Blog 4: Retailers who have failed

Growing up as a young girl in the late 90's, if you didn't shop at Claire's, you definitely weren't "cool". Claire's is like heaven for an eleven year old girl. Claire's sold a variety of items such as jewelry, purses, sunglasses, makeup, and even pierced ears. They also always had hip new gadgets that were looked upon as cool or cute such as colored face plates for cell phones and ipods, cool key chains, and colorful notebooks to take to school. When I recently heard that Claire's was closing a lot of their stores in 2009, it almost brought a tear to my eye. Not because I shop there now, but because it was the one store I went in every visit to the mall when I was in my tweens and teenage years. According to ShoppingBlog.com, Claire's is closing 119 of there 3,000 stores in 2009 due to filing bankruptcy twice in 2008. In my opinion, I think Claire's failed because in 2007 another company bought out Claire's and I don't think they had the proper training or knowledge to keep the business afloat obviously or they wouldn't have had to file bankruptcy the following year after they bought them. Retail Strategy is the key to building a successful business and keeping it afloat. One missing piece in the puzzle could cause your whole business to crash and burn. According to wikio.com, "As a result of the difficult retail operating environment and the current challenging economic conditions, the Company is currently assessing the recoverability of its goodwill and other intangible assets as well as its fixed assets and expects to record a material non-cash impairment charge for the quarter ended January 31, 2009. The size of the impairment charge will be determined after further analysis and finalized prior to the filing of the 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Any such impairment charge would be non-cash, would not affect any of the terms of the Company's Credit Facility or Indenture agreements, and would not have any effect on our liquidity or cash flow."

http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-27-2009/0004980022&EDATE=
http://www.shoppingblog.com