Do you remember the financial meltdown that began in 2007? Do you remember Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, bailouts, stock market crashes and stocks like Ford and Citibank under $5 a share? Well, that financial meltdown has not come to a halt. Times were tough back then, and times continue to be tough for big retailers. As 2016 has begun to take shape, we see that commercial real estate continues to implode as gold shines.

Commercial real estate continues to implode for a few reasons. Americans just don’t have the extra income they once did. Sayonara middle class. This article posits that Americans have become nearly poverty stricken. 51% Of All American Workers Make Less Than 30,000 Dollars A Year. If you make less than $30K a year, expensive new items and trips to the mall are probably not in your budget. Perhaps this is a reason commercial real estate continues to implode.

Commercial Real Estate Continues To Implode: These Stores Are Closing.

When an old Taco Bell closes, there is a small family owned business like a Filiberto’s or a Roliberto’s, or a Poliberto’s or an Alberto’s waiting to open in that old building and begin selling tacos or burritos or something, but when a Walmart Super Store closes, well, you can’t fill that commercial real estate behemoth with beans and rice and turn a profit. More and more of these big retailers that used to provide jobs and commerce in small-town and middle-town America are now leaving unemployment and big, empty, devalued buildings and blight in their wake.

You Can Re-Purpose An Old Taco Bell Pretty Easily. An Entire Mall Is Not So Easy To Re-Purpose.

Sears. Poor Sears. I have written about Sears recently, and their economic spiral continues. Sears is reported to have losses around $580 million in the 4th quarter of 2015. A fiscal quarter is 90 days long, so Sears lost $580 million in about three months. Sears is also expected to close 50 more locations this year.Commercial real estate continues to implode. Sears has been a “net closer” of stores for quite some time now. With those Sears stores go Sears jobs.

Sports Authority may soon be becoming an authority on bankruptcy. The Sports Authority has big retail spaces, about 450 of them. Will 100 of those stores close? Some reports say 200 closed Sports Authorities is more likely, at least for now. Will broke and fat Americans support the remaining 250 Sports Authority stores? If not, well, commercial real estate continues to implode.

This Poor Fella May Be Out Of A Job. Thousands Of Sports Authority Employees Will Become Former Sports Authority Employees. Hundreds Of Large Commercial Real Estate Locations Will Become Former Sports Authority Locations.

If poor and lazy Americans cannot keep the monstrous Sports Authority stores open, then corporate America and business America do not seem to be doing any better at keeping Office Depot stores open. Office Depot plans to have a total of 400 of their stores closed by the end of this year. Imagine the sheer enormity of 400 Office Depot stores. Expect higher local unemployment and large empty buildings. Commercial real estate continues to implode.

Wal-Mart is closing 154 stores in the United States alone, and another 115 stores around the world, for a total of 269 stores to be closed in 2016. 154  Wal-Mart stores and all of the jobs that go with them will cease to exist in America. The jobs that are created by producing and delivering merchandise to 154 Wal-Mart stores in America will be gone. Sooner or later the high paid executives that in essence ran those 269 stores world-wide will be out on their former Wal-Mart keisters, too. Good Jobs vanish while commercial real estate continues to implode. Clean up on aisle Wal-Mart.

This Gap Store Does Business And It Will Not Be Closed. This Gap Store Is In China.

Did you like shopping at the Gap? All you may soon have left are some faded jeans and memories. 175 Gap stores will be closing in North America alone. They are probably closing others around the world too. We will see how it goes. Gap stores are not big stores like Wal-Marts or Sears stores are, but they represent the death of commercial real estate monoliths much bigger than free standing stores like Wal-Mart. The death of stores like Gap may spell the end of many indoor shopping malls.

Dead Mall Series: Landmark Mall

When was the last time you were in a big indoor shopping mall built late last century? These things are like condors now. Big, ugly, and extinct. Another sign that commercial real estate continues to implode. After all, what good is a trip to the mall without an Orange Julius, a Cinnabon and a new pair of Gap jeans?

Commercial Real Estate Continues To Implode: A Few More.

Aeropostale is closing more than 80 stores. This will leave a few more vacant mall spots. Finish Line, an athletic shoe store, plans to close 150 stores, but this may take longer than a year perhaps. More mall vacancies. And if you think the middle of the mall will be barren, how about the anchor stores being shuttered and dark? Macy’s plans to close 36 stores and layoff thousands of people.

This J.C. Penney Mall Anchor Was Said To Be 25% Of The Total Mall Square Footage.

The list goes on. J.C. Penney, another mall anchor, will close 47 more stores. They closed a reported 40 stores last year. Those are big stores. Speaking of big stores, K-Mart will be closing 24 more stores this year. Blue light special on old worn down K-Mart buildings. Bring a coupon.

Seeing American commerce and commercial real estate continue to implode saddens me. I’m an American and I love America. Some poor business decisions have been made. Times and trends change and these changes favor the prepared.

Gold is currently trading around $1230.00 an ounce. Just a couple of months ago in December, gold was trading at $1050.00 an ounce. Stocks have been crashing and capitulating. So far gold is the shining investment of 2016. Even naysayers are saying so. Gold used to be about $20.00 an ounce back when Sears was king.

Aloha Sears Honolulu.

Where do you see the trends headed now? Don’t end up financially shuttered like an old retail dinosaur, own gold and skip the financial drama as commercial real estate continues to implode.