This morning, Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) announced that it is going to shut two of its home furnishing stores. The closures will take place in July, and the company is blaming the action on the recession.

Costco CEO Jim Sinegal noted, "The current economic slowdown and resulting weakness in the home furnishings business in particular have led us to conclude that the single-format Costco Home concept does not fit into our long-term expansion plans." The stores are located in Kirkland, Washington and Tempe, Arizona.

According to the company, there should be no layoffs stemming from the decision -- and the company will continue to offer home furnishings at their wholesale clubs. Moreover, the company does not believe the closing will impact the company's bottom line.

Back in February, Pier 1 Imports (NASDAQ: PIR) announced that it would close up to 125 underperforming stores, depending on its ability to renegotiate leases with landlords.

A month and a half later, the tough economy is paying off for Pier 1 -- at least in its efforts to negotiate with landlords. The company announced yesterday that it will close fewer than 80 stores -- a drop of at least 30% from the original number.

Yesterday, struggling jewelry retailer Zale Corp. (NYSE: ZLC) announced the closure of 115 stores in a drastic cost-reduction plan. The company also announced that revenue dropped nearly 18% in the second quarter.

The stores designated for closure will lock their doors for good when their leases mature. The closing stores are poor sales performers. In addition, ZLC announced that it will cut its capital spending by 65%, along with 245 jobs already cut this month. Furthermore, the jeweler plans to reduce its debt by roughly $40 million from the end of the second quarter through July (which is the end of ZLC's fiscal year). ZLC noted that the addition of Canadian and Puerto Rican assets give the company flexibility and sufficient liquidity.

The homebuilding sector collapse has been longer and deeper than even the most pessimistic expected. Prices continue to fall and foreclosures keep rising. With so much supply on the market, the end does not seem near.

The result of the carnage will be a change in behavior that always comes with crisis. The biggest trend I see happening will be with respect to new construction, or, shall we say, the lack thereof.

Homebuilders are operating at historically low levels, meaning less supply on the market. But the assumption that demand for new homes will magically reappear once that supply dissipates is erroneous. Instead, look for homeowners to focus on making do with current stock.

Patrons and employees alike await the final decision about which Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) stores will be closing and who will be getting kind notes explaining why closing 600 stores is necessary, making their jobs not.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, about 50 stores have already been notified that they will be closing by July 31, and the list will be made public by July 15. The Journal writes of anxiety for the Starbucks faithful who have come to appreciate the caffeine brew and do not have satisfactory alternatives.

There are two stores in walking distance of my office and when Starbucks opened the second one about 18 months ago I was very surprised. However, I will not be surprised if the newer store is among the casualties.

I'll admit the headline is a bit deceptive. On one hand McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) has seen a resurgence in its business and frankly, the shares have done very well. In fact since McDonald's went through its own set of problems five years ago, the stock has since tripled in value.

The parallels between Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and McDonald's are very eerie. Starbucks has hit the proverbial wall after a successful ride from 1992 to 2007 as one of the premier GameChanger stocks around. Starbucks, like McDonald's over-expanded its store base in the United States and began to cannibalize its own revenues. Starbucks, like McDonald's, lost its principle focus and did not tend to 'what got them there".

In late 2002 McDonald's stock had just finished a 4 year run of losing 70% of its value. The company was becoming a hodgepodge of different menu items, culminating with the disastrous release of the McLean Deluxe, which was not even all beef! Advertising and marketing programs were a mish-mash of geographical themes yielding no consistency whatsoever. McDonald's even posted, for the first time in its illustrious history, an operating loss in 2002, and experienced negative same store sales for the first time, as well.

Then CEO Jim Cantalupo said enough was enough. McDonald's closed 700 unproductive stores (sound familiar?) and re-focused its menu and advertising campaign.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares are falling today after the company announced over the weekend that it will close three of its stores in San Juan, Puerto Rico, admitting that economic times are tough and that perhaps the stores were too close to other Starbucks locations (Gee, you think so?). This might not be the worst thing in the world for the brand if it closes down some locations if it over-expanded, but at the same time, if customers don't come back, we could be seeing the beginnings of another Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD) situation. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on SBUX.

After hitting a one-year high of $28.60 in August, the stock hit a one-year low of $15.39 in April. This morning, SBUX opened at $16.19. So far today the stock has hit a low of $15.89 and a high of $16.33. As of 12:30, SBUX is trading at $16.24, down 11 cents(-0.7%). The chart for SBUX looks bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bear-call credit spread above the $20 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 11.1% return in three and a half months as long as SBUX is below $20 at October expiration. SBUX would have to rise by more than 23% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

SBUX hasn't been above $20 since January and has shown resistance around $17 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings are a positive surprise, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance SBUX might find at its 200 day moving average, which is currently around $20 and falling.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in SBUX.