store closings

Best Buy has a big plan to cut its costs and regain its focus: closing stores, laying off employees, shifting its focus to smartphones and mobile gadgets, and slimming down margins. Only problem is, none of that is going to save it.

First, U.S. manufacturing collapsed under the pressure from low-wage labor overseas, leaving the landscape dotted with hollowed-out plants and gutted factories. Now, assailed factors from online shopping to the economic downturn, the retail sector is suffering too, bequeathing us an increasing number of abandoned -- some say dead -- malls.

On Tuesday, Sears Holdings announced it would close as many as 120 Sears and Kmart stores after a holiday sales season in which it fell flat on its face. What Sears really needs is a new image -- an idea that will lure shoppers back. Could "Made in the USA" be it?

Shares of Sears Holdings fell 27% Tuesday on news that the retailer would close as many as 120 poorly performing Sears and Kmart stores -- an unusually harsh response to a cost-cutting measure. Clearly, investors are concerned that the problems run much deeper -- and they're right to worry.

Sears Holdings on Tuesday reported a sharp drop in holiday sales compared to a year ago, and said the results will force it to close 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores. The company said the stores to be closed have yet to be identified.

Gap executives this week set plans to turnaround its ailing namesake stores, which include jazzing up its concededly drab clothing mix with more colorful items and prints. But is that what shoppers really want from the iconic brand?

Discount retailer TJX will close its A.J. Wright discount chain after the holidays, and reopen roughly half of the 162 stores as either T.J. Maxx or Marshalls locations. A.J. Wright opened in 1998, and offers similar merchandise and pricing to its sister stores, but it never performed as well, or...

Retailer Saks Inc. (SKS) reported a second-quarter net loss of $32.2 million, or 21 cents per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $54.5 million, or 39 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2009. The results for the second quarter of 2010 include after-tax charges of $11.7 million, or 8...

Hollister, the popular teen apparel store, has shut its flagship New York store due to a bed bugs infestation. The company, which playfully dubs its male and female customers "dudes" and "bettys", learned of the embarrassing problem earlier this week and shuttered its store at 600 Broadway...

Sears Holdings plans to close down eight Sears stores and 13 Kmarts in April and May, laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to news reports. Sears and Kmart have been suffering from low sales, even while they still have a number of brands that are popular with shoppers.