Big businesses starting to go out of business

So last night out of no where our local Lowes hardware store announced that it will be shutting its doors for the last time in the evening. There was no warning, 79 locals are now out of jobs in an area with no jobs to offer.

Lowes also closed down 7 other branches nationwide last night with no warning and expects to close down more soon.

I assumed large corporations like lowes were immune from the economic downturn but i was wrong. Makes me wonder who will be falling next.

(mods, wasn't sure where to place this, please move to a better board if there is one)

reply to post by Alaskan Man


The thing with big business is its always controlled by people and people are controlled by money, here in the UK we had a big business that allegedly went bust it was called woolworths but what they didn't tell the public was that woolworths used to own all there buildings and the directors decided to split the business into 2 then closed the retail side leaving the other business owning all the land and loads of people out of work.

Business must be pretty slow in the US. I have a copy of Hardware Merchandising Magazine July / August 2010 (pdf file), and it has this to say:

For its first stores outside of Ontario, Lowe’s has announced plans
to open three stores in the Calgary area: Crosstown Mills, the Shepard
Industry Area-McKenzie Towne and in the Sunridge Industrial
Area. The company has also said that it will soon expand into the Edmonton
market, as well as into British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Only the latter location has been more clearly defined: it will be in
Regina, with a midsummer 2011 opening foreseen.

Lowe’s has stated that it plans to open between 9 and 12 Canadian
stores each year for the foreseeable future, to reach the
100-store plateau sometime in the next 8 years. Lowe’s is also beginning
to tackle its third and fourth “foreign” markets, with a joint
venture deal with Woolworths in Australia now underway, and its
first store in Mexico opening in February of this year. —SP

From what I'm seeing here in Canada they're doing pretty well. I've heard that Rona is struggling, but nothing bad for Lowes. I guess we can only wait and see.

Pro tip:

Do not run multiple stores under the same name, use the following
Company id 1: BusinessName_Location
Company id 2: BusinessName_Location2

Sure they can use the same brand, but as legal entities, use different names / company register IDs for each outlet.

Also keep the property seperate from the occupying business, and rent it.

This way, somethign happens to store in location 1, the rest survive, and the property survives.

it may not even be about the money. with all the doom and gloom/elenin/nibiru/up-coming depression, they may want to minimalize the amount of chaos when the SHTF. it sounds far off but if they are expanding in canada, as of 2010, then why would they randomly close stores in the US. just my two cents.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Weird they are just shutting the doors.. I suppose moving inventory elsewhere, usually they liquidate. I think it really depends on the area though, I know I spend enough time at my local Home Depot I should work there They probably get the majority of their actual money from contractors, as DIY projects are usually ramped up in the spring/summer.

hey if people dont have money how can you expect a business to keep its doors open

its not like they have an endless supply of cash to pay for the inventory,real estate,loans,machinery healthcare costs
payroll and everything else they pay for.

business 101

if your spending more than you take in you close you downsize

and thats that.

your also talking home improvement as in homes alot of pople lost em rent and a myraid of other reasons that the demands has become none exisitent.

its called a recession meaning people aint got no cash or as they call disposable income also with many people upside in their home loans it doesnt make sense to make any upgrades or improvements that will not increase their homes values.

one thing for sure is that pick your market and its pretty much guanranteed they all suck right now with no hope of change

cause the potlical leaders dont get it and never will

reply to post by JennaDarling

I am interested in what you are saying I just cn't quite understand, can you explain what you just posted real simply? I'm a little tired I guess.

reply to post by SunnyDee


If I'm reading her right, she is saying to have a different business ID for each store location, and also a separate business identity just to hold the property itself.

You own two properties one in Saxonburg and one in Etensburg. You should create a business entity just to hold the land and buildings separate from any business you may put in the buildings. Now you decide to create two Joe's Hardware stores on each property. Instead of creating one business ID for both hardware stores, you create one business entity for the hardware store at Saxonburg, and another busines entity for the hardware store at Etensburg.

Basically what it does is set up safety nets. If Joe's Hardware had to go bankrupt in Saxonburg it would not affect the one in Etensburg. The buildings and land are also safe if all the business entities are set up correctly. Otherwise, you would be looking to not only loose one hardware store, but both stores and the property they are on.

If Joe's hardware closes at Saxonburg, you still have the land and can now rent the building to a different company. She did say to rent to your own hardware store. That may be just to make the company holding the land an actual company that actually does something.

I hope that helped a little bit.

Thanks a lot Liberals!
You always wanted to kill big businesses, and now it's happening.
Now the next question is,
..how many people were employed by these big businesses?