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In the summer of 1968, nestled in the weeks following Robert Kennedy's assassination and the August debacle that came to be known as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I was a 17-- year old spending my afternoons reading novels for a summer school class on government. The class requirement: read two novels a week.
In 1968,summer school at DouglasSouthall Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia, was not so much a punishment but an opportunity to take a class that you might not be able to fit in your regular schedule.
And besides, my mom believed in keeping me busy.
While I cannot remember the names of those novels, I do remember one scene in a book that I felt an eerie connection to this week. In the novel, set in November 1963, the woman was under deadline. She had a huge paper to write. So on this Friday, November 22, 1963 she locked herself in her apartment,rurned off her phone, didn't turn on the radio or television, so she would not have a single distraction as she worked to meet her deadline.
It wasn't until Sunday that she learned that while she had been writing her paper JFK had been assassinated .
Like the character in the book, I spent much of last week drowning in deadlines. It was a week where I didn't sleep, but took cat naps. I didn't listen to local news or read local papers.
It was the utmost irony that my assigned blog post on Thursday For the Healthy Mind. Body & Wallet special section was the impact that work stress can have on your emotional well-being.
So when I saw my neighbor Lynn, a buyer at Macy's Minneapolis, walking her dog Thursday morning---the day after the layoffs were announced --- I didn't say a thing to her because I didn't know she had just lost her job the day before.
Lynn is one of about 900 employees of Macy's in Minneapolis who will be out of work due to consolidation. Nationwide Macy's is eliminating over 2000 jobs. In addition to Minneapolis, Seattle & St.Louis are seeing jobs disappear.
Elaine Rigoli,blogging for insiderecruiting reports that Macy's is not alone.
This layoff news comes on the heels of the announcement by women's retailer Ann Taylor Stores that it will close 117 of its 921 stores over the next three years. In addition, the company is eliminating 180 jobs, or 13% of its corporate staff.
What other companies are losing their shirts? Clothing stalwart J.C. Penney is planning 200 layoffs; Talbots is laying off 800, or 5% of the company, as it exits the men's and boys' wear markets; Wet Seal is laying off 41 and will leave 10 other posts vacant in a cost-cutting move amid a "difficult" retail environment (49 corporate jobs, two field positions); and Goody's Family Clothing is laying off 5% of workers. Also this week, clothing retailer Eddie Bauer said it is laying off 123 workers at its headquarters, though no layoffs are expected at its 432 retail stores. Even Wal-Mart is fraying at the retail seams, announcing layoff plans due to closing two clothing divisions at its main offices in Arkansas.
Depending who you ask, the layoffs by retailers is indicative of another trend in retail: the demise of the shopping mall. A few years ago I was working on a story for the Chicago Tribune that never quite made it to print. For that story I interviewed retail experts who were predicting back then in 2002 or 2003-- that within 10 years half of all malls in America would be closed.Not sure if the experts are still holding to those statistics but the news for malls is anything but good.
Deadmalls.com Chronicles the history of malls and highlights dead malls throughout the country. You can look up your state and see which dead malls are listed. Readers are encouraged to offer up your own memories of malls of yesteryear.
Labelcars.com is another blog devoted to retail history. A "label scar" is what happens when the signage is taken off a building.Think a tan; line and you get the idea.
The enclosed shopping mall, despite still often being considered a dominant scourge that killed downtowns during the middle 20th century, is now in its own slow, drawn-out death spiral, giving way to big box category-killers, open-air lifestyle centers and strip malls. Yet, despite all the controversy
