Archive for April 21st, 2009

Kirkland’s to Close Up to 40 Stores

Kirkland’s joins the growing list of retailers closing stores. However, the firm also does expect to open 15 to 20 stores in the third and fourth quarters.

Home accessories retailer Kirkland’s Inc said it expects to close about 35 to 40 stores in fiscal 2009, according to a regulatory filing.

“While the plan for fiscal 2009 represents a further reduction in the store base, we expect the store count to reach a bottom by the end of the year,” the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Half of the closings for fiscal 2009, which ends Jan. 30 2010, are expected during the first half of the year, and rest after the holiday season, said Kirkland’s.

Bankruptcies and Liquidations:

Potential Bankruptcies & Liquidation Impact: 1,362 confirmed closures out of about 2,713 stores

Announced Closings

Total Closings: up to 1,215 U.S. stores

Potential Impact of All Announcements to Date: 2,577 closures out of up to 3,928 potentially affected U.S. stores

Trying Twitter

I’ve started a Retail Traffic Twitter. You can follow it here.

DeBoer Talks Fed Facilities

Here’s a transcript of a brief interview with Real Estate Roundtable CEO Jeffrey DeBoer talking about the current state of commercial real estate and what’s happening with the fed programs aimed at helping the commercial real estate sector. In related news, here’s a scathing commentary posted at Fox Business News examining the possibility of further government aid coming to the industry.

DHUE: Now the Federal Reserve has its TALF program. When do you see that being executed and what does it need to have in it to restart these markets?

DEBOER: Well, the TALF — we think that the outline that has been put forward by Secretary Geithner and Chairman Bernanke and Bill Dudley from the New York Fed, the outline is a good outline with the Term Asset Lending Facility, the TALF and the public/private investment partnership, the PPIP. It is a mouthful but the seeds are there if they operationally, the details make sense. We’re concerned that it’s taken quite some time for these programs which were announced now sometime ago. But they’re very complicated. Staff of those agencies are working on them. And if they can be put in place we think they will help provide a road map out of this problem.