Grant Thornton Predicts the Future of Retail

For the past month, I've been totally consumed with the task of closing the old fiscal year out at my university department.

Today starts the new fiscal year, and I'm glad to be back. I've missed blogging.

Let's start off slow.

Last Wednesday, Grant Thornton (as in the audit, tax and advisory service guys) was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times saying that "as many as 10,000 retail stores will close nationwide this year, led by clothing stores, electronics and food-and-beverage stores, and department stores, in that order . . ."

Of course, I was mostly interested in what they had to say about bookstores. Here it is:

Though bookstores represented only a fraction of the total, their closings are forecast to jump 500 percent from last year, to 400 stores.

Help the economy. Buy a book.