Retail Bankruptcies Down to the Wire?

In touring a power center recently a retail broker brought a client through an anchor space that was recently vacated by a now bankrupt national retailer. In addition to stripping the space of its merchandise and trade fixtures, the retailer or its liquidators tore out every light and inch of conduit in the entire building removing the copper and leaving the remains in a mangled heap.

A group of corporate retail veterans with more than 80 years of combined real estate experience indicated they had never seen anything like it.

Corporations and banks are getting so desperate that they are going after the only remaining stores of value in defunct retail concepts/franchises - hard assets.

This has eerie parallels to the US economy: former world franchise product no longer viable (dollar), runs out of line of credit, lights turned out, hard assets removed in the middle of the night.