Map of the Sears and Kmart stores closing in 2017

In this Business Insider article (7/7/2017), there's a map of all 245 Sears and Kmart stores closing this year.  You can zoom in to check out specific areas.  Here's a couple things I noticed from a quick look at it:

- The majority of Sears/Kmart stores closing are east of the Mississippi River.

- Most of the stores closing are in the smaller or medium sized cities in rural areas. 

The Retail Apocalypse: Suburbs versus cities

Just found this great article by Henry Grabar on Slate.  He looks at today's Retail Apocalypse by comparing it to how city downtowns lost much of their retail 50 years ago.  There are different dynamics happening here, but he makes great points and explains the mistakes cities made in fighting the suburban malls decades ago.

More news on the Retail Apocalypse

In this CNBC article (6/2/2017), they give a bunch more facts and stats on the Retail Apocalypse, and a look at the coming Mallpocalypse.  Here are some of the key points in the article:

-Credit Suisse predicts 20 to 25% of all malls (in the U.S.) will close down in the next five years.  There are about 1,200 enclosed malls in the country, so that means 240 to 300 are expected to close.  Other sources have predicted 400 will shut down in the next five years.
-Retail sales growth is the weakest since the Great Recession of 2008.
-Luxury purse maker Michael Kors is closing 100 stores.
-Gymboree is now in bankruptcy.
-Retailers fired 6,100 workers in May 2017.  That means about 95,000 retail workers have lost their jobs in the last seven months.
-16 million people, 1 in 10 American workers, work in retail.

Meanwhile...
-Amazon is opening physical bookstores.
-Lidl (pronounced Lee-dul), a German grocery store, is opening lots of new stores.

This isn't a recession that's closing all these stores.  Not yet, anyhow, I think we'll head into a recession in the six months to a year.  What's happening to Retail stores is what happened to factory jobs in the 1980's-2000's, and what happened to music in the 90's.  New technology, automation, and changing buying habits have changed the game.  The old school department stores, mall stores, and other retailers just didn't keep up.  It's a major business revolution, and it's far from over.  Just like factory workers in previous decades, thousands, and likely millions, of retail workers will have to learn a new career... or create their own job or business in some way. 

The Retail Apocalypse is hitting teen job market hard

"Young jobseekers are facing a perfect storm of employment barriers this summer." -Jordan Bruneau

In this East Bay Times article, the writer lays out many reasons why teens will have a harder time finding work in many places this summer.

Why do I write a blog about weird ways to make money?  Because a lot of people just can't "Go get a job" anymore.  We need to find alternative ways to make a living.  That's what this blog is about.

The Retail Apocalypse keeps apocalypting: 4,229+ stores closing

This Radio Shack Vine pretty much sums it up.

Late last year, the mass of retail stores closing got dubbed The Retail Apocalypse.  The numbers just keep going up.  The best overall list of stores closing is by Clark Howard and his team at clark.com.  This article now lists 4,229 retail stores closing or closed this year.  That doesn't include Gander Mountain, which is having liquidation sales at 126 stores OR Kohl's that plans to downsize about 200 stores.  That list has expanded by 1,000 or more stores in the last couple of months.  Many, many more stores could close before this shakeout hits bottom.  I haven't seen recent numbers on the total people laid off yet by all of this. 

Somehow, in our Dali-esque, Trump-focused universe, the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street is surging even higher today.  BUT... nearly 40% of millionaires surveyed recently do not plan to invest next month.  That's huge.  They're waiting to see how this insanity in both retail and Washington D.C. will pan out. 

Why am I doing this weird little blog about starting a small business or creating your own job?  Because millions of people are going to have to create their own jobs in the next several years. 

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to get a check

Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout and tech billionaire creator of Facebook, called for looking at "Universal Basic Income," in his Harvard commencement speech a few days ago.  Here's a guy who made an incredible fortune in his 20's by writing a program initially designed to meet hot girls at Harvard.  He's really, really smart.  He had a great idea, and worked hard with many other people, for several years, to make it happen.  Yet, he has the audacity to say that luck played an important part in his success.  That's pretty freakin' amazing.

