Ann Taylor To Shutter 163 Stores By 2010

Bloomberg:

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- AnnTaylor Stores Corp. plunged the most in more than eight years in New York trading after a shrinking job market stifled demand for the retailer's line of women's business attire.

AnnTaylor tumbled $1.53, or 28 percent, to $4.01 at 11:21 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest intraday drop since November 2000. Before today, the shares lost 4 percent this year.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[spinns17]

guess walmart will be happy.there going to get bigger ,and china will get richer .lol

[ruthinking]

I could never find anything in my size (14) at Ann Taylor.. I often wonder if clothing stores ever LOOK at the market, who potential buyers are and what are their needs. Maybe the remaining stores will think to do that, before it's too late.

[drymartini1]

thats nature's way of telling you to work out more and eat less.

[NoMoreFreepers]

CLOTHES!!! THE WORD IS CLOTHES!!! NOT CLOTHS!!! COME ON PEOPLE IT'S CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!

[SangZe]

khalm down! In a wurld wear peeple tawk seriesly about line backing philosophee, speling has gone the way of gramer. It is no longer aloud in the kerikulum.

[FairTalk]

LOL I love your humour!

[ExRepublican]

There are some GREAT deals out there, many places, for people with cash.

And sometime between next month and 10 years out, there will be even better buying ops.

For those nutjobs who say (still?, god bless you) gold was and still is useless - can you imagine if you had bought a boatload of gold & silver in 2000 and sold it now, exchanging it for almost useless dollars? Damn, even the WORST case scenario (selling your gold/silver now) would have really paid off. No? :-)

[Seattlelite]

Sad to see people losing their jobs but no surprise they're in trouble. Ann Taylor like many retailers "used" to sell a quality product at a reasonable price, then to make bigger profits that began to sell the same stuff you could buy at WallMart but at a higher price. People aren't stupid they noticed! There was a time whenever I went to shop for cloths Ann Taylor was my FIRST place of destination no longer the case.

[zukervati]

Think about it:

An artisan crafting a fine, hand made outfit with a fabric constructed to last almost a generation if not beyond or;

Mass produced merchandise produced in a near-gulag conditions somewhere in the Chinese industrial complexes with material that has a half-life shorter than unrefrigerated blue cheese.

Granted the first option will cost more money, but in the long run you'd be employing more people, the product would last longer (Green savings) and we'd all have a better appreciation of what it means to give your shirt off of your back!

[drymartini1]

more money comes from higher costs. the goal is to cut costs. go back to school

[zukervati]

Apparently you've had too much of that "dry martini", possibly way early in the morning!

Despite what Khrushchev said, quantity does not have a quality of its own. Mass produced Chinese imports with sub-par material and non-ISO compliant manufacturing practices has done irrevocable damage to the long-term viability of businesses and the people who depend on selling/servicing those goods.

Cutting costs, especially through outsourcing labor to countries with no labor laws (or human rights for that matter), will definitely increase company's profits, albeit for a short run with little to no value added for the consumer. Ever wonder why a "Made in Guatemala" tagged shirt costs just as much after the passage of NAFTA? I bet the little lady sewing the dress somewhere in Guatemala City ain't getting paid nearly as much. Did that "cost saving" get passed on to us? I hear crickets chirping .....

This insatiable appetite for cheap unrepairable goods, stoked by the mass marketers for uninformed consumers like you has created this perfect storm. Need I say, the current state of the economy should be enough of a schooling for you. Make sure to wear warm "quality" clothes as you stand in the bread line and lay off the sauce!

[abbeyroad]

well elb938,

it's friday night, and you're home on the computer.

something tells me you aren't a "hot ticket" yourself.

[elb938]

Ann Taylor is closing because most American women are over weight.

[lynnn]

My comments get deleted and this doesn't?

