Where You Won't Shop in 2009

LONG BEACH, CA--(Marketwire - March 11, 2009) - CLOSED. It's more than just a sign on a door -- it's a sign of the times.

The current recession is claiming more victims, and they aren't just mom and pop retailers -- they are big national chains who are shuttering thousands of locations, according to a new list of troubled retailers recently released by Forbes Magazine.

You know the names -- Eddie Bauer, Lane Bryant, Zales -- and there are many more. Their demise didn't start with the recession, however, according to Darlene Quinn, a former senior executive with the Bullocks Wilshire department store chain and author of the novel "Webs of Power," from Emerald Book Company (www.darlenequinn.net). Quinn was there when corporate raiders started consolidating the big chain stores and siphoning them dry. Quinn has a unique insight to how the industry has found itself sitting on the ledge, looking down.

"Many of our favorite department stores are vanishing," Quinn said. "While the predatory, corporate raiders got the ball rolling through hostile takeovers in the '80s, we are all, in part, responsible for their demise."

Having announced 11 store closings, Macy's, one of the country's most beloved department stores, is in trouble. Still, Quinn has high hopes for the chain.

"I think personally that they will lose a lot of stores, but I think in the end, they will survive," Quinn said. "Typically, in a downturn, big chains close down underperforming stores, like what Macy's is doing, so they seem to be on course."

A wave of leveraged buyouts in the retail sector in the 1980s led to a great number of popular chains being owned by a smaller number of conglomerates and holding companies, Quinn added.

"The buyouts allowed corporate raiders to swoop down on businesses (many of which they knew little or nothing about) purchase them, using mostly Other People's Money and drive them into chapter 11," she said. "In many cases, the raiders cared little about the businesses they were taking over. The goal was not to grow these businesses; the goal was to line their own pockets."

About Darlene Quinn

Darlene Quinn is an author and journalist. As part of a nine-member management team for the Bullocks Wilshire Specialty Department stores, Quinn has the insider's perspective on the rise and fall of major department stores.

Contact Information: Contact: Rachel Friedman rachel@newsandexperts.com