So what is "Universal Basic Income?"  It's the idea that every single person in the country should get a basic income from the government.  Yeah, a multi-billionaire is saying you deserve a check just for being a human being.

Why is he supporting looking into this idea?   Because a small group of people, mostly really smart people, look to the future we're heading towards.  One of the big issues they see, and the issue that sparked this blog for me, is that machines and software are quickly replacing human jobs.  Nobody who looks into the issue seriously, is sure how we will out the whole population to work in the next 10-20-30 years.  There just aren't going to be enough jobs, pure and simple.

At the same time, small groups of people, like Mark's initial crew at Facebook, are able to create tens of billions of dollars of value with their company in a few short years. They realize that they can't spend all that money on golf courses, call girls, yachts, gold plated urinals, and stuff like that.  These people are looking to put a chunk of that wealth back into the system to being millions out of poverty and level the playing field in the economic world.  Obviously, the people who have rigged that playing field in their favor for generations aren't stoked on this idea. 

Personally, I'm not sold on Universal Basic Income, and I've spent years homeless while working full time, and way beyond full time.  My first thought is turning us into a nation full of people sitting on the couch, getting stoned, and playing video games all day.  But around here, so many people scam to get a Social Security disability check (who don't truly deserve it), that it's be cool if the hard working and motivated people also got a check.  A lot of people would do a lot of really cool things if they could get beyond financial instability.

Personally, my focus these days is to help people build and grow the small creative scenes that give people an outlet for their energy and creativity.  Those scenes often turn into new businesses and new jobs, and sometimes entire new industries.  But I am really glad a group of really smart, really wealthy, forward looking people are thinking about this concept.  What do you think?

More tech and less human jobs in the future

I hit working age in the mid 1980's, and I got hired for every single job I applied for until age 27 or 28.  I was completely unqualified for most of the jobs, but I adapted quickly and did well at most of them.

It's a whole different world now.  This WIRED clip from a couple of days ago hits on a huge issue that very few people are talking about.  Technology changed the taxi industry in the 2000's (before Uber and Lyft), and I could no longer make a living, and became homeless.  I know what it's like to get wiped out by new technology.

I've haven't had a regular job for years now.  As I started looking into this issue, I came to the conclusion that MILLIONS of Americans will have to create their own jobs in the next several years.  There's no way around it.  That's what this blog is about. 

Seth Godin on the courage to connect

This one hit home for me.  I just spent three days putting together a blogpost for my old school BMX blog.  Only about 100 people checked it out.  That's not bad.  But I spent a lot of time on the post, but didn't put anything personal into it, just a great selection of links of clips form years ago. 

It's easy these days to create media.  But actually connecting with other people, that's another thing.  A scary thing.

A great idea for an abandoned Walmart

Just saw this on Facebook thanks to a share from Scotty Z.  This town took an abandoned Walmart and turned it into a huge, and amazingly cool, library.  There are over 3,500 retail stores closing down this year.  We need lots more of this kind of thinking.

Baby Boomers, Millennials, and the the future of real estate

It's not often that I'll share ideas from from a millennial, but this guy shares some really great thinking in this clip.  Will the younger generations' crushing student debt keep them from buying houses, and make the housing market drag along in most areas?  He could be right to a great degree.  I don't agree with everything he says here, but I think he shares a great piece of our financial/social puzzle. 

Seth Godin on the end of the Industrial Age and more

This 2012 clip is my favorite Seth Godin clip on You Tube.  In 8 minutes he blast through a whole series of great topics, the main one being, "Step up and do your own thing."  More than anything, Seth gets out the end of the Industrial Age is forcing a revolution on our society, and how the internet and newer types of marketing play into that.  Just watch.

Latest retail store closings list from May 2, 2017

In this latest list of retail store closings, clark.com's list now includes 3,583 stores closing THIS YEAR.  Most of these stores haven't actually closed yet, so we're not seeing the ripple effects on other stores, but those effects will come later in the year. 

A better than expected "jobs created" number just came out, and Wall Street is still thinking things are going along fine.  In addition, Republicans are working on a bill that would repeal many of the financial industry regulations put in place after The great Recession of 2008.  In other words, we're being set up for another, similar collapse in the future.

