Retail Therapy: Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy, Starbucks Worst Quarter Ever
Yesterday, Circuit City, with 721 US stores and 43,000 employees, filed for bankruptcy.
Starbucks (SBUX) announced their worst quarter ever with same store sales in the US down -8% from the year ago period (SBUX FY 4Q Earnings Release). Up until one year ago, Starbucks had never even had a quarter with negative US same store sales.
A front page article in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Retail Losses Sap A Jobs Safety Net” (subscription required), says that 1 in 10 Americans is employed in the retail sector, many of them poor: “In retail, you have large numbers of people who are at or slightly above poverty, so losing employment in that sector can increase poverty levels”, said Ken Jacobs, chairman of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education.