<p>I love Value City discount department stores. Bargains on jewelry and shoes, and the juniors department always had tons of cute “American Eagle” stuff that my nieces love, and then men’s department had a great selection of hoodies and t’s with college and sports team names. It is a great place to Christmas shop for teenagers. </p>
<p>The stores were a little disorganized, hard to find things in, but it was worth it to me (I like to shop) for the low prices.</p>
<p>But now they have filed for bankruptcy and will be closing all of their stores. Sigh. </p>
<p>At least in the little town just south of us, T.J. Maxx is doing quite well and is hiring for the holidays. The checkout line is usually very long even with all of their registers open. The other day I got a flyer in the mail advertising T.J. Maxx’s newest fashion arrivals for teens. That’s a first! But if American Eagle and other clothes makers go out of business, what would T.J. Maxx and other discounters sell?</p>
<p>I used to love Value City and their $9 swim suits. We used to have 2 of them, they are gone. With all financial craziness and job market uncertainty, we just stopped going shopping, except for necessities. So, I do not care about stores anymore. Just wear my old clothe, and whatever my D. dispose of. I cannot stop my teenage D. but my H. is with me on this one. No economy boost from us! And it saves gas!</p>
<p>When my kids were little, Value City was my guilty pleasure - my husband would watch them so I could go to VC and wander for good buys for a couple of hours. Loved it.</p>
<p>More recently, it seemed their clothes, etc. seem to slip in quality. </p>
<p>But no one could beat their shoes. Fabulous selection, great buys. I guess I’ll be going barefoot now… :(</p>
<p>And I thought Value City will close in the Delaware Valley area. Not only they are going to close but they also offer no severance packages to their employees by notifying them about it in the mail. Sad, sad story.</p>
<p>I’m not much of a shopper, but I have noticed that the wares at chain stores have gotten a little more “discounty” (is that a word) over the past few years. I loved TJMaxx for fashionable clothes at good prices. But my last few trips involved no purchases. Is this the start of an unfortunate trend? Or is someone else beating me to “the good stuff?” I suspect the former, and BCEagle’s stock price data would seem to support my suspicions.</p>
<p>We lost our Value City about 6 months ago. I liked their shoes and bought a couple of suitcases there, but the clothes were not very good.</p>
<p>Today, I decided to go out ( in a storm no less ) and stimulate the economy. I went to our local mall in hopes of finding some good bargains. I rarely, and I mean rarely go to the mall. I thought I heard that Macy’s was having a sale…nothing UNLESS, I opened a credit card. In fact, every store I went into wanted me to open an account so I could save…It was disappointing, and the last thing I want is a store credit card.
looks like back to catalogue and internet shopping for the holidays for me.</p>
<p>lje62, I just had a completely different experience at Macys. I did not go today, but I went within the last week. My son complained about not having enough long sleeved shirts. I was amazed at how well I did. I commented to my H that the economy is so bad that the prices were what I would have expected to find the week before Christmas and right after Christmas. They had tons of things at 50% off, with an additional 20% off either with a coupon or by using their charge card.</p>
<p>I checked our flagship Macy’s tonight on the way home because I had to hang out somewhere waiting for the next bus. I was shocked how slim the pickings were. I think there was nothing new on the racks since my last visit more than a month ago. This is really un-Macy’s like! A friend reported that the downtown Nordstrom had lousy selection, too. Credit issues?</p>