The Retail Apocalypse continues: April 29, 2017

OK, let me start by getting the obvious out of the way.  If you're going to publish a video online and call yourself Tyler Durden, get Edward Norton to do the voice over. 

That said, the number tagged above of 8,640 stores closing is an extrapolated number, an estimate.  But the real number is around 5,000 retail stores closed or closing soon, and growing.  This really is the Retail Apocalypse.  This video has a really annoying computer generated voice, but a lot of good facts in it.  If you're in business of any kind, you need to be aware of this. 

Here's the deal in a nutshell, since I know few, if any, of you will watch the video.  Remember when we used to watch MTV, or glance through Rolling Stone magazine and hear of new bands, or maybe Thrasher for the people reading this post.  When we found a cool new band in the 90's, we'd go buy the CD.  Major record labels, artists, and music magazines made a fortune.  And then some kid none of us had ever heard of wrote a software program called Napster, and it changed EVERYTHING in the music world?  That's what's happening to traditional, full price retail stores right now.  Each business has its own story, but a common theme is that the bricks and mortar stores and mall shops didn't take online sales and outlet malls seriously early on.  Now they're going down like a house of cards.  I wouldn't be surprised to see 10,000 to 20,000 total stores closed within a couple of years.  Many of the 1200 enclosed shopping malls, probably 400 to 700, will close in that time as well.  Personally, I think this will be enough to throw our teetering economy into a serious recession. 

But here's where I disagree with the producer(s) of the video above.  The Retail Apocalypse IS NOT the next "Big Short."  The Retail Apocalypse is a business revolution where one business model, online selling, is taking over the older model of having lots of physical stores.  The student loan mess, where loans have been bundled in things called SLAB's and sold to investors, is the next Big Short.  If the slow growth/retail collapse induced recession causes a much bigger default in student loans, THEN things will get nuts.  One recent article wrote that over 1 million student loans are in default right now. 

To me, this all feels like 1990, the start of the six year long "double-dip recession."  That rarely remembered period was a hair away from being a true depression.  Yes, I know you don't want to think about all this, but here's why you should.  Economic downturns are when the most new ideas spring up and when a lot of new businesses are started.  The early 1990's was when actual riders took over the BMX industry, skaters took over the skateboard industry, and snowboarding exploded in popularity, actually saving the lagging ski industry.  But now, those rider-owned companies ARE the old dinosaurs.  If you're one of them, what new ideas and new tech are YOU ignoring?  It's worth taking a look. 

Do the Hustle

"The Hustle" was the first song I ever learned to dance to (badly).  Hey, I was in 4th grade and didn't realize that disco sucked.  I also didn't really know what "hustle" meant.  I was a middle class white kid living on a farm in Ohio with no other kids nearby.  You can't really hustle cows. 

But now I know what hustle means.  I'm 9 days into the process of setting up my first Shopify online store.  Yes, I know you can set one of those stores up in a couple of hours... IF you have the photos and money in your bank account.  I'm broke.  And our ten year old camera finally wore out, so I can't take pictures right now.  No, I don't have a phone at the moment.  I'm pretty sure I've told you all before, I'm starting with damn near nothing.  I set an insane financial goal for myself 18 days ago, and that has completely changed my mindset.  That's one of the good things that goals do.

Last night I decided to start my online store with just stickers in it to start.  Once I scrape up a few bucks, I'll buy a cheap camera and take the photos and add my finished original drawings to the site.  Then I'll build from there.  Once I started building my Shopify store, I realized that you have to sign up for one of the monthly plans to actually open the store to the public.  I tried to do it, but it said there wasn't enough money ($29) in my bank account, which was (and still is at the moment) true. 

Yesterday, I thought up a bunch of ideas for original stickers, and wrote down some of the old ideas I had.  I came up with one new idea I really liked.  I woke up this morning with about 30 cents to my name, but I had several sheets of blank sticker paper left over from the last batch of homemade stickers I made.  I needed money to make the sticker masters and copy the actual stickers.  If you don't know already, you can buy paper (as opposed to vinyl) sticker paper at an office supply store in 8 1/2" X 11" sheets, it's about $20 a pack for 20 or 30 sheets.  Once you make a master of the stickers you want to make, you can copy the design onto the sticker paper on most good copy machines.  Then you just cut out the individual stickers.  This is how we made cheap stickers with Xerox art designs back in the 80's. 

