Let the closings begin . . .

It's been said that there won't be any real beginning to the end of the stockmarket/retail collapse until stores are actually closing by the big box chains, etc. Well, today we get the first of the "good news" items on closings . . . . Starbucks Corp. will close 600 U.S. coffee shops and eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs, the most in its history, as it slows the chain's expansion after it doubled in size in four years.