Filed under: Bad news, Recession
The New York Times reports that Bennigan’s — an “Irish-themed bar and grill” — closed its 200 U.S. sites, throwing hundreds out of work. When you combine gasoline prices over $4 a gallon, higher food prices, and declining incomes, people change their economic behavior. That is particularly true when people can no longer use the equity in their homes to cover the gap between what they want and what they can afford.
In April, I posted on the recession diet, which is the way that consumers are coping with the squeeze on their budgets. They have staycations, they don’t drive to or shop at the mall, they eat at home, and they buy more pasta and consume fewer vegetables and steaks.
It’s great news that gasoline prices have come down recently — in some cases as much as 20 cents a gallon. But it’s not clear whether that will be enough. In any case, the Times provides a nice list of those restaurants and retailers that have filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the recession diet:
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Mervyn’s, mid-tier department store chain
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Steve & Barry’s, a fashion retailer
I think there will be more such bankruptcies and I plan to look at publicly traded companies in these industries to see which are the likeliest candidates. If you have ideas you’d like to analyze, please post your thoughts below.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter
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