One of the  weirdest things about living in a small North Carolina town is that it's really hard to make money here starting with nothing.  If you don't have something worth selling on Craigslist, scraping up the first few bucks is difficult.  People here tend to freak out if a stranger walks up to try and sell something.  But there is one legal, but sketchy, way to make a small amount of money over a couple hours time.  I'll tell you about that some time in the future, when I'm sure I'll never have to use the technique again.  In any case, I started this morning with about 30 cents and some blank sticker paper sheets.  I went out and did the sketchy technique and scraped up $3 in about an hour and a half.  By then I was thirsty.  I got a Diet Coke for $1.07.  That's not a good use of my small amount of money, but I don't drink coffee, and Diet Coke is my morning caffeine fix.

 My next trip was to the library where I typed up the words for the sticker, and printed them along with the photo I'm using.  I then went to an office supply store with self-serve copiers.  I made the initial copy of my design, 1/4 page size, and then made three more.  So then I put all four on a single sheet of paper, that's my sticker design master/duplication copy.  I used the rest of the money I had to make four copies on the sticker paper.  Then I cut the stickers using the free paper cutter there.  Bam! Now I have 16 funny stickers, each one I plan to sell for $2, to raise money to open my online store.  Like the song above says, "Do the hustle."

There are many ways to raise money to start a business.  You may be able to borrow money from friends or family.  I can't  do that right now.  You may be able to crowdfund using an online service like Go Fund Me or Kickstarter.  Or you can just start hustling.  I learned the power of hustling from Chris Moeller, pro BMX rider and the owner of S&M Bikes in the early 90's.  He scraped up some money, made bike frames or handlebars or stickers, and then sold them QUICKLY at a profit.  Then he reinvested most of that money and made a bigger batch of frames, bars, stickers, videos, whatever, and sold those.  He just kept repeating the process, pulling a minimal amount of money out to pay rent and buy food and beer.  His amount of working capital just kept growing and growing.  I found there was no big secret to how a teenager started and built a bike company from an initial $1200 loan from a family member.  He just hustled, day in, day out.  Now, so many years later, it's my turn to do just that.  Remember, most stuff doesn't sell itself.  Unless you're selling crack or something, but that's not a good long term business plan.   

Think something up.  Make a few of them.  Then do the Hustle. 

Can a street performer turn into ever find success? Guy Laliberte

This video of Guy Laliberte, one of the Cirque du Soleil founders, gives a good look at what the spirit of a street performer can turn into with lots of hard work and talented people working with him.  He wandered off on his own playing accordion on the streets to make money as he traveled Canada and Europe.  He learned to walk on stilts and breathe fire in his travels.  When he landed back in Quebec, he joined with some other street performers and they formed a new kind of circus.  Cirque du Soleil, the revolutionary French-Canadian circus that changed a tradition that goes back centuries.

I worked on Cirque du Soleil for the first time in 1993, when it was a single show, under the big top, traveling North America.  It was like no other organization I'd seen before or since.  I worked in the box office selling tickets to a show no one had ever heard of.  I loved working there so much, that I worked on the next four Cirque du Soleil tours that came to Orange County, California as well.  It's one of the only jobs I've had where I looked forward to going in to work each day.  Cirque had a magic behind the scenes as well as on the stage.  I even met Guy one day on my way in to work.  He was talking with several other crew members, and I didn't realize who he was until I went on into the box office and one of my managers pointed out the window and told me he was one of the founders.  He was in jeans and a shirt and blended right in with the other crew members.

When I titled this blog Get Weird Make Money, Guy was one of the people I was thinking of.  The founders of Cirque weren't in it to get rich.  The wanted to create a show like no other show ever.  They did that.  Then they did it again... and again... and again.  There aren't a lot of interviews with Guy online, but in the few around you get a good idea of how he operates.  Take and idea, run with it, work your ass off, and surround yourself with good people.

