We are heading for a depression or recession.

[live love laugh]

Stores closing or announcing closing in 2026:

IKEA; Saks Off 5th; Neiman Marcus; Macy's (shutting 150 stores): Kroger (Food for Less); 711; Wendy's; Pizza Hut; Apple; Walgreens; CVS; Dollar Tree; Family Dollar; Dollar General; Big Lots; Best Buy; Bed Bath and Beyond; Party City; Footlocker/Kids Foot Locker; Champs Sports; The Gap; Banana Republic; Old Navy; JC Penney's; Nordstroms; Kohls; Burlington; Ross; TJ Maxx; Marshalls; HomeGoods; GameStop; Office Depot/ OfficeMax; Staples; Starbucks; Subway; TGI Friday; Red Lobster; Dennys; IHOP; Buffalo Wild Wings; Chilis; Applebees; Olive Garden; Stanley Black and Decker plant in Connecticut laying off 300 have all so far announced store closures for 2026.

This means thousands and thousands more people will be laid off while consumer spending has dropped for 14 straight months. Consumer spending drives 68% of the economy/GDP.

Please do the best that you can to get your finances in order. Do not spend money!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYIUb1YBMoK/?igsh=Z3d1NzlsamR0dWx6

[Dave Bowman]

1. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a depression. The idiot is an absolute catastrophe.

[Initech]

2. We're definitely heading for Great Depression 2.

The billionaires and Wall Street are stealing all of our money. We don't regulate any business. And the fuckhead in charge certainly isn't helping.

[usonian]

3. OK, assuming that SOMEONE is orchestrating this shitshow, WHY?

All I can guess is that it's to cause panic/uprisings, and (of course) trigger emergency powers.

Putin seems to have been fomenting this for a long time, "day one" as we say, back in 2015 or so.

Made my analysis a while back. Might need some fine-tuning, and perhaps a bit more emphasis on "who has the videos?" from the dabauchery of the Trump-Epstein sex, blackmail and money-laundering empire.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220295160

Dictators arise in chaos. He's the "master" of chaos.



or KAOS.

[DFW]

4. It sounds like we should be saying the opposite

IF (big if) you are able to afford it, and your purchases are not frivolous, DO spend money.

The workers whose jobs depend on those stores staying open say thanks! in advance. Pay cash or by check if it’s at all convenient, so that the credit card companies don’t siphon off 4% from what the store really takes in.

For the last 800 years or so, there has been an open air market in our town square, where local farmers, small food merchants, etc. set up three times a week. We buy there when we can. There is even a local baker who attaches a huge multi-level bread-baking oven to a pickup, drives it onto the square, and sells freshly-baked loaves of bread and breakfast rolls right out of the oven. The aroma is seductive (betcha Peppridge Faahm doesn’t remembah that). The people of our small town crowd the market in all kinds of weather. It’s not always cheap, but it IS always fresh, and it keeps the tradition (and the farmers) from dying out.

[live love laugh]

7. If thousands are unemployed how can they spend?

Economic “stimulus” counters collapse but stimulus requires cash.

[Happy Hoosier]

13. Did you miss the part where the poster said "if you can afford it?" NT

[Blue Dotty]

5. Trump is trashing FEMA - how safe is the FDIC? n/t

[wnylib]

8. I looked up a few of the stores listed.

Some are restructuring. And not necessarily via chapter 11. 7/11 is closing several low performing stores, but not goibg out of business. They are planning newer, smaller stores.

Family Dollar is closing several stores fur the same reason, but is not going out of business. New, smaller stores again.

Dollar General is closing a small number compared to the other 2 companies and is expanding.
.
The closings will hurt the employees and their families and communities at locations that are shutting down. But those companies are not going out of busines

[LymphocyteLover]

9. I was pretty sure that as soon as he came into power and started with the tariffs BS that we would be headed for

some sort of financial crash.

Right now a lot of the economy is propped up on AI and building data centers, seems like.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Retailers' Planned Closings Is An Indicator...

. .of Depression?
Since when.

[Renew Deal]

11. Pretty sure that is misleading

IKEA is not going out of business. Neither are any others in that list.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Consumer spending is the whole deal

Now it is down and slumping, but I couldn't find evidence it has dropped 14 straight months. But consumer sentiment is at all time lows and that effects spending significantly.

Joe Biden built the best economy for working people in my lifetime (born in early 70s). The media crapped all over it so much that even most democrats don't know how good it was. Joe Biden actually created conditions in the US where the bottom 50% saw more gains than the top 10% both in real dollars and as a % of net worth.

The media hated Biden, think about Jobs Reports
Actual headlines from some of Biden's job reports vs for Trump's latest:

"November Jobs Report Is Another Big Miss For Joe Biden" Added 210,000 jobs November 2021.

"the actual number came in at a dismal 266,000" April of 2021

"Another big miss for Biden on jobs." January of 2022 when we added 466,000 jobs.

Actual headline from Trump's latest job report.

"The Blockbuster jobs report showing we added 115,000 jobs."

That's what we're up against, the corporate media who has an agenda that is anti worker and anti middle class.