like watching a snowstorm- and the drifts move and shift....I can 't perdict any longer...
I have seen all kinds of stores leave and close...and resturantes and businesses and people leave....
It is surreal. We are rally are in uncharted waters, and
the ripples just keep coming.
I feel like employers are starting to take advantage of this situation too.
Sure there are "employee rights" in the books. but employers hold all the cards right now.
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