Ten Brands That Will Disappear In 2012

Saab was a surprise. The others came as no shock. I do like A&W restaurants especially one of the first in Issaquah WA. The one North of us in WI has very good fried cheese curds; I guess I can survive without them though.

there will be some hits and just as many, if not more misses. The view taken by this "prophet" is too myoptic in the refusal to have some of their targets reinvent themselves. I honestly don't think Nokia is going to go away. They've already announced the death of the Symbian OS and who knows what they have on the drawing boards.

It doesn't look like T-Mobile is going away as early as the article may suggest either. AT&T has dropped their plan to buy - which this writer failed to account - due to anti-trust actions. T-Mobile may be bought out, but not by either of the big two. It's network is compatible with only AT&T's, so it would be a stretch for VZ or Sprint to go after them unless there are some VERY big strides taken with LTE.

Personally, I thought the predictions of BP's demise were just wishful thinking. Oil production is just a portion of this conglomerate's business and anyone claiming the company was going to fold was whistling in a graveyard. Stock in BP has been a stellar performer since the sell off dropped the prices after the spill. I happened to buy during the fire sale.

Sears/K-Mart is a possibility. They have announced the closing of a lot of under performing stores; Sears just isn't the brand it used to be. But their real estate portfolio is still something to watch. They do own a lot of their properties and they just aren't building any more dirt.

A&W is no surprise. There was one near me where I always went for a bottomless root beer drink. That closed and when I went online searching for another nearby store I was surprised to see they were all gone from downstate New York. The last one I saw was near I-86 near Binghamton in November.

I remember going to A&W stands with my parents in the Chicago area when I was a kid, and returning those big gallon glass jugs, to get more rootbeer.

Don't forget those huge mugs were frosted, ice cold.
There was another one similar to A&W called Dog & Sud's I can remember from my childhood, a long gone part of Americana.

Gotta have my Pops

and mostly accurate although it cautions they're "a list of brands that are going to disappear in the near-term." The T-mobile deal with AT&T fell through recently due to regulatory/anti-trust issues.

I'll miss A&W, too, if it happens. But Long John Silver's has been selling that brand for a few years now.

We just need to wait and see. I like A&W we go there for root beer floats. hard to get a frosted mug anymore. Have had a Sears card for over 40 years. Could be and interesting year.

The death of Sears has been predicted for a while, but they are hanging in there. Not seeing Kmart as the combined group - no Kmart stores anywhere near us, but still some Sears stores.

Sony Pictures - maybe that will be sold off, but there is also some prestige associated with the movie industry, and there is a tie-in for the video game aspect of Sony's business.

Nokia - maybe it's not the hot phone in the US, but worldwide, Nokia is still a huge and successful company.

Then again, I've been wrong once or twice in my life, so don't bet the ranch on my speculations!

No surprises here either - We still have an operating A&W in town that appears to do a good business, especially in the summer. It will be interesting to see what happens to it.

the A&W in Roy UT is a combo, KFC and AW.

companies come and go, even big ones make mistakes, some survive some don't, I hated when Lands End was bought out by Sears.

Say it ain't so!!!

Fred

Everything is in a state of flux these days, as corporations make billion dollar buyouts.

Geez, I remember when a $30 million payout dropped jaws, and that wasn't that long ago. Welcome to the 'Global Economy'!

Of course, us consumers get to pay for it all... including the wages, and shareholder profit. Do you ever get the feeling you're being screwed, and didn't even get a kiss?

Sears Holdings isn't a possibility, but a definite. Those real-estate holdings they have aren't as valuable as Eddie Lampert thought, mainly because most of them are located in dying malls. The only real strength of Sears Holdings was the brands, and the company missed the boat on licensing the brands, which would have brought in more income. Sadly however, Sears ceased being a retailer when the merger occurred and has become nothing more than a hedge fund manager's cash cow to be milked until dry.

The question is, will it be 2012, 2013, or 2014 before Sears Holdings folds up shop?

Sears has been around for a very long time. It will be a shame if they were to completely disappear.
I would miss their Craftsman Tools for sure.

Nothing is forever

I was suprised to Sears closing. I thought they would be able to hold thier own.

Bummer, I like A&W restaurants...

I will miss A&W too.

Dog & Suds, Arf & Barf.

A & W is an icon that should last forever.

Good luck to all.

LOL!

I'm sure the list would be more accurate if it were made closer to the end of the year rather than June. Although printing the list in June makes it more impressive if they get things right and less embarrassing when they get things wrong.

I would suspect that the Craftsman brand may be spun off into free standing stores similar to the Sears Hardware stores, as Danaher Corporation is essentially the supplier for the craftsman hand tools and MTD makes most of their lawn equipment. These are large revenue streams for these organizations and it is going to be interesting to watch.

Ex-employee here. MTD isn't part of the Sears picture anymore. Starting in 2005, Sears switched to Husqvarna as their supplier for mowers, leaf blowers and chainsaws.

