Looking Back at 2012 and Ahead at 2013

Now that 2012 is behind us, it is time to see how did 2012 predictions fare up. Let’s look and see:

• Sears will try to sell off Kmart, but with no takers the long-on-life support chain will go out of business completely.  Sears will also close half of their named stores as the company struggles to survive. (This didn’t happen no matter how much we really wanted it to happen.)
• After years of declines, both OfficeMax and Office Depot will go completely out of business.  Sadly, Staples buys the remains of both companies including their websites and thus gets scrutinized for such an act. (None of this happened, but the thought of it was scary nonetheless.)
• Staples itself will downsize by about 1/3 therefore closing many low-performing stores and stores that have issues that need to be addressed and cannot be solved.  Ironically, the store that I was previously employed at will be one of the ones that will be closed down by mid 2013 because of too many structural problems and bad management. (Rumors are that many of the stores are being downsized and a handful of stores were closed, but the rest of my prediction is yet to be seen.)
• RadioShack will close about ½ of their locations that are underperformers by year’s end and by 2014 be completely out of business. (The Peabody Massachusetts store, which was store #5000, has closed. This may be an indicator that others may follow given that a milestone store has been closed.)
• Dow Jones will fall to 8000 points by year-end with at least 2 weeks of 1000-point drops. (It ended about 5000 points higher than that prediction.)
• Gold will drop to under $1000/oz. (It closed at $600 higher.)
• Apple will close many of its stores after protestors wreak havoc because of the overpricing of their products.  Apple stocks sink to under $100 by year’s end. (Apple did have highs and lows, but no stores closed and the stock did not drop that low.)
• After months of primaries, no clear winner of the Republicans is found, thus the candidate will be chosen in face-off at the convention.  The winning candidate, however, won’t have a chance against Obama by losing by a large margin. (A candidate was found in Mitt Romney, but it was still a failure by losing the election by a single digit percentage.)
• Maine governor Paul LePage will have an assassination attempt on him, but he will suffer other health problems forcing him out of office for good. (This didn’t happen.)
• A major hurricane will strike Florida causing significant damage in and around the Orlando area, destroying about a quarter of the famed Disneyworld park.  The park will remain open, but sections will not be accessible.  It will be at least 3 years to bring the park back to its original form. (The idea was right, but about 1000 miles off. New Jersey shoreline was killed and will need significant time to recover, if ever to what it was.)
• Books-A-Million exits the New England area by closing all of its locations it had previously taken over from Borders.  It can only be assumed they only had a one-year lease and wasn’t happy with the result. (They are still around with presumably none of their New England stores closing.)
• Barnes and Noble closes about 1/3 of its stores after the cost of buying the remainder of Borders’ assets was too much cost and very little reward. (This didn’t happen.)
• and finally, the world will supposedly end on May 21 of this year.  Ironically this also happens to be my birthday as well; therefore I believe I am the Doomsday character. (Well, the world didn’t end, I don’t believe. However, I may still be the Doomsday character. That one has yet to be proven.)

As you can see from the 13 predictions I made last year, only 1 was partially correct. Maybe the crystal ball was a little cloudy. Let’s see what this year’s crystal ball predicts:

• JCPenney will be out of business by year’s end. The revamped store format just won’t work
• Sears will spin off Kmart to survive on its own. It won’t work and Kmart will inevitably die off.
• Another mass shooting brings the U.S. government to ban all automatic and semi-automatic weapons no matter what the NRA says.
• Chicago murders will top 750 by year’s end.
• Kim Kardashian aborts her baby after public break-up with Kanye West much against her family’s wishes.
• Ali Lohan, Lindsay’s younger sister, will join her older sister for a Playboy layout.
• A major earthquake will strike in Alaska disrupting the oil pipeline in the area. It will be disrupted for at least 4 weeks and gas will go up to at least $4/gallon again.
• Simon Cowell calls Demi Lovato his “new Paula” as he decides to keep her for another season of “X Factor”. Unfortunately, Mario Lopez will be running solo as another Kardashian sees herself out of a job.
• “American Idol” will have a female winner for the first time in a few years. However, the drama between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey increases as the weeks go on causing both to storm off the show for at least 2 episodes. Replacement judges are called in to fill in until the two return.
• Beyoncé will have a wardrobe malfunction on the Super Bowl. However, she won’t even realize it happened.
• Nickelodeon cancels Big Time Rush, but the show is picked up by Disney Channel for a fall schedule addition.
• Hilary and Haylie Duff will return for a TV movie in 2013. More than likely to air on ABC Family channel.
• And finally my former want-to-be girlfriend Tanya will return to Maine wanting to get a real relationship going after her stint in California didn’t quite work out for her. Naturally, I greet her potential with open arms and she forgives me for not calling her because I misplaced her phone number.

Once again, I have picked 13 things that the crystal ball predicts. Some may happen or none of them may happen. We will find out in 12 months.

Next week: Maybe the Story will continue or something else will come up…stay tuned…you never know…neither do I.