Holiday Sales Tumble as U.S. Consumers Cut Spending

it is only going to get worse as each day passes.

Strangely i think Amazon had their best holiday season ever.

I bought a bunch of stuff from amazon, homey don't go out to malls and such anymore. Why?? I hate people.

100% internet shopping here.

That's odd. I hate people as well, and shop online lol. I should clarify, i am not a heteful person, i just do not enjoy being in crowds and things like that. For example, i have about 800 dvd's/bluray, but if i go to the movie theater more than once a year, it's a lot.

Borders books,sirius sat radio,sears, etc.. any company with maturing debt in 2009 is gone. It doesnt hit home to most americans until the neon lights go dark.

*gasp* you mean, I'm not alone?

YAY ! I was beginning to feel too happy.

i'm seeing lots of strip malls that were built within the last 5 years with "for Lease" signs up..

this land was once farmland, and now is incapable of growing anything..

"they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"..
joni mitchell

Yeah correct, I don't hate all people, merely stupid dumbass sheaple, I cannot stand even being around them. I'll lose it lmao.....

Same here. People are rude, disgusting slobs who have no manners nor consideration for others. I can't deal with it any more, so the online retailers get my business.

LOL, no you are not.

Only one question. Whats a Mall? :)

Ya'll must not live in the south. For all our hick-ness we're remarkably polite in stores and so forth. I'm in North Florida. I almost always have some sort of pleasant exchange when I'm out grocery shopping, etc.

Yup I am trying to find the name of the company that is on the hook for billions in strip mall financing who's loans come due in what, march 2009???? They are in big trouble and history. Anyone remember the name of that company?

I am in Austin. Fuckin' lefties from California and shit move here. Makes me wanna bust a cap on their stupid commie asses.....

EDIT: the primary reason I live 45 miles outta town in the country and commute to work.

Well, here in Latin America, er, I mean, South Florida, we don't have folks with good old fashioned southern manners. Shopping is an exercise in containing your rage when people who can't understand a word of English block the aisle and look at you like, "Yeah? What are you going to do about it?"

LMAO. Love it.

I really don't like Florida. Every time I visit my folks, I can't wait to leave.

Honestly, it's not only the rudeness of some people for me, it's just being in a crowd itself that doesn't work well with me. I had some serious social anxiety when i was younger, and have made drastic improvements, drug free, but still get uneasy at times. But nowhere near as bad as i used to.

Last time I went in a store I felt like choking everyone. I was standing there with an arm full of survival food listening to about a million of them talking on the cell phone and with baskets loaded with pure useless shit.

Dumb A$$ Sheeple is right? Don't think, just do, is their motto.

Having been faced with Big Oil's rise in oil prices that raised the price of gas and utilities to unheard of highs, people are playing catch-up, leaving no room for frills that don't fill a NEED.

When you find yourself sitting on the floor in the dark eating cheese and crackers, you buy candles and more cheese and crackers, and wish yourself a Merry Christmas!
.

Here it is. These guys. They are toast early next year.....



Top News October 3, 2008, 4:29PM EST

General Growth Properties Staggers Under Debt Load


Analysts say the owner of 200-plus shopping malls might be forced into sale amid cash crunch, credit crisis, stock declines

by Joseph Weber

General Growth Properties (GGP), the nation's No. 2 shopping mall company, may soon become the next giant felled by the credit crunch. Analysts believe that Chief Executive John Bucksbaum, who put the 54-year-old outfit deep into hock as he bought up retailing real estate across the country, could be forced to sell the company and its more than 200 malls nationwide because he'll be unable to make payments on its staggering $27.4 billion debt load. "GGP is at the end as a going concern," says RBC Capital Markets analyst Richard C. Moore II. "It's time for them to go away."

General Growth has been reeling this week amid the financial crisis. It suspended its dividend, which it had increased 11% last April to 50 cents a share, in a failed bid to woo back shareholders. The company's stock, at nearly 58 a year ago, plunged to just above 7 on Oct. 2 after news broke that its long-serving chief financial officer, Bernard Freibaum, had quit after selling several million shares to meet margin calls. The shares rebounded 27% to finish the week near $10, as analysts have predicted that either the entire company will be sold or it will be broken up and peddled in pieces.

Chicago-based General Growth last month announced that it was considering merging or selling off assets. The company did not return calls for comment on Oct. 3.
Untapped Credit Lines

Analysts say buyers could include such mall giants as the Simon Property Group (SPG), the Indianapolis-based mall titan that leads the mall pack in the U.S. and boasts some 383 malls worldwide, and Westfield Group, whose 118 malls are spread across the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Britain. Westfield is based in Sydney, Australia. Even if they assumed General Growth's debt load, both companies could likely afford to buy the outfit, especially since its market value has dipped below $3 billion. Analysts say such buyers could cover the debt service, which includes payments of about $1 billion due next month and an additional $3 billion next year, using untapped credit lines and with cash flow from the mall properties.

General Growth's malls in 44 states, which include such trophy properties as the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas and Chicago's trendy Water Tower Place, are faring surprisingly well. Occupancy topped 93.2% in the second quarter this year, the company reported, and net operating income continued to rise. Indeed, analyst Louis Taylor of Deutsche Bank (DB) still expects the company to generate more than $3 a share this year in funds from operations, a key barometer of health in a real estate investment trust. The company last year produced $3.71 a share in such funds.

The company's problem is debt. Bucksbaum, the co-founder's son and a hard-charging amateur cyclist known for tooling up and down the Alps and palling around with champion rider Lance Armstrong, shelled out billions of dollars to thrust General Growth into the real-estate big leagues since he took over as CEO in 1999. He bought Rouse, the planned-community and retail giant, in 2004 in a highly leveraged $14 billion deal, for instance. With that came master-planned communities and land in such slumping areas as Las Vegas. A famous planned community in Columbia, Md., is also among his trophies. He has been hit since then by the double whammy of the real estate market plunge followed by tightened credit. All told, General Growth's assets may be worth more than $40 billion, but frightened by its hefty debt load and the cash crunch, investors have bid its market value down to $2.7 billion.
Plead with Lenders

"The play was they were going to deleverage themselves over time," says analyst Taylor. "The financial markets moved too swiftly against them."

Just how General Growth and its properties may be sold, or parceled out, is unclear. RBC analyst Moore, who speculates that investment bankers are already in talks about a sale, argues that the company could be moved as a single unit to either Simon or Westfield, or to a joint venture of the two prospective purchasers. He says buyers could also include Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), the owner of Toys R Us, and Brookfield Asset Management, based in Toronto. Vornado and Brookfield both declined to comment.

If a sale doesn't pan out, the company could be forced to plead with lenders for extensions on it credit—a tough thing to get nowadays—or to sell off properties piecemeal. "Almost any one of these outcomes is likely," says Taylor.

Joseph Weber is BusinessWeek's chief of correspondents, based in Chicago.

We're fucked.....again!

More....

Developer GGP negotiating for an extension on $900 million in mortgage loans for 2 malls

From Baltimore Sun news services
December 16, 2008

Area mall owner and Columbia master developer General Growth Properties Inc. said yesterday that it is still negotiating for an extension of the maturity date on $900 million in mortgage loans for two Las Vegas malls.

The real estate investment trust, which is the second-largest U.S. mall owner, failed to reach unanimous agreement with lenders on extending the loans for the Fashion Show and Palazzo malls in Las Vegas. The loans were due Friday after the Chicago-based company received a two-week extension.

Asked whether the company was in default on the Las Vegas loans, General Growth spokesman Tim Goebel said yesterday that the lenders "haven't acted against us, and we're talking."

If the banks declare the company in default on the loans, it could force General Growth into bankruptcy. The company, which has suffered from the credit crunch after assuming billions of dollars in debt during the real estate boom, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month that it might file for bankruptcy if it could not refinance its loans.

It hired law firm Sidley Austin as an adviser.

Talks with the lenders are continuing, the company said yesterday in a statement. General Growth lost 96 percent of its value this year on investor concern that it is carrying too much debt amid a global credit crisis that has caused a drastic drop in consumer spending and real estate values. The company had $25 billion in mortgages, notes and loans as of Sept. 30.

The company said Friday that it refinanced $814 million of other mortgage loans to try to stave off bankruptcy. General Growth's woes stem from its $11.3 billion purchase of Columbia-based Rouse Co. in 2004, financed almost completely with debt.

The company's local malls include Harborplace, The Mall in Columbia, White Marsh Mall, Owings Mills Mall, Mondawmin Mall, the Galleria, Towson Town Center and the Village of Cross Keys. General Growth put Cross Keys up for sale this year.

Last month, the company posted disappointing third-quarter results and cut its year-end forecast, weeks after its board ousted its chief executive, president and chief financial officer.

General Growth has a stake in more than 200 shopping malls in 44 states.

After falling as much as 17 percent yesterday, shares of General Growth rebounded to close at $1.85, up 5 cents, or almost 3 percent.

Me and hubby only bought for grandkids(2)and our(2)daughters this year and no credit cards were used.

Everyone was happy and we had a great time together,we were only out of pocket about $500.00 thats with the holiday meal and all the gifts.

Omega, i believe GGP refinanced all if not most of their debt. Not saying they still arent in trouble, but it may be held off for a little bit.

I haven't been inside of a mall in 10 years. So there

Yeah I am still doing research I too read something about this however I thought with the refinance they had to come up with some serious money by March of 2009. Me thinks they ain't gonna make it....

Yep, the commercial retail shoe is about to drop and drop BIGTIME!

I believe 4o% to 5o% of the strip malls will be empty this time next year and that's if were lucky!


I've never seen so many "For Lease" signs....EVER!!

..

Amazon.com posted it's best seasonal sales figures ever.

And at first glance Macy's may have as well in terms of merchandise volumes. If you discount prices up to 70% and sales measured in $ fall by 4% that sounds like a whopping increase in merchandise volumes.

The season is half over. We will see what inventory levels are in a bout two-three weeks.

The stores that close or go broke will be those that were marginal. This is how capitalism works.

The exception of course is WallMart who stands to gain massive market share as a result of this downturn. I predict that within 5 years WalMart will be opening more upscale franchises to take advantage of their huge market share command and subsequent economies of scale.

Remember: somebody always profits from depressions.