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  • Is Williams-Sonoma Going Downscale?
    It's not just the $50 carrot-peeler; it's the really top-priced rents at the most upscale malls to sell what are essentially kitchen pots and pans and replacements for perfectly good coffee makers. It's a tough call for the next few years as to how many people will find love in a $269 le crousset pot when Target sells the equivalent for $49.
    Jan 06 07:14 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Is Apple the Beacon of Light In This Dreary Recession?
    the whole retail environment can't survive on the i-phone.
    Dec 25 11:11 am |Rating: 0 -2 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Trading Down: How Will Frugality Affect Retail Spending?
    More and more consumers are now adopting the shop-up strategy, under which when you need something you start shopping for it at the cheapest place around and only shop up if you can't find it at a bargain price. Thus, the first place to look becomes Walmart or the generic aisle of the supermarket; only if WMT's quality doesn't satisfy does one trade up.

    The best sign of this strategy taking hold is the number of BMW SUVs one finds in the parking lots of Walmart; it is a massive reversal of psychology as the BMW SUV was the ultimate in aspirational buyer vehicle.
    Dec 16 04:39 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Stock Buybacks: What's Causing the Decline?
    We are in the midst of a liquidity crisis -- Cash is King!!

    Many strong companies are holding on to cash as they watch credit markets dry up and are unwilling to risk not being able to roll over debt.

    The absolutely strongest firms are trading at less of a discount; for them, holding on to cash gives them the ability to swoop in and buy some complementary firm on the cheap or to use accelerated payment terms and other credits to suppliers to achieve lower prices.

    When cash is king,it's a shame to waste it on shareholders.
    Dec 11 06:34 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Dow's Lost Decade
    Rash generalization, at best. It's not about the industrial era vs. the information era - after all, Citigroup has as many programmers on its staff as Microsoft.

    It's really an issue of a complete lack of real earnings by many institutions, cutting across multiple industries with a pattern that is discernable only to those who create numerous exceptions to define rules.

    If information were dominant, Microsoft would be riding high along with Intel which virtually solidified its hold as the core of all tech.
    Nov 24 04:10 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Starbucks Tells Walmart:: "Here, You Take Them."
    in the long run, paying a whole bunch of people to pour coffee for 2 hours a day while sitting around and comparing boyfriends & girlfriends the rest of the time does very little for the economy
    Jul 03 09:23 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Retailer Earnings Will Continue to Worsen
    it is rarely possible to gauge retail activity by personal inspection of a mall or chain of stores. to say that the retailers aren't attracting the parents is to avoid the decent sales at Macy's, certainly not a youth cult store.

    what one can see in a mall tour is that some retailers are running lousy stores while others are up to date.

    walk into a Sears in any mall and it will be the least attractive main store of any
    May 27 07:07 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Walmart: Sales So Far Look Very Encouraging
    the biggest problem with wmt's 1-2 % same store sales gains is that inflation is running at a higher rate; as such, when one price adjusts their sales, it turns out that they're nor improving at all. Improvement means more than selling the same box of soap this year for 1.02 than was sold last year for 1.00.
    the true criteria for retail growth is "same store operating margin; the test whether from one yr to the next a store can maintain its core profitability it is a lot harder to manipulate those numbers since you can easily "buy" sales with lower prices but "buying" margin is a lot tougher
    Dec 14 06:53 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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