Reuters reports that some retail financial experts expect there are many more retail bankuptcies still to come. Some stores have had several straight months of falling sales and they won't be able to survive if this continues.
"I expect that the numbers of bankruptcies are going to increase throughout the year as retailers now have to start spending money to increase inventory for Back-to-School and the Christmas season and they don't have the necessary funds," said Matthew Bordwin, managing director at KPMG Corporate Finance, who works with troubled retailers.
"I think you would expect to see more in the third quarter and fourth quarter and definitely following Christmas," Bordwin said. He said he was surprised there were only a handful of retail bankruptcies so far in 2009, as consumers have not been much more willing to open their wallets.
"The auto stores, the dollar stores and off-price merchandise seem to be the only categories that are holding their own," Bordwin said. "It looks like everybody else's same store sales continue to decline, and there's only so long that can go on."
The article mentions retailers are going to soon have to start stocking up on merchandise for the holidays. They will have to stock up but they are likely to avoid over buying. There may not be as many items in stock and this could make it harder to find items this holiday season.
