Major Chain Stores Shutting Down as America Faces “A Retail Apocalypse”

(NaturalNews) There is chatter across the web about dozens of major retail chains that are expected to permanently shutter a large number of their store locations this year. Popular names like Abercrombie & Fitch, Barnes & Noble, Chico's, Children's Place, Coach, Fresh & Easy, Gymboree, JCPenney, Macy's, Office Depot, Pier One, Pep Boys, and many others are named as soon-to-be casualties in what some news sources are now referring to as the coming "retail apocalypse."

The Economic Collapse Blog pins 2015 as a significant "turning point" for the U.S. economy, ominously warning that at least 6,000 retail store locations are expected to close this year based on company announcements. Many American consumers are already witnessing the birth pangs of this retail apocalypse as brick-and-mortar department, specialty, and even food shops close their doors for good.



Take a look at the following list of companies that have announced upcoming store closures:

• Abercrombie & Fitch: 180 stores (by 2015)
• Aeropostale: 75 stores (through January 2015)
• American Eagle Outfitters: 150 stores (through 2017)
• Barnes & Noble: 223 stores (through 2023)
• Body Central/Body Shop: 265 stores
• Bottom Dollar Food: 66 stores
• Build-A-Bear: 25 stores (through 2015)
• C. Wonder: 32 stores
• Cache: 21 stores
• Chico's: 120 stores (through 2017)
• Children's Place: 200 stores (through 2017)
• Christopher & Banks: 17 stores
• Coach: 70 stores (fiscal 2015)
• Coco's/Carrows: 70 stores
• Deb Shops: 300 stores
• Delia's: 92 stores
• Dollar Tree/Family Dollar: 340 stores
• Einstein Bros. Bagels: 39 stores
• Express: 50 stores (through 2015)
• Frederick's of Hollywood: 31 stores
• Fresh & Easy Grocery Stores: 50 stores
• Friendly's: 14 stores
• Future Shop (Best Buy Canada): 65 stores
• Golf Galaxy: 54 stores (by 2016)
• Guess: 50 stores (through 2015)
• Gymboree: 26 stores
• JCPenney: 40 stores
• Jones New York Outlet: 127 stores
• Just Baked: 10 stores
• Kate Spade Saturday & Jack Spade: 28 stores
• Macy's: 14 stores
• Office Depot/Office Max: 400 stores (by 2016)
• Pep Boys: 63 stores ("in the coming years")
• Pier One: 100 stores (by 2017)
• Pick 'n Save: 20 stores (by 2017)
• Radio Shack: 1,784 stores
• Ruby Tuesday: 13 stores
• Sears: 77 stores
• SpartanNash Grocery Stores: 10 stores
• Staples: 55 stores (2015)
• Target, Canada: 133 stores (bankruptcy)
• Tiger Direct: 31 stores
• Walgreens: 200 stores (by 2017)
• West Marine: 10 stores
• Wet Seal: 338 stores
• Wolverine World Wide: 80 stores (2015 - Stride Rite & Keds)

Rising costs of living and dwindling incomes have left middle class with minimal extra spending money

As you'll notice, many of these companies are household names that sell everyday products as opposed to specialty or commodity products. Several major grocery store chains are represented here, as are major department stores like Sears and JCPenney that have been around forever. While this might simply be a sweeping scale-back for these companies, the closures point to a much more serious economic reality.


With a significant bulk of consumer spending now taking place online, brick-and-mortar stores are struggling to bring in enough revenue to warrant keeping their physical locations open for business. When combined with a massive reduction in consumer spending due to a rapidly shrinking economy, it appears that we're seeing a recipe for major retail failure in the coming weeks and months.

"What we find is that over the past 6 months we had a tremendous drop in true discretionary consumer spending," writes Thad Beversdorf on his blog First Rebuttal. "[This] confirms the fundamental theory that consumer spending is showing the initial signs of a severe pull back."





