If you go to Levi site, you will read in big, bold type, "Been innovating since the birth of the blue jean in 1873." In fact, 1873 was the year that Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings." By adding metal rivets to work pants, which would be known as blue jeans, they created stronger pants for working men. And over the last 147 years, Levi Strauss & Company has indeed fundamentally innovated across their business model, its products and every operation throughout their …
VF Corporation: A Retail Radical of The Year
Headquartered in Denver Colorado (appropriate for its outdoor and action sports brands), the VF culture, formed during the 80s, endures as a quiet, under the radar relaxed group of leaders and team players. They live the VF lifestyle and wear its brands attire. However, this casual culture should not be interpreted as relaxed. They are fierce competitors, but they just don’t waste any energy bragging about it. They eschew “breast-beating” to the press for keeping their collective heads down, focused on growth. Growth Propulsion And grow …
Ulta Beauty Radicalizes Retail
What does Ulta stand for? Up until about seven years ago when Ulta was tucked away in Bolingbrook, Illinois, it might have been the world of beauty's best-kept secret. Or worse, beauty consumers might have defined it as an acronym for Union Leaders Training Award or Union Labor Temple Association or Utah Land Title Association --- before recognizing it as the beauty products retailer it was. Founded in 1990 as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance, the business plan was a unique model that would offer more cosmetics and fragrances than any other …
Target: A Retail Radical of The Year
The pandemic provided select essential businesses an open field to rake in billions of consumer dollars. Shoppers moved purchases from thousands of shut-down nonessential stores, as well as a