I knew it. I knew Macy’s wasn’t going to be only one. Less than 24 hours since my last post, we find that more retailers will be closing stores and cutting back. Many stores are cutting back their specialty lines, and some, like Home Depot are cutting back on their square-footage growth plans.

U.S. retailers will close stores and reduce square-footage growth plans this year to offset slowing sales, slumping stock prices, a saturated market and a penny conscious shopper, analysts said on Sunday.

“We’ve seen about 25,000 new stores open in our universe — publicly traded specialty retailers — between 2000 and 2007,” said Brian Tunick, a J.P. Morgan analyst who covers specialty retailers, speaking at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

“There’s a lot of (retailers) out there that are over-stored right now,” he said.

So, is it the economy? Is it the negative mall experience? Or could it be the price of gas? That’s what one person actually said. She said for retailers to do better, people need to unconsolidate their shopping trips.

Wow. Did she just say that people would buy more if prices were lower? Oh sure, she said they would if gas prices were lower. Notice how she shifted the blame for poor sales.

I don’t think it has anything to do with the economy. I don’t think it has anything to do with the malls. I think it has to do with the fact people want something for their money, and if you ain’t got it, they aren’t spending their money at your store. It’s as simple as that.

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