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Since 1920, the outdoor recreation brand Eddie Bauer has pioneered innovative apparel and sports gear designs for outdoorsmen in America. Now, in another blow for physical retailers, sources say that all of the brands North American stores are on the chopping block amid an impending bankruptcy filing. According to a person close to the matter, the company that owns the license to operate Eddie Bauer stores in both the U.S. and Canada, Catalyst Brands, is gearing up for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that could potentially shutter all of the brands North American stores. The bankruptcy would be limited to the entity that operates the stores, the person said. Catalyst Brands did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment. Eddie Bauer operates 180 locations in the U.S and Canada and about 20 international locationsmeaning this filing could almost entirely eliminate the brands physical operations. It would be the second bankruptcy to impact Eddie Bauer, which sought Chapter 11 protection in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. The news comes as the so-called “retail apocalypse continues to slowly subsume brick-and-mortar stores of all specialties across the United States. In 2025, store closures struck major retail chains like Macys, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Party City, and Big Lots, and the internet grieved the final days of beloved brands like Joann and Claires. And just this month, Saks Global announced the closure of most of its Saks Off 5th brand, while Francescas, another mall staple, began quietly shutting down its stores. Which Eddie Bauer stores are closing? Catalyst Brands, which also oversees operations for brands including Lucky Brand, Aéropostale, Nautica, Brooks Brothers, and JCPenney, has not yet announced details of its rumored Chapter 11 filing for Eddie Bauer or the specific stores that it intends to close. Its likely that the move will encompass all of the brands North American locationshowever, sources say that there are several outside parties interested in purchasing at least part of the total fleet. According to the publication WWD, which reported on the potential bankruptcy last week, the filing is expected to go through sometime in February. In the absence of any official news from Catalyst, local media has been independently reporting on closures. These include a 30-year-old location that closed its doors in Flagstaff, Arizona; a defunct mall spot in Amarillo, Texas; and a shuttered 20-year-old store in Naperville, Illinois, to name a few. A full list of Eddie Bauers retail locations is still up on its website. What does this mean for the Eddie Bauer brand? The reported bankruptcy filing could spell the end of Eddie Bauers physical presence in the U.S., but it doesnt mean that the brand is going away entirely. Eddie Bauers assets are technically controlled by three separate entities: Catalyst, which owns the license to operate stores in the U.S.; Authentic Brands Group, which owns Eddie Bauers global brand IP; and Outdoor 5, which recently acquired the licenses to Eddie Bauers manufacturing, e-commerce, and wholesale operations. Thus, while Catalyst might shutter the brands North American stores, Outdoor 5 will continue to manage its digital sales and distribution channels to other retailers. Eddie Bauer has been signaling a retreat from its brick-and-mortar business for years. Back in 2023, when the brand ditched its cursive logo for a new sans serif mark, then-CEO Tim Bantle told Fast Company that wholesale retail and international distribution were two of his top priorities for the company.
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E-Commerce
Americans lived through the worst bout of inflation in about 40 years at the start of this decade, but the sting of higher prices differed significantly depending on where you live. Even though wages also rose during that period, residents of only nine states have actually come out ahead, according to a new study. From 2020 to 2024, consumer prices for things like housing, groceries, energy, and everyday essentials climbed 21%, as measured by the consumer price index. During that same period, the average American workers pay rose 18%, from about $64,000 to $75,600, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those differences illustrate what many Americans have experienced: Inflation erased much of the apparent progress of wage increases, according to a recent analysis by MyPerfectResume, an online resume building site. In fact, the typical U.S. worker is now earning approximately 2.6% less in real termsafter adjusting for inflation and cost of livingthan in 2020, the study found. The findings highlight a crucial truth: A high-paying job doesnt automatically mean a higher standard of living, Jasmine Escalera, a certified career coach who provides career advice for MyPerfect Resume, wrote in the report. The nation got a pay raise on paper, but a pay cut in reality. Thats because inflation has erased years of progress and workers paychecks arent stretching so far, according to MyPerfectResume, which didnt immediately respond to an interview request from Fast Company. And despite a recent claim by President Donal Trump that inflation has been defeated, economists expect it to tick up from a 2.7% annual rate in 2025. Inflation is forecasted to increase at an annual rate of 2.9% in 2026, according to the consensus forecast of about 50 professional economic forecasters surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. WHERE WORKERS CAME OUT AHEAD The sting of inflation hasnt been the same for all Americans. Residents in 40 states lost purchasing power from 2020 to 2024, while Utahns saw no change in their standard of living during that same period, MyPerfectResume found, based on an analysis of the changes in real earnings and purchasing power across all 50 U.S. states from 2020 through 2024. But Americans in the following nine states, mostly concentrated in the West and South, saw their paychecks stretch farthest: Idaho: +3.1% Florida: +2.6% Washington: +2.3% Montana: +2.3% Wyoming: +1.8% South Carolina: +1.5% North Carolina: +0.9% Tennessee: +0.9% Maine: +0.5% Workers there actually came out ahead once inflation and local prices were taken into account, Escalera wrote. WHERE WORKERS ARE FALLING BEHIND Workers in the vast majority of states, however, are grappling with higher paychecks that feels like less money to spend on essentials. The analysis pointed to particular pain for workers on the East Coast, where the decline in real purchasing power from 2020 to 2024 was worstled by New Jersey: New Jersey: -7.0% Rhode Island: -6.9% Maryland: -5.4% New York: -5.3% Massachusetts: -5.3% For workers in these states, nominal wage growth was insufficient to keep pace with inflation and high living costs, in some cases prompting workers to choose job security over career moves, Escalera wrote. SIDE GIGS To grapple with paychecks that buy less today than they did just a few years ago, many Americans rely on supplemental income or side gigs. In fact, MyPerfectResume conducted a recent survey that found that 72% of American workers currently rely on at least one source of secondary income, with the majority citing inflation as making such side gigs more necessary. What began as a stopgap during high inflation has transformed into a long-term financial strategy, shaping how Americans navigate rising costs, stagnant wages, and economic uncertainty, Escalera wrote in that report.
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E-Commerce
Wild swings that swept through financial markets overnight eased after Wall Street opened for trading on Monday. U.S. stocks rose modestly following gains in Europe and sharp drops in Asia, while gold and silver prices rallied back from severe earlier losses. The S&P 500 added 0.5% and is on track to snap a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 317 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:15 a.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher. Stocks of companies that make computer storage helped lead the market, adding to gains from last week following several profit reports that topped analysts’ expectations. Airlines and cruise-ship operators were also strong, benefiting from a sharp easing of oil prices. The center of the action in financial markets was again precious metals, where momentum suddenly halted after golds price roughly doubled in 12 months. Gold briefly dropped below $4,500 per ounce in the overnight hours, down more than $1,000 from its high point reached just last week. It later pulled back to $4,742.80, down 0.1% from Friday. Silvers price has been on an even wilder ride recently, and it swung from a 9% loss overnight to a 0.3% gain. Gold and silver prices had earlier been surging as investors looked for safer things to own amid a wide range of worries, including a Federal Reserve that may be set to become less independent, a U.S. stock market that critics say is expensive, threats of tariffs, and heavy debt loads for governments worldwide. Their prices cratered on Friday, including a 31.4% plunge for silver. Some on Wall Street saw it as a result of President Donald Trumps nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Fed. Warshs reputation as a former Fed governor may have raised expectations among some investors that he may keep interest rates high to fight against inflation, which would reduce the need to hide out in gold and silver for protection. But many on Wall Street are also skeptical of that initial reading and say the expectation from Trump is likely that Warsh will cut interest rates, something the president has been demanding. That could give the economy a boost, but also inflation. The Fed chair has a big influence on the economy and markets worldwide by helping to dictate where the U.S. central bank moves interest rates. That affects prices for all kinds of investments, as the Fed tries to keep the U.S. job market humming without letting inflation get out of control. The recent swoons for gold and silver are likely more about the washout for some traders who had borrowed money to bet on metals prices continuing to soar, rather than about a wholesale change in expectations for demand for metals, according to Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer for Wealth & Investment Management at Wells Fargo On Wall Street, Sandisk leaped 11.4% to lead the S&P 500. The data-storage company added to its 6.9% gain from Friday, after it reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It credited demand created by the artificial-intelligence boom, among other things. That helped offset a 1.3% drop for Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the worlds move into AI technology. The losses were worse in Asia, where AI winners plunged. South Koreas Kospi fell 5.3% from its record for its worst day in almost 10 months after chip company SK Hynix lost nearly 9%. In the bond market, Treasury yields edged higher after a report said that U.S. manufacturing grew last month, when economists were expecting a contraction. The yield on the 10-year Treasury erased an earlier dip and rose to 4.27%, up from 4.26% late Friday. Oil prices dropped more than 4% after Trump told reporters that Iran is seriously talking to us. Its a potential signal of improving relations between the two countries, which could prevent a possible disruption to the global flow of oil. In stock markets abroad, European indexes rose nearly 1% following Asias washout. Japans Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%, while stocks fell 2.2% in Hong Kong and 2.5% in Shanghai. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
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E-Commerce
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