That said, the brands simply do not have the pull they once did. Craftsman tools were put into Ace Hardware stores and flopped. Home Depot and Lowes have little need to touch Craftsman since Danaher makes the store brands for both chains. Kenmore is no longer made by Whirlpool, but by LG. The difference is noticeable and Lowes won't touch the brand despite Sears putting out feelers.

When I said the things I did in my previous post, it's because I personally witnessed the squandering of the brands for the sake of putting money into the chairman's pocket. Had Sears attempted to spin the brands off a lot earlier, they might have had a chance to survive. But now it's too late for them and the only question is when they will finally go down the drain.

The article is right on about Nokia. Going to the Windows Mobile OS, not going to save the company. Nokia currently has a -12% revenue growth rate but does have 14B in cash and 7B in debt. Current stock price is $4.82 but it has $3.89 cash per share.

Nokia and Research in Motion are racing to the bottom. I would also have put RIM on that list.

Sad that these are the names I grew up knowing.

The Saab demise is sad. I had a 1987 900S. Great car. The 900/900S was a hugely successful model.

Amazing how Nokia was THE handset company a few years ago.

I thought MySpace was dead a long time ago.

When I was a kid my aunt had an A&W across the street from her and when I would go to visit her she would give me a quarter and I would go over and have a corn dog and a root beer. I always looked forward to that.

Sugarless Bazooka bubble gum. Have they stopped making it?

Interesting that Sears and A&W are attracting the most comment here. Sears would be on most people's lists, I think. Note that the article is not predicting the demise of the A&W Root Beer brand, just the A&W fast food restaurants brand. The writer fully expects A&W root beer to live on for the foreseeable future. There are still a lot of A&W restaurants centered around Chicago, but I wouldn't normally go there for a burger any more than I'd go to a Dairy Queen for a burger (but I might go for the root beer or the ice cream). Not long ago, many small towns in Wisconsin had an A&W as the fast food chain in town (and not McDonald's).

.sorry

What a weird list. Thought some of them were gone already. LOL

A&W I will miss, good Root Beer!

Looks like Hostess, Twinkies and Wonder Bread are going for bankruptcy too.

I would be sorry to see Craftsman go. I have quite a few of their tools and they are still one of the bright spots on Sears otherwise dismal plate. I could never understand why one would be a Kenmore when they were either Maytag or Whirlpool in design. I had been nursing my mothers thirty year old Kenmore washer for years that is basically a rebranded Whirlpool washer. Sadly it has finally given up the ghost.

Its a shame about A&W. I always got good fast food there, except one time in Ottawa. . .

They forgot Kodak. In a digital age they are still making film.

Our 39 year old Sears Kenmore gas dryer is still going strong, had to replace the drum belt a couple times but otherwise still drying clothes for less than an electric would cost.

We bought the dryer in 1973 when we purchase our first house in Philly, back then it ran on city natural gas and when we moved to Tampa I got the parts at Sears and converted the dryer to LP Gas, a full tank when the kids were home lasted 3 months now it goes 6 to 7 months between refills.

... there are still locations in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, among others ...

http://www.dog-n-suds.com/

--

it's the dog's fault

Kodak is supposed to have quite a portfolio of digital patents. They have initiate a patent suit against some cellphone manufactures. looks like their business is going to change from Camera/film to patent troll.

I would miss their Craftsman Tools .

It's terrible when a grown man cries

Just read wher they are saying Best Buy will close but didn't say when. They also takled about their customer service is not good.

the best buy in Riverdale, UT is moving from a smaller store to a larger store.

I've heard for months that Best Buy wasn't in the best of shape financially. A lot of their stores are under performing and they are facing ongoing pressure from online stores. It's been mentioned here on this board that BB is most useful for seeing what an item is hands-on before ordering it at a lower price online.

Personally, I shop there as little as possible. There have been several times when I have seen an article stocked in quantity on their shelves on Saturday but missing on Sunday because they didn't want to match the price from another outlet. The comment from their people on the floor is often something on the order of "We no longer carry that item."

Face it, there just aren't that many big ticket items coming out right now. Flat screen TVs and computers (laptops and tablets included) have become low margin commodity items. Smart phones are eating the digital camera business and everybody sells good quality headphones/ear buds.

BobDee said in part, while making the statement..

Ahhhh.. question?

Why would one want to eat a Nokia phone?

I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

some need more fiber in their diets.

I would be surprised if Best Buy went under in 2012, but I think they have a good chance of being gone within the next five years.

It's just easier to get stuff online for less money and less hassle. A big part of the hassle of dealing with Best Buy is their aggressive pushing of overpriced accessories, warranties, buy-back program, and installation services. You can fool people once and sucker them into buying a $75 cable for their new HDTV, but when they figure out later that they wasted their money, they remember, and they don't go back. Best Buy's workers are less knowledgeable than the better user reviews on Amazon.