Zumiez

You’d think I’d be getting used to it, but I still find myself surprised when another one of our industry’s public companies reports a strong quarter or, in this case, year.  The reasons are tending to be similar across reporting companies; higher gross margin, customer lust to get outdoors, ecommerce growth, expense reductions, government help […]

Well sure, we’ll spend some time on the numbers.  You can see the impact of the pandemic for both better and worse. More importantly, their data systems, the trade areas, the way they treat brick and mortar and online as one sales channel and their culture are coming together in unprecedented economic and competitive conditions

Zumiez reported a solid August 3rd quarter, and their balance sheet remains rock solid.  They had to deal with the same pandemic issues as everybody else, and their responses were similar.  But what we are reminded of in the 10Q and the conference call, like for the 50th time, is Zumiez’s is confidence in their

Zumiez reported their results for the year and quarter ended February 1st on March 12th.  Great quarter and year.  But about a week after their fiscal year ended, the impact of the pandemic on the economy became apparent.  For all retailers who sell directly to the consumer, in our industry or not, the world is

Zumiez had a great quarter ended August 3 (remember I don’t write until I have received and digested the 10-Q).  They did it with sales that rose just 4.3% from $219.0 in last year’s quarter to $228.4 million in this year’s.  But they also increased their gross margin from 33.1% in the same quarter last

A couple of years ago Zumiez stopped reporting comparable store sales changes and started reporting just comparable sales changes.  That is, they no longer told us how their brick and mortar stores were doing in isolation from ecommerce. They were one of the leaders in making this change.  Now, it’s how most retailers report.  Their

Let’s go right to something Zumiez CEO Rick Brooks says at the end of the conference call on their results. “…our goals [is to] continue to grow the profitability of the business from [an] operating profit perspective.  Now of course if we have recession we’ll go backwards and we’ll see competitors go away across the

I’ve decided that my best recent article was “How Brick and Mortar Retail Has to Change,” written last June.  I was surprised it got so little feedback.  Probably because the list of what customers don’t need us to do anymore is a little intimidating, and we aren’t sure how to respond. Even if, like Zumiez,

That’s a lot to cover.  I had some hope this would be short.  Let’s start with strategy and quote CEO Rick Brooks from the conference call. “Our top and bottom line results…are a direct result of our relentless commitment to winning with today’s empowered consumer. Our success continues to be driven by the strength of

I see no reason to spend time explaining what’s going on at Zumiez when CEO Rick Brooks has done me the favor of laying it out in his introductory conference call remarks.  Read them, then I’ll offer short discussions. “Our top priority is to stay consistent and relevant with our customers in order to expand