Here's the preview of Saltimbanco, the first Cirque du Soleil show I worked on.  Flying from a Russian swing is still on my bucket list...

A good explanation of the Retail Apocalypse

I just found this video, and ultimately Ryan is pushing Shop.com, which I don't know much about... yet.  But his basic look at what's happening right now with the Retail Apocalypse, massive chain store closings, and where sales are going, is great.  The retail shopping dinosaurs are dying off and jobs are disappearing all over.  How are you going to cope with this?

I'm building my online store...

As I was selling my artwork in spurts last year, I kept toying with the idea of getting on Etsy or somewhere else to be able to sell online.  But nothing seemed right.  After setting a HUGE financial goal a week or so ago, I started looking for ways to achieve that goal.  I've decided to build an online store on Shopify to sell my art, zines, and what ever else I can come up with.  I'm building it right now.  I'll let you all know when it's ready to go. 

Of the Shopify videos online, this one is my favorite.  It feels the closest to my thinking these days.

"Retail Apocalypse" has a Wikipedia page... really

You know it's a fast moving trend when even the list of store closings on Wikipedia isn't up to date.  But yes, there is a page for Retail Apocalypse, so I guess that's as official as it gets.  There's isn't a page for "Mallpocalypse" yet, but I'm sure it's coming soon.

Mallpocalypse: 5,233 Retail Store Closings between 2014 and 2020

There are now over 3,300 retail stores closed or closing soon in the U.S..  When you add chain stores that have closed since 2014 and those scheduled to close by 2020, the number is at least 5,233.  And that's if we DON'T have a recession and the economy strengthens.  Here are a couple of key articles about what's happening:

Clark Howard's latest list of store closings.

The Harsh Reality of Shopping Malls- clark.com

Retail's "bigger problem hiding"- Business Insider 4/13/2017
There are over 220 mores more stores closing on this list that I didn't count above...

The Retail Apocalypse has Officially Descended on America- Business Insider 3/21/2017

The online version of my zine: 43 ideas to reuse Dead Malls

Big Picture: First reference to the "R" word

In this CNBC article/clip from earlier today, financial trader makes the case that things aren't going the way Wall Street was hoping, and the economists might start using the "R" word.  The "R" word is "recession."  

I've been expecting the start of a recession for a while now for several reasons.  But what does this mean for you, a fairly average person out there working away in the U.S.?  We are probably heading into a recession right now, or will within a few months.  For everyday people out there, that means fewer jobs, fewer good jobs, layoffs, some business closings, and a time to tighten up your budget.  If your work is steady and not likely to be affected, cut back on unnecessary spending, put a little more cash in the bank in case of the proverbial rainy day, and slog it out.  Normally, we get a recession about once a decade, and it lasts a year or so.

But we aren't in "normal" times, by any means.  This CNBC republishing of a New York Times article from this past Satruday (4/17/2017) we learn that 89,000 retail workers have lost their jobs since October, and that many see this a a complete change of the retail industry we grew up with.  "Store closures, meanwhile, are on pace this year to eclipse the number of stores that closed in The Great Recession of 2008." 

What we are seeing right now is the collapse of traditional retail sales that was an integral part of the Industrial Age economy.  3,500 major chain stores have closed in the last couple years or are scheduled to close right now in 2017.  And that's while the economy is doing fairly well.  This is going to be big.  What's happening to bricks and mortar stores, from Sears on down, will do to the retail world what the 80's and 90's did to traditional manufacturing.  

Here's where this matters to you.  If any part of your job or business depends on people who sell physical items in actual physical stores, YOU WILL BE SERIOUSLY AFFECTED by this recession.  This will be big, it will affect nearly everyone, and it's gonna hurt.  Bike shop owners, skate shop owners, snowboard shop owners, action sports manufacturers, I'm talking to you.

But there is a silver lining.  This is the point where ecommerce (aka online shopping) is going to take over as the main form of buying most items in the U.S. and the civilized world.  If you work in that area, this recession could be amazing for you.  Recessions decimate millions of people who don't pay attention to long term trends and economics.  But recessions (and depressions, which IS possible now) also offer amazing opportunities to entrepreneurs.  Where you fall in this economic tipping point is up to you.