CyberCJH's Blog

After a sad and depressing Holiday season for retailers this year, here is a list of the retailers that I think will probably go out of business in 2009.

• Dillard’s : In the last quarter, the company lost $38 million. It recently cut staff and is in the process of closing under-performing locations. It only has 318 stores, which makes it a relatively small operation in a world dominated by outfits like Sears, which has about 3,800. S&P dropped the company’s credit rating recently.
• Pier 1: In the last quarter, revenue fell 7% and the company lost $30 million. With $183 million in debt, it won’t take much to tip Pier 1 into insolvency. Too bad, Kirstie.
• Rite Aid: Rite Aid is bloated with over 5,000 stores and the integration of its Brooks and Eckerd drugstore chains appears to be going very badly. The pharmacy has competition from huge operators including Wal-Mart. It has a massive debt load of $6.1 billion.

These companies will probably closing a lot of their locations in an effort to return to profitability:

• Gap (including Gap, Old Navy & Banana Republic) : Posted double-digit same-store sales declines for many of the months during 2008 and expects sales to get worse in 2009. If that is true, Gap may not make it through the year as an independent company. Fall.In.To.The.Tank.
• Sears (including K-Mart) : The company posted horrific numbers for most of 2008. Over the last year, shares of Sears have dropped from $114 to $37. The company will either have to close hundreds of stores or perhaps eliminate one of its two huge brands – K-Mart or Sears. I think the K-Mart brand will go away. Sorry, Martha. But, now you can focus on your new relationship with Macy’s. Sears is unlikely to go out of business entirely, but a lot of its 337,000 employees could be out of work next year. WTF is Sears anyway? You got your high-end stores like Lord & Taylor and Macy’s and then your low-end stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Sears is stuck in the middle with high-end store prices in a low-end store environment. They’re not competitive on anything.

written by cybercjh

In 2008, I …

• … had an ’01 Ford Taurus until it got rear-ended and was totaled.
• … had an ’06 Ford Five Hundred for about 6 months until I realized it sucked.
• … bought an ’08 Toyota Highlander.
• … stopped for gas 52 times.
• … averaged 17.6 mpg with the Taurus.
• … averaged 20.3 mpg with the Five Hundred.
• … averaged 19.5 mpg with the Highlander.
• … drove 12,235 miles.
• … spent $2,095 on gas.
• … paid anywhere from $1.64 to $4.09 for a gallon of gas.

written by cybercjh

Merry Day-After. Still full?

The news wires are buzzing this morning with bad, bad news.

From the Wall Street Journal …
RETAIL SALES PLUMMET
“This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record.”

From ABC News …
EARLY FIGURES SHOW DISMAL YEAR
“The amount of money spent at the nation’s retailers from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve was down 5.5 percent to 8 percent compared with last year.”

From all walks of life, Americans are cutting back.

Just recently, the personal savings rate rose to nearly 3%. That means, on average, for every $100 a person makes in wages, they save $3. It wasn’t too long ago that the personal savings rate was about -1%, meaning a person would spend $101 for every $100 he’d make. You can’t go on spending more than you make for any length of time without some pretty dire consequences.

I think a rediscovery of frugality is upon us and I don’t consider that a bad thing. I think the majority of us are starting to view debt as a bad thing which robs us of our personal security and to some extent our freedom and peace of mind.

While we’re on the subject, can we please take a moment to discuss the difference between being frugal and cheap.

Frugal = Buying toilet paper on sale with a coupon.
Cheap = Waiting until you get to work to take your poop so you don’t even have to buy toilet paper to begin with.

Now you understand the difference.

Anyway, this summer, I’m planning on growing my own vegetables on our lanai. I’m actually pretty excited about it. I’m going to grow tomatoes, peppers and some other vegetables upside-down, like this. I’m planning to do this for three reasons. The first is just to prove to myself that I can. The second is because I’m sick and tired of paying $2/lb for tomatoes at Publix that don’t taste anything like the tomatoes I used to get from the farmer’s markets back in Jersey. And third, it’s frugal – I (hopefully) will have a bountiful harvest with what really amounts to very little effort.

I really think for a lot of us, 2009 and beyond will be an exercise in frugality and self-control, rediscovering savings and learning to live within our means.

written by cybercjh

I GG’ed at CVS this morning with Tina.

First, we went to the CVS that is closest to our house, but of course, they were out of stock of everything. So, we went 2 miles down the road to the CVS next to the Winn-Dixie. They had everything and plus some. That CVS is an older store and not as big as a modern CVS, but damn if they don’t always have sufficient stock of their sale items.

Here’s what I ended up getting over 4 separate transactions :

• ×2 Crest Toothpaste (Reg $3.89) Sale $2.99 (for balikbayan box)
• ×5 Arm & Hammer Multi-Surface Cleaner $2.99
• ×2 Listerine (Reg $4.29) Sale $2.99 (for balikbayan box)
• Excedrin Express (Reg $5.49) Sale $3.99
• Halls Naturals $2.59
• Zantac 150 (Reg $5.29) Sale $4.99
• ×3 Thermacare Heatwrap $2.49

Now, check this out …

Subtotal = $52.15
- CVS Sale Savings : $6.20
- CVS Coupon Savings : $1.00
- Manufacturer Coupon Savings : $7.00
- Prior ExtraBucks : $14.00 (doesn’t count towards net total)
- Earned ExtraBucks (used right away) : $15.57
Out of Pocket Total = $8.38
- Earned ExtraBucks (for future use) : $28.40
- Manufacturer Mail-In Rebate : $4.99
Net Total = $-11.01 … Savings of 121%!!

Plus, I earned another $7.47 towards my second $120 P&G Coupon Book by buying the Thermacare Heatwraps.

written by cybercjh

As of this morning, I had 11 credit cards.

4 from American Express, 2 MasterCards, 1 Visa, 1 Discover and 3 store cards.

An obscene and totally unnecessary number, I know. There really is no reason for anyone to have more than 3 or 4.

Tonight, I cleaned house.

I canceled 2 of the store cards. The store card I kept open actually provides some benefits to me such as percentage off coupons and this is place where I buy most of my clothes.

I canceled 2 of the American Express cards. These two cards had very low limits and I never used them.

And, I canceled one of the MasterCards. This card also had a low limit. The original reason I got it was because it offered a very big rebate on gas purchases. But, they eventually took that away and I stopped using the card.

So, I am left with two American Express Cards and one each from MasterCard, Visa and Discover and one store card.

As far as my credit report goes, my credit utilization will only go up 1%, so my credit score shouldn’t take too much of a hit and even if it does, I imagine it will recover fairly quickly.

written by cybercjh