Retailers brace for nuclear winter

The upcoming holiday season may be the worst in decades for retailers large and small. Upscale operations like Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) could lose big parts of their customer bases as Wall Street layoffs push a number of well-to-do shoppers out of work.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "As economists predict the worst holiday sales season since the recession of 1991, retailers are fighting back with an arsenal of new selling strategies, staff cutbacks and more emphasis than ever on low prices."

A disastrous holiday season could put tremendous pressure on weak retailers including Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) and Macy's (NYSE: M). Macy's has already cut back its number of stores. Sears could be forced to close hundreds of its 3,800 K-Mart and Sears outlets.

A cratering of the retail market will cause the companies in the industry toward the sort of disaster Wall Street is weathering. Some of the largest players may not make it at all, and others will have to cut so drastically that they will never again look like they did in better times.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.