alt Hacker Newsi think calling this another victim of PE is missing the point a little bit. i guess Catalyst Brands is technically PE, but they're not just a finance company treating these brands as assets to be milked and stripped for parts before they're killed.
Catalyst is a joint venture of Brookfield and Simon Property, both of which are shopping mall companies. Their other brands are all shopping mall fixtures. The story here isn't private equity doing the normal private equity thing, it's that shopping malls are dying.
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>Its e-commerce and wholesale operations are not affected by the filing because they are operated separately.
>The bankruptcy doesn't affect Eddie Bauer stores in markets outside the U.S. and Canada.
So its physical US locations declared bankruptcy.
> it's that shopping malls are dying.
They've been dying for decades. The owners have just decided to stop trying to save it and instead hollow it out and sell it all off.
One data point - in my local Simon Property shopping mall, the Eddie Bauer store closed down a few months ago. A new LL Bean store is "coming soon".
In retail, a certain rate of chain/brand churn is what you'd expect. If the public feels that some chain or brand is iconic, or has been around forever - that does not magically protect the underlying corporation from missing the boat on marketplace changes, or having its management go downhill, or the founder selling out to PE, or whatever.
> The story here isn't private equity doing the normal private equity thing, it's that shopping malls are dying.
That's true, but to me the more interesting question is: Why?
In Europe and Asia, indoor shopping malls are thriving. They're all over the place, and very popular. This place is a stone's throw from where I live, and it's always crowded: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_City_Seiersberg
When I go to the US, indoor malls are either depressing ghost towns, or they're luxury-only complexes with a heavy security presence and a seemingly-intentional lack of amenities. (Like a Starbucks that only has three tables despite ample interior space, nowhere else to eat, etc.)
What's driving the weird variance in shopping patterns? Naively, I'd expect shopping malls to be more popular in the US, as Asia and Europe also tend to have "shopping districts" inside their (usually walkable) towns that often function, effectively, as open-air malls.