[Solja]

Not true. There are many overweight PEOPLE, not just women. I am far from overweight, but I'll be looking forward to the sales at Ann Taylor. I love the clothes but can't afford to plop down the exorbitant amounts of money for their clothing. I'll keep my eye on their upcoming sales, which I'm sure they'll be having. Put it on sale or eat it.

[cyoohoos]

EVEN If that were true, shame on Ann Taylor for not adapting their business.

[synergie]

I thought they were closing because ann taylor has some interesting ideas on proportion. Are there really that many short people???

[Promise]

I feel sorry for the employees but I'm really not sorry to see Ann Taylors stores close. The clothes are really dull and terribly overpriced. I'd rather shop at Target than there!

[Solja]

I'll take Ann Taylor clothing any day next to Target. I like some of Target's stuff but not most. It's a step up from Walmart for my tastes. You might like Dress Barn or Kohl's stuff more than Targets, and they aren't overly expensive. I have a pair of slacks from Ann Taylor that I got on sale. I've had them about 6-7 years and they still look like the day I bought them.

[Seattlelite]

Yeah 6 years ago.....I doubt you'd find those same pants there today! A few years ago Ann Taylor had a great product for the price that is no longer the case. Check their labels you'll find them in Wlalmart but for less money.

[lynnn]

Keep shopping at Walmart and keep spending yourself out of a job.

[MyGuyO]

Sorry to hear this news re: Anne Taylor stores closing. Loved this store.
But most of all, sorry to hear of all these people losing their jobs.

[voltage356]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BVqIjKyJh0

[strangerinthenight]

Just for the first week of March alone, the job loss is now approximately 150,000 + Ann Taylor's about 2500 employees. The FDIC is broke and needs to bailed out too - for about 500 BILLION; AIG about 450 BILLION MORE. Plus 650,000 job loss in Jan, another 650,000 in Feb.

Worst, millions more have already dropped off the Unemployment radar, so they are no longer counted.

So far, a staggering 4.3 MILLION JOBS disappeared. And, the Big 3 will lay offs about 3/4 of the Union members, that about 1.5 MILLION MORE JOB LOST. And of course, the DOW IS GOING DOWN SOUTH. More foreclosures, more welfare etc etc.

Where is rock bottom ? No one really knows. Some says this will continue for years, other says decades.

((((((shaking my head))))))))

[Solja]

Three different times today, I have heard that this will last for the next 3-6 months.

I think we ALL need to head to Texas to drag an old white man out of his retirement home to answer for this mess. He caused this catastrophe and he needs to be held accountable.

[NoMoreFreepers]

I agree!! Send him and his cronies to the Hague to be tried by the International Criminal Court. This old man removed our country from the ICC during his first term.

Better to be a socialistic society than be ruled by a facist!!

[drymartini1]

Watch out for these to close in recent future or HUGE restructuring before the year is over

1) CVS pharmacy
2) Blockbuster

[lynnn]

What are you a short?

[drymartini1]

I am on Blockbuster. Not on CVS.

but that doesnt make me wrong :)

[Solja]

I worry more about Walgreens. They continue to build new stores here in the Midwest and I don't ever see lines in the stores. I think they are next, even though they don't employ many people.

[iblog]

So?

[heavysole]

We survived just fine 30 years ago without all of these ridiculous 163 Ann Taylor stores, we'll survive again without them.

The problem is: The real jobs, the jobs that people can go to for 40 hours a week and sustain a household are far and few between. Let the Ann Taylors, close and give us some *real* bread and butter jobs.

Globalization sure sounds good but what is it really?

I'll tell you.

Globalization means that American companies can send our good jobs overseas, and be rewarded for doing so.

I say, slap on fair trade tarriffs, import duties and everything else and see how long it takes these money-grubbing jerks to continue sending jobs overseas.

Believe me, it won't take long.

[nanotubz]

Except for food stuffs, what do we really export to the world that support real jobs?

[Solja]

Guns, bombs, and weapons. That's our export, however covert.

[duze]

Our heart felt thanks to Bill Clinton. He worked his tail off to bring this to fruition.