Look, the original content that was supposed to bring us the full story came completely locked behind a wall of cookies and privacy consent from Yahoo Finance. Literally. The entire article was replaced by a "accept our cookies or get lost" notice.
But the headline tells the whole story: a 168-year-old retail chain, one of those that serves as a mall anchor, is closing more stores.
And if you've been paying even a shred of attention to American retail, you know we're most likely talking about Macy's or JCPenney — the dinosaurs of retail that refuse to just die already, but keep losing limbs like a zombie from The Walking Dead.
American Brick-and-Mortar Retail Has Become a Horror Movie
This isn't news. It's a pattern. It's practically a ritual at this point.
Every quarter, one of these century-old chains announces another round of closures. The financial press acts surprised. Analysts scratch their chins. And the market shrugs because, damn, everybody already knows: the shopping mall model anchored by department stores has been in a coma for over a decade.
Amazon didn't kill these companies. They were already sick. Amazon just fast-tracked the autopsy.
168 years. Think about that. A company that survived the American Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, the dot-com bubble, and the 2008 crisis. But it can't survive the lethal combination of e-commerce, shifting consumer habits, and mediocre management.
What Killed (and Keeps Killing) Mall Anchors
Some people oversimplify it: "Oh, it's the internet's fault." Bullshit. It's a perfect storm:
1. Unsustainable debt. Many of these chains were bought by private equity in the 2000s, leveraged to the hilt, and left to bleed out. The classic model of vulture capitalism: buy, load with debt, extract dividends, abandon.
2. A god-awful shopping experience. When was the last time you walked into a department store and thought "what an incredible experience"? Never. It's hospital lighting, DMV-level customer service, and generic products you can find cheaper on your phone in 3 seconds.
3. Location became a liability. That prime spot in the mall that used to cost a fortune in rent became an anchor — literally — dragging the company down. Foot traffic dropped, fixed costs didn't.
4. Management that only looks in the rearview mirror. Instead of reinventing the model, executives keep trying to optimize something that's already dead. As Taleb said: "You don't fix a crashing plane by optimizing the in-flight service."
What This Means for Investors
If you have money in traditional brick-and-mortar retail — especially these American department store chains or their Brazilian counterparts following the same model — turn on the yellow warning light.
I'm not saying all physical retail is going to die. Costco is doing just fine, thank you very much. TJ Maxx too. Know why? Because they offer something Amazon can't easily replicate: discovery, aggressive pricing, and a "treasure hunt" experience.
But generic department stores that sell everything and nothing at the same time? That's the Blockbuster of the 2020s.
And in Brazil, the story rhymes. Look at what happened with Marisa, with Americanas (which had problems far beyond physical retail, obviously), and so many others. The pattern is the same: high debt, bloated operations, irrelevant experience.
The Lesson That Never Gets Old
Warren Buffett once said: "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact."
It doesn't matter if you put a rockstar CEO on top of a broken business model.
168 years of history don't protect anyone from irrelevance. Not brand, not tradition, not nostalgia. The market has no feelings. Consumers vote with their wallets every single day.
So tell me: do you still have any investments based on nostalgia and the argument that "this company is too big to fail"?
Because if you do, maybe it's time to remember that the Titanic was too big to sink, too.
