I came across this short article recently talking about the ongoing improvement in store brands and their importance to retailers. Now, it’s not our industry but I thought everything they said applies to us. I guess the standard explanation for store brands is that they give the retailer some more margin. True, and that margin […]
The Buckle didn’t say anything unusual or intriguing in its conference call or 10-Q. I guess that’s good. But at the moment, this is the last retailer I haven’t reported on, and it appeals to my sense of order to get it done before settling in for Christmas and the holidays. What we can learn […]
It used to be way easier to grow a retail chain. You found a good location, made a deal with the landlord, made improvements, and brought in some inventory and some experienced management to train the new group of employees. If you did this mostly right, a year later (maybe sooner) you had a cash […]
It’s my belief that PacSun CEO Gary Schoenfeld has mostly done the right things since he joined the company. But so far PacSun hasn’t been able to reclaim the competitive position in the market it used to have. Maybe, if this wasn’t a brutally competitive, over supplied, retail environment, things would be different. But they […]
SPY filed a form 15-12G with the Security and Exchange Commission on December 11th. The press release that accompanied the filing stated, “As a result of this filing, the Company ’ s obligations to file certain reports with the SEC, including annual, quarterly and current reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, respectively, […]
As with most industry retailers, it’s not exactly a great time for Zumiez. Their October 31st quarterly numbers were disappointing. We’ll talk about those. But I want to spend most of this discussion on where, exactly, Zumiez’s is in the market and how CEO Rick Brooks describes and projects what’s happening in retail. The funny […]
Television was first demonstrated back in the 1920s. But it was really wasn’t until the late 1950s that it took off. I don’t think breakthrough technologies take 30 plus years to make it into the mainstream any more. Maybe it’s better to say that once they reach their tipping point, their adoption accelerates dramatically. Why? […]
A&F (owner of the Hollister brand) had a pretty good quarter. I’m thrilled that their sales fell a bit and want to start by reminding you why I’d think like that (though they tell us it was mostly caused by exchange rates). Here we sit over retailed as an industry and a country with a […]
As we go through the process of watching Quiksilver try to resurrect itself what issues should have our attention? Certainly not the endless pages of bankruptcy court filings. Not even I’m reading all of those. The process will grind through to its conclusion. The secured creditors will come out more or less intact, the common […]
At Billabong’s annual meeting a couple of days ago, CEO Neil Fiske and Global Billabong Brand Manager Shannan North made presentations describing the company’s progress and challenges since the results for the year ended June 30 were announced in July. Let’s see what they said. It’s only been four months since the year’s results were […]
