It seems that massive data thefts and "mistakes-were-made" bankruptcies are the bellwethers for corporate closings. Customer data, employee pensions and union busting are the last of the low hanging fruit that company economists and lawyers have targeted for harvest, just prior to closing up shop for the winter. And it will be a long winter for the whole world if our big retailers trim their stocks of long johns and quilts. Reduced supply at good prices will reduce demand. This will reduce orders to foreign and domestic manufacturers who will lay off their workers and drive up unemployment. The fall of the Big makes too much of an impact. We need an economy that relies on smaller, more nimble units that can respond to demand, not create it.

Not surprising...the US has been grossly, obviously overbuilt on retail for some time now. We have 25 feet of retail space per person in the USA, the most in the world by far. The second place country, Canada, had only two-thirds as much retail space. In Europe, the country with the most retail space per capita is Sweden, but has only three square feet of store space per capita. The future belongs to town centers, main streets, and mixed-use development. Many analysts have been pointing since at least 2003 that we need to demolish 300 million square feet of retail space to be more in line with demand.