Major retailers closing lots of stores

Unless you're among the wealthiest people in the U.S., you're probably feeling the squeeze of our current economic crisis.

Our stagnant and deteriorating wages cannot handle the rising cost of fuel, food, and everything else. The housing industry is a nightmare. And the middle class is hurting bad.

And some recent statistics on the retail industry drive another nail into the coffin of our dead American dream. William F. Engdahl, in an article for Global Research, spells out the awful truth about the sad state of our retail industry:

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.

Cache, a women’s retailer[,] is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men's stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores

Foot Locker to close 140 stores

Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.

Zales, Piercing Pagoda plans to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.

Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.

CompUSA (CLOSED [most of its stores]).

Macy's - 9 stores closed

Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.

Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores closing

Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing

Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are all scaling back

Ethan Allen Interiors: plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.

Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores

Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.

KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Dillard's Inc. will close another six stores this year.

This is despite George W. Bush's insistence that the economy isn't so bad. In fact, Bush pulled his head out of the sand long enough to tell us the following in his weekly radio address back on July 19:

Despite the challenges we have faced, our economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Exports have continued to grow, productivity growth has remained strong, and while economic growth in the first quarter of this year was slower than we would have liked, it was growth, nonetheless.

Growth???!!!

Tell that to all the retail employees who are losing their jobs with these store closings.

The only thing growing in this economy are the bank accounts of the richest one or two percent and the gap between the rich and the rest of us.