What we are seeing now is actually NOT a result of bad business or ineffecient markets... these chains all have one thing in common: the were part of the stock market "bubble", and "day traders" who used the stock market as a slot machine, looking only at short term hype.

Most of these store chains had it right at the start: decend product in the right market with a steasdy profit. But that's NOT what buyers in the "wallstreet casino" are looking for -- they want to see "hundreds of new stores opening", "mass expansion", whether the MARKET supported it or not. THAT is what boosts stock prices and makes stockholders happy.

The problem is you cannot just keep opening new stores - there is a limited market for EVERYTHING... so you have lots of huge stores with few customers... so they open MORE stores to boost expectations of future profits... and so on.

Then bring in an economic slowdown and BAM, your house of cards crumbles, even though you had a solid foundation.