10 brands that won't be around in 2012 from MSNBC article

[MaytagA710]

Dept. Stores in Canada

It would be a shame to see Sears go, but here in Halifax/Dartmouth, we only have 3 Sears locations, and one isn't a "true" Sears, it's a Sears Home. All they do is sell appliances and furniture. The other two are doing very poorly, and one used to be attached to a mall that now doesn't exist. Has anyone ever noticed that once you play ball with Sears Credit, you get NON STOP CALLS from them asking to sign up for the card or what not!?

Petek, you're right. K Mart in Canada was a joke, their stores looked like a fancy version of a thrift store, stuff just thrown everywhere, and very dirty on the inside. Woolco was also, just as bad.

Eatons disappeared, and now The Bay seems to be slowly doing the same thing... No more Beaumark! Crap! They had attractive machines back in the 80s.

 

[whirlcool]

From what a relative told me about Houston, EVERY neighborhood is a bad neighborhood. He lived in a sprawling $M ranch home but would not go outside after dark. Like Detroit with a much higher dewpoint.

It never used to be like this. If you know where to look and have the $$$ to buy, there are still plenty of nice places to live in the Houston area. The bad areas are spreading out like mad, and where we used to live in Houston is now an area you wouldn't go to during daylight hours.

So we moved to the north suburbs of Houston. Still nice, but who knows for how long, the Gunspoint area is migrating this way.

 

[arbilab]

Dallas and Ft Worth neighborhoods I grew up in are now ghettoes. We barely bothered locking doors. Today you can't leave a lawn sprinkler out overnight.

Glad I'm old, won't have to tolerate much more of this 'progress'.

 

[alr2903]

If you look around anywhere there are lots of retail property's available.  Many commercial buildings are more of an albatross than a free standing home with an underwater mortgage.  There is a website called deadmalls.com  and its a good way to waste an hour of time.

http://deadmalls.com/

 

[arbilab]

There is an abandoned stripmall a half mile from me. It's not run down looking either, just empty. L-shaped, room for ~dozen merchants. One occupant, a cleaner on one end. Next half mile up is where Kroger is. It has vacancies too but more tenants than holes. Across the street from that is an abandoned Dollar store and an abandoned Kwik Car Oil Change which just closed this year.

This town is weird. Unlike Austin which had fast food every quarter mile, Euless has all the franchises but only one of each and all in one place, Main and State 183. Just as well I suppose, for my budget and my nutrition, it's inconvenient. Over a dozen stoplights away. I prefer to bring fast food home and eat as I always do, in front of TV. But over that distance/time it gets cold and can't all be microwaved.

 

[dogboy44]

they have both run there course. . .

Never liked Sears and considered it, and Kenmore both, an off brand. 

Whirlpool could lose Kenmore and we could all lose Sears and Kmart. 

Sears was always very plain and depressing.

GM in turn said good bye to Oldsmobile and Pontiac.

Their cars were coveted at one point, but what they offered towards the end was pretty lame.

 

We have lost much better stores than this.  What is surviving seems to be the bigger is better business model.

 

I do not like shopping in a giant stadium full of crap and prefer smaller more specialized stores.