Sources for this article include:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

http://www.firstrebuttal.com

http://beforeitsnews.com

Credit to Natural News
Learn more:  http://www.naturalnews.com/050374_retail_closures_economic_collapse_self_reliance.html#ixzz3gO1GNjhG

Massive new airborne city surveillance system can track and record everywhere you drive your car in real time

(NaturalNews) When it comes to the business of keeping an eye on the general public, the U.S. government believes it should go big or go home, so it has decided to go big.

As reported by News.com.au of Australia, a small, private company has developed a surveillance system of Orwellian proportions that just put Big Brother on steroids.

About 18 miles above any chosen city, a balloon aircraft hovers out of sight of the tens of thousands of people below, circling continuously while surveying the metropolis below.

Every second, the aircraft takes a photo of the entire city and all things occurring within a 40-square-mile radius. The images are then beamed to a control center, where technicians create what is essentially akin to a Google map of everything that is occurring at the moment.

News.com.au further reported:

When a crime occurs, teams of analysts simply scroll back in time to the scene of the incident and identify those involved. From that point, they can follow the target by clicking forward through the images to the present moment and pinpoint their location.

Ostensibly, surveillance is about preventing and prosecuting crimes - and while it's only been used in a handful of cities, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) are designed to do just that.

The times it has been used on U.S. soil, the tool has allowed authorities to solve crimes in a matter of minutes.

Of course, the implications for privacy -- or more accurately, the lack of privacy -- are immense as the device can also be installed onboard planes.

News.com.au reported that the concept for the design was actually conceived over a couple of beers, according to PPS founder Ross McNutt, who drew up the initial plans on the back of a napkin.

"We developed the system quickly to get an initial capability [within] about 18 months. We have since spent the last eight years perfecting it, lowering the cost, and increasing the effectiveness," he told News.com.au. He added that the concept was tailored for U.S. forces fighting in Iraq, which did not appear to be going well in 2004.

"The IEDs [improvised explosive device] were killing many of our troops and our commander asked that we see what we could do to help," he said.

At the time, McNutt was teaching at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He and others shared a desire to assist U.S. forces who were then battling against insurgent tactics used by troops loyal to Saddam Hussein.

"We developed an idea that would allow us to track bombers back to the place they came from so we could then address the source of the bombs," he said.

A marketing video of the device shows that users can actually track vehicles and travelers back to where they came from.

Ultimately, the technology proved exceptional in capturing or neutralizing those planting IEDs; since its initial development, the U.S. Air Force has spent some $1 billion to improve and enhance it.

While there are certainly privacy concerns, McNutt says that the economics of the system alone are enough to justify its use over American cities. News.com.au reported:

According to the National Institute of Justice, Dayton Ohio has 27,000 reported crimes per year, 70 to 80 per day and nearly 10,000 serious crimes, such as rape, murder and assault, which amount to a cost of $US3400 per person each year.

"PSS believes we will contribute to reducing the crime in Dayton by 20 per cent to 30 per cent," McNutt said, adding that would amount to a yearly savings of between $96 million and $144 million.

Apparently, that is the price of the Fourth Amendment.

"We have developed a whole host of privacy policies and procedures that protect people privacies. In addition we have designed the system to be limited to one pixel per person, which only allows us to barely see a person and track them to a car," McNutt insisted. "We only support reported crime investigation and ongoing criminal investigations."

Millions of Americans simply won't believe that, given the NSA's recent abuses and the Obama administration's desire to spy on all Americans, all the time.

Credit to Natural NewsLearn more:  http://www.naturalnews.com/050448_privacy_mass_surveillance_aircraft.html#ixzz3gO07MN00

"The CERN Discovers Pentaquark Matter"

A Greek Revolution Is Imminent

FIVE CHILDREN AMONG 94 CRUCIFIED BY ISIS FOR ‘EATING DURING RAMADAN’

Syrian Islamic State (IS) supporters have publicly crucified, flogged and caged nearly 100 people accused of breaking the daytime fast observed during the Muslim holy month. UK-based monitor the Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR) yesterday said it had documented 94 such punishment cases for eating in Ramadan, including five children and two old men.

Breitbart News previously reported the case of two boys “crucified” for eating in Ramadan on 23 June in Deir ez-Zour. For IS the punishment does not necessarily mean execution by nailing or tying victims to a cross. The group uses crosses and bars to pose dead bodies as a means of terrorising local populations or as a means of publicly shaming those who breach the tenets of sharia law as interpreted by IS.


In normal circumstances children do not have to fast during Ramadan. They may be encouraged to practice fasting for part of a day or for one day on the weekend, but it only becomes mandatory when they enter puberty.

The 94 cases were recorded between 22 June and 16 July and took place across the IS-held Syrian governorates of Aleppo, Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour. The punishments were administered in streets and squares in front of crowds of spectators, including children, who SOHR says were encouraged to mock the victims.

SOHR reports 20 victims were caged, including a child. It reported IS used two cages in the cities of Mayadin (in Deir ez-Zour) and Al-Raqqa (capital of the Al-Raqqah Governorate). They also paraded caged citizens in the town of Dayr Hafir east of Aleppo. When it came to so-called “crucifixions” SOHR also documented that IS hung signs round the necks of victims explaining they were being crucified for a full day and given 70 lashes for “eating in Ramadan”.

SOHR said al-Hesbah, the self-declared IS morality police, learned of those eating in Ramadan from informants. Al-Hesbah has not had it all its own way, however, as evidenced by the beheading of one of its top people earlier in the year.

The Independent reported the Egyptian national’s severed head was found with a cigarette in its mouth. IS has reportedly banned smoking in areas it controls and has publicly flogged cigarette sellers.

Credit to breitbart

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/07/17/five-children-among-94-crucified-flogged-and-caged-by-islamic-state-for-eating-in-ramadan/

ISLAMIZATION OF AMERICA CONTINUES AS EMPIRE STATE BUILDING LIT UP IN GREEN FOR RAMADAN

New York’s Empire State Building was lit in green late Friday to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. It is astonishing to me to think that just a few years after the greatest terrorist attack to ever hit America was carried out by Muslims on 9/11, that the greatest symbol in the most famous in the world should pay homage to the Prophet Muhammad and the Devil’s religion of Islam. Do you think that such an act shows the forgiving nature of America? No, not at all. It shows how painfully sound asleep we are, and how unwilling we are to face up to what has become the threat of the century: Islamic terror attacks.

The Empire State Building is lit in green July 17, 2015 in New York City to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. (AFP PHOTO/BRIGITTE DUSSEAU)

Just this week, ISIS released video of a little child beheading a prisoner in the name of Islam. Just two days ago, 5 US Marines were killed in an Islamic terror attack in Tennessee. Muslims immigrating to America is the fastest-growing segment of our population. The black flag of ISIS regularly appears in stories on evening news videos from every major city in America. FBI warnings of ISIS recruitment efforts happen on a weekly basis now, with high schools and social media being a main target. America is being Islamized at a frightening pace, with no abatement in sight.

OBAMA EDUCATING US ON HOW MUSLIMS HELPED TO BUILD AMERICA

FBI Director James Comey told the National Association of Attorneys General that ISIS is a “chaotic spider web” that avidly uses social media to radicalize people across the United States. “We have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states,” said Comey, adding, “This isn’t a New York phenomenon or a Washington phenomenon. This is all 50 states and in ways that are very hard to see.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN WARNED ABOUT THIS ALL THE WAY BACK IN 1838

As Obama continues to lead the way in our national glorification of Islam, virtually ignoring and explaining away countless acts of Islamic terrorism within our contiguous 48 states, our corporate slumber will only serve to make what comes next all the more heartbreaking and tragic. Obama has repeatedly said that one of his heros is Abraham Lincoln, so we will end this story with a Lincoln quote that in 2015 is eerily prophetic. It’s a quote from a speech by entitled “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions“, known as the Lyceum Address based on the location of its giving.

 “Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838

By allowing America to be betrayed by our elected leaders, by turning a blind eye to the Islamization of our nation, we are in the very act of fulfilling Lincoln’s “prophecy”.

We are indeed the authors of our own destruction.

Credit to now the end begins

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=34191

WW3 Granted A Clear Path By Obama