I’ve generally been a supporter of Zumiez’s strategy and believe they’ve done most things right. So when I see them suffering right along with everybody else in a difficult (not nearly a strong enough word) retail environment, it really brings home to me just what we’re dealing with. The numbers first, then the strategic issues.
Preparing for Long Term Market Ambiguity; Zumiez’s April 30th Quarter Read More »
The quarter and year ended March 31st weren’t great for Deckers. Mostly, you’ve probably noticed, they haven’t exactly been great for companies I’ve written about in general. What somehow got my focus as I read Deckers’ 10-K was the continued and, indeed, increasing sameness of what all the public companies are saying. Let’s start with
Is Everybody Pursuing the Same Strategies? Deckers’ Year and Quarter Read More »
Skullcandy filed a form 13D today with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that founder Rick Alden was going to explore a transaction to take the company private. To be clear, that doesn’t mean it will go private. Here’s the relevant section of the 13D.
Skullcandy Founder Rick Alden Considering Transaction to Take Skullcandy Private Read More »
VF filed its 10-Q for the quarter ended April 2nd on May 10th. The results, while in line with expectations, showed VF under the same kind of pressure other public companies are dealing with. Even their action sports segment, where most of their growth has been coming from, experienced very modest sales growth and reduced
VF’s Quarter: It’s Not Easy for Anybody Out There Read More »
The Amazon Effect is given a lot of blame for the lousy and, some say, deteriorating retail environment. I gather it was a topic of conversation at the recently completed Surf Industry Summit at Cabo.
Let’s Not Just Blame Amazon Read More »
Skull’s loss for the quarter ended March 31 rose 27.9% from $3.7 to $4.9 million. Sales rose just 1.4% to $46.3 million while the gross profit margin dropped from 40.9% in last year’s quarter to 37.5% in this year’s. The pretax loss rose 50% from $4.6 to $6.9 million. The balance sheet remains as strong
The News is Good, But the Loss is Higher? Skullcandy’s March 31 Quarter Read More »
So there I was sitting in the conference room of the Embassy Suites for day one of the IASC Skateboarding Summit waiting for the dreaded retailer panel to start. You all know the panel I mean. They have one at every industry trade show and conference I’ve ever been to. Three or four retailers sit
IASC Skateboarding Summit – Have We Found a More Valuable Way to Talk With Each Other? Read More »
It has been an element of faith that the days of print advertising were ending and we’d all be making our advertising and promotion buys online. I still expect print to be in a long term decline, but I just read a pretty persuasive article that talks about the decline of online advertising and the
Online Advertising: Is the Bubble Bursting? Read More »
GoPro released the 10-Q for their quarter ended March 31st last Thursday. The company’s net income dropped from a profit of $16.8 million in last year’s quarter to a loss of $107.5 million in this year’s. The balance sheet remains very solid, though not quite as solid as a year ago. We’ll have our usual
GoPro’s Quarterly Results: They Have to Create Other Revenue Sources. How? Read More »
On April 24th, the Seattle Times ran an article called “Amazon’s Imitation Game.” It starts by describing how Amazon has knocked off an aluminum laptop stand by Rain Design that had been selling on Amazon for 10 years at a price of $43.00. Amazon started selling a similar product last July for around half that
Amazon, the Omnichannel, and the Impact of Retailers’ Brick and Mortar Legacy Read More »