31JAN2018, 20:16 UTC-07 Tango 06 (12 Bahman 1396/15 Jumada l-Ula 1439/16 Xin-Chou 4715)
Bon Ton owned Herberger’s announced it will exit its Pine Ridge Mall location, in Chubbuck, when the inventory runs out. The official reason is crashing sales, including declining online sales. However, and as usual, local news media turned to so called experts who lazily blamed it on internet competition and people supposedly spending big bucks on gas to drive to the state of Utah to do their shopping!
First of all, Bon Ton and Herberger’s have their own websites where you can buy their crap!
Back in November 2017 Bon Ton announced it would shutdown 40 stores, including some Herberger’s, across the U.S. in 2018. Despite also selling online, Bon Ton’s family of department stores revealed they had lost $44.9-million USD in Bon Ton’s 3rd quarter of 2017!
Also today, internet selling site ebay reported a massive loss of $2.6-billion USD (not counting losses caused by the new U.S. tax laws), and that’s just for its 4th quarter of 2017!
Secondly, I’ve been hearing the old “people are driving to Salt Lake” excuse since 2001. It’s a bullshit excuse mainly because why the hell would people drive their gas guzzling SUV and pickups out-of-state to go shopping? The majority of jobs in eastern Idaho don’t pay their employees well enough to afford such a luxurious shopping trip! (approximate round-trip driving distance from Pocatello, Idaho, to Salt Lake City, Utah, is 336miles/540km)
Guess what? Retailers in Salt Lake City have been shutting down!
The truth is that ‘wise christian’ leaders in Bannock County began driving off all the good paying jobs from the Pocatello/Chubbuck area in the late 1990s (with Union Pacific suffering the biggest loss of jobs, in the thousands) and that trend has never been reversed (death spiral). I remember in the late 1990s, one local official (a member of the dominant ‘christian’ sect) stated that industrial jobs were bad because they were the cause of local crime. Last laugh’s on that exalted politician of god, because crime is so bad now that the Bannock County Sheriff repeatedly begs cash strapped taxpayers to approve funding a new county prison to deal with prison overcrowding!
KPVI interviewed a local labor force ‘expert’ who actually said Herberger’s shutdown could “be a blessing in disguise” for the 46 soon-to-be-unemployed-employees, because he believes the local economy is so good they’re sure to find better jobs!
Herbergers moved into the two story anchor location at Pine Ridge Mall, which was former home to ZCMI, May Company and Dillards. They were true two story operations, but Herberger’s is a single story operation. Apparently the top floor is being used for storage and office space.
IDAHO’S CONTINUED ECONOMIC DESTRUCTION, 2017: “CLOSED INDEFINITELY”
U.S. HI-TECH/COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN, DECEMBER 2017:“IN THE INTERESTS OF SECURITY AND EFFICIENCY”
MORE DECLINE: NO MORE XMAS LIGHTS FOR CHUBBUCK? THE TRUTH ABOUT GENTRIFICATION
THE LIES OF ECONOMIC DECLINE: Mitt Romney’s POCATELLO STAPLES SHUTDOWN BLAMED ON THE INTERNET!
Don’t blame the Internet: Idaho internet sales tax collections flat-line!
Pine Ridge Mall: Mitt Romney….Destroyed jobs in Chubbuck