With the economy coming to a screeching halt in early 2009, and the lackluster recovery that followed, some well known brands and consumer products are gone forever:
Circuit City Retail Stores
Circuit City became one of the largest retailers to go out of business this year, after the 60-year old electronics chain declared bankruptcy at the end of 2008.Saturn
GM dubbed Saturn “a different kind of car company” when it launched the brand in 1990. Alas, it was not different enough.Pontiac
Gear heads across the nation mourned the loss of Pontiac, when a bankrupt General Motors decided to discontinue the long-standing brand earlier this year as part of a restructuring plan.Kodachrome
When Kodak introduced Kodachrome in 1935, it became the first commercially successful color film.Home Depot Expo
Home Depot, the No. 1 home improvement chain, announced plans early this year to shutter its Expo Design Centers as demand for granite countertops and custom window treatments withered.Max Factor
Procter & Gamble announced plans in June to pull Max Factor cosmetics from the U.S. market as the brand’s popularity with American consumers waned.MSN Encarta
Microsoft quietly closed the book on Encarta earlier this year as free reference materials online came to eclipse the once-popular digital encyclopedia.Gourmet Magazine
Of all the publications lost this year, the demise of Gourmet Magazine was one of the hardest to swallow.
While several of these companies went out of business due to a failing economy, the fate of brands like Kodachrome, MSN Encarta and Gourmet Magazine was sealed at the advent of the internet age, which gave birth to free information and digital media.
If the recovery reported by mainstream media and government agencies fails to materialize, expect many more brands and popular consumer products to be put down in 2010.
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WorldMarket is another one the bit the bullet this year. 🙁
Here’s a list of retail downsizing and closings for 2009: (long list)
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/statisticsresearch/a/storeclosings09.htm
And the 2010 list of retail downsizing and planned closings already has 13 names on it.
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/storeclosingsandopenings/a/Store_Closings_list_2010_us_retail_chains.htm
why steal content  from cnn/reuters verbatim, it’s rediculous, there is no added value here.
I guess to answer your question, DH, this story is here to bring attention to the story, rather than to provide any commentary or additional value to the original content. Some of our readers don’t visit CNN or Reuters, so it’s here for those who may have missed it.
Sometimes we do that here at SHTFplan, and sometimes we add commentary. It just depends on our mood.
Greg, thanks for the added value with the links you provided!
I did a similar “story closing” story at the beginning of 2009… Seems like the lists are getting bigger nowadays!
Don’t forget Saab & Borders book stores. Don’t be surprised to see Ebay join the scrap pile too – traffic was down about 30% for ’08, down 37% for ’09. It matters them much more than free sites because Ebay is all about revenue and both revenue & sales follow traffic. one place to see the 37% number : http://247wallst.com/2009/12/16/the-biggest-online-winners-and-losers-for-2009-ebay-traffic-collapse/