Disney to shutter 98 stores; Home Depot closing 15
— -- "This is just the beginning," says retail analyst Jennifer Black of Jennifer Black & Associates. "We're so overstored."
Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement chain, says it's closing 15 underperforming stores and scuttling earlier plans to open 50 others. Disney is closing about 98 stores as it takes back control of its stores from Children's Place, whose subsidiary had run the Disney Store chain.
The announcements coincided with news on Thursday that consumer spending rose a weak 0.1% in March on an inflation-adjusted basis.
Hundreds of other store closings have been announced by retailers this year. But Home Depot has been especially hard hit by the real estate crisis. With far fewer houses being sold and less money for discretionary home purchases, both contractors and do-it-yourself customers are pulling back on purchases.
"There's always going to be some healthy paring back," says Bear Stearns analyst Chris Horvers. "This is something much larger with Home Depot."
Sales at Disney stores fell in three of the past four quarters. Hoop Retail Stores, the subsidiary of Children's Place that was running the U.S. Disney stores, is in bankruptcy proceedings.
Other store closings:
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