Passage 2
It’s a brutal time in retail-sales dropped 2.7% in December, the sixth straight month of declines, and 0.1% for 2008, the first annual dip on government records dating back to 1992. It was the worst holiday shopping season in 40 years. Name outlets like Circuit City and Linens’n Things have gone bankrupt. Who’s next? Predicting which companies will go under is a notoriously tricky business, and we won’t try that. But here are five struggling retailers whose futures are definitely cloudy, with a look at how they hope to survive.
Talbots, the specialty clothing retailer, which targets women over 35, has run out of steam over the past year. Talbots’ same-store sales were down 13.9% in the third quarter of 2008, and the chain lost $14.8 million during that time. The company’s ill-fated $400 million purchase of women’s apparel shop J. Jill in 2006 burdened its debt load. “What’s hurting them more than anything is that they’ve got lots of debt on their balance sheet,” says Betty Chen, a retail analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. Talbots has shuttered its men’s, kids and U.K. businesses, and is shopping for a buyer for J. Jill. Good luck finding one in today’s market. Earlier this month, investors received some encouragement when the company secured a $150 million credit line from three Japanese banks. In 2008 Talbots also secured a $50 million credit facility from Aeon (U.S.A.) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Aeon Co. Ltd. and the majority shareholder of Talbots.
50.Talbot’s buying of J. Jill has helped it to overcome the financial difficulties.
A、True
B、False
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:题目中提到Talbots公司在2008年第三季度的同店销售额下降了13.9%，并且在那段时间亏损了1480万美元。此外，公司在2006年以4亿美元收购了女性服装店J. Jill，这一举动增加了其债务负担。零售分析师Betty Chen指出，Talbots的主要问题是他们账面上有大量债务。Talbots已经关闭了其男装、童装和英国业务，并正在为J. Jill寻找买家。然而，由于当前市场状况，找到买家并不容易。尽管如此，Talbots在2008年从三家日本银行获得了1.5亿美元的信贷额度，并从日本永旺株式会社的全资子公司Aeon (U.S.A.) Inc.获得了5000万美元的信贷设施。这些举措表明Talbots正在努力克服财务困境，但并没有提到收购J. Jill帮助公司克服了财务困难。因此，题目选项A的陈述是错误的。
