What companies are going under this year?

http://www.autonews.com/article/20090205/ANA05/902059977/1078

I saw this when it came out. I think Gates is buying, too.

Edit: I suck at links. Apologies. Google "lampert autonation" and it'll come up.

 

Holy shit, did this make me laugh.

 

Auto parts vendors are fucked.

 

Wow. Quite a matzah ball to bite off there, Mizzou.

Especially with the likes of Allstate, Clear Channel, Stanley Tool and other corporate wastes of sperm.

 

Sbarro is not surprising. I was an assistant manager at one a long time ago, and the upper management are morons if not outright abusive. And by abusive, I mean physical. The state/region manager would smack around my store manager, who allowed it to happen because as a new father he was too scared of losing his job. As a smartass in my early 20s, I told the state/region guy that if he laid a finger on me I'd break his fucking arm. Lousy fucking job.

However, I would be sad to lose Krispie Kreme and Six Flags.

 

Just in the past few years, around my neighborhood, a Blockbuster has closed, a Hollywood Video cut their footage in half, a Krispy Kreme closed after about 2 years and the only KMart within a 20 mile radius closed down.

 

We've had more than one Blockbuster around here close. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the smaller newspaper companies fold.

 

I suspect a few airlines will go under, maybe some hotels because no one can afford to travel anymore.

A few car dealerships won't survive.

If I were buying stock, I'd put my money in pharmacuticals that make anti-depressants and beer companies. People will always have a need to drink... maybe now even moreso.

 

Me too. I haven't eaten at Sbarros since I got ignored by them when I worked in a mall. I thought the reason for the mirrors on the walls of the place were so they could see people, apparently not the case.

 

If I were buying stock, I'd put it in Wal-Mart, McDonalds and the makers of ramen noodles.

 

JRC. When you can buy 10 shares of stock for an Abraham Lincoln (penny, that is), it's not a good sign for your company.

 

I happen to manage a Blockbuster store in Houston, and so my view on this article is a little different than others. But more to the point we do offer an unlimited rental program just like you mentioned, and I have quite a few customers that take advantage of it.

As for the various Redbox type kiosks, their main downfall is that they have an extremely limited amount of space and so they tend to run out of new releases on Wednesday and so those that can't get it there come beck to us.