A nation of shopkeepers

MANIFESTO

The New York Times this morning reports that

The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country.

Since last fall, eight mostly midsize chains — as diverse as the furniture store Levitz and the electronics seller Sharper Image — have filed for bankruptcy protection as they staggered under mounting debt and declining sales.

But the troubles are quickly spreading to bigger national companies, like Linens ‘n Things, the bedding and furniture retailer with 500 stores in 47 states. It may file for bankruptcy as early as this week, according to people briefed on the matter.

Even retailers that can avoid bankruptcy are shutting down stores to preserve cash through what could be a long economic downturn. Over the next year, Foot Locker said it would close 140 stores, Ann Taylor will start to shutter 117, and the jeweler Zales will close 100.

This is truly a horrible story as retail jobs are often the last refuge of the overqualified. For a number of months after graduation from college, I worked in retail—like a few other college-educated males there, I was waiting to see what I really wanted to do with my life—so I know what it's like to work hideous hours under fairly foolish conditions.

Be that as it may, it seems to me that retail has become a place where downsized white collar workers end up. The pay is usually better than McDonald's, and the working conditions aren't terribly taxing.

But now, with these bankruptcies, thousands of people have found or will find themselves unemployed. They can't all work at Wal-Mart. Perhaps they'll have to wend their way to a fast food chain where the pay really is minimal and the conditions really are horrendous. (Full disclosure: I worked the late shift at a McDonald's during the summer of 1969.)

If ever there was a time for these former employees to have "gotten bitter and cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them," this may certainly be it.