The retail picture looks so bleak it’s difficult to imagine which stores will survive, other than a few obvious ones like Safeway, Apple and Walgreen’s. Verizon, for one, looks like it will be around for a while. I had to take a number the other day when I visited a crowded Boulder outlet to exchange a Bluetooth device. What a mob scene! When you sign in at a kiosk using a touch-screen, your name instantly appears on a wall monitor, listed beneath the reason for your visit:  sales, customer service or technical support. There looked to be at least two dozen customers, but once your name is on the queue you can relax, since you know they’ll get to you eventually.

 The crowded showroom reminded me of the 1950s, when stores seemed far busier most of the time and there were plenty of sales clerks. These days, the traffic seems so sparse at mall department stores in particular that you wonder how they’ll survive. Or maybe they won’t. Macy’s just announced it was closing eleven stores, but if the local outlet got a reprieve, it’s hard to imagine how thin the traffic must be at the stores that are about to be shut down. Competitor Nordstrom’s hasn’t made any ominous announcements, at least not yet, but it seems like only a matter of time. The retailer’s shoe department has always been a sales powerhouse, but one wonders how long footwear can carry the whole chain.

My errands that day also took me to Circuit City. The firm had declared bankruptcy just hours earlier, but the liquidation sale was not scheduled to begin until the following day. Immediately after the sale began, bloggers were reporting that genuine bargains were hard to find.  Of course, that’s bound to change between now and then end of March, when the sale is slated to end.  Fire-sale prices at Circuit aren’t going to help Best Buy, but the latter firm surely has an incentive to hang on, since, with Comp USA already out of the way, it will have no major competitors in just a few months.

The local Flatiron Mall, with Lord & Taylor as an original anchor, was a retailing disaster long before the U.S. economy began its slide into Depression.  Following is a list of vendors that probably replicates the lineup at your own mall. Which do you think will avoid bankruptcy? I’ve made my own guesses and listed them at the end of this paragraph: 1) Abercrombie & Fitch; 2) American Eagle Outfitters; 3) Ann Taylor; 4) Banana Republic; 5) Bath & Body Works; 6) Ben Bridge Jewelers; 7) Borders; 8) Body Trends; 9) Bose: 10) Brookstone; 11) Cinnabon; 12) Coach; 13) Crocs; 14) Crate and Barrel: 15) Dairy Queen/Orange Julius; 16) Dillard’s; 17) Eddie Bauer; 18) Foot Locker; 19) Game Stop; 20) GNC; 21) Godiva Chocolatier; 22) Gymboree; 23) Jos. A. Bank; 24) Lane Bryant; 25) Limited Too; 26) Macy’s; 27) Master Cuts; 28) Mobile Solutions; 29) Old Navy; 30) Nordstrom’s; 31) Macy’s; 32) Pottery Barn; 33) Radio Shack; 34) Starbucks; 35) The Body Shop; 36) Victoria’s Secret; 37) Williams Sonoma; 38) Zales.  Here are my picks to survive:  2, 5, 9, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 36, 39.  And here are the ones selected by my wife, Marilyn, a world-class shopper: 3, 12, 14,17, 29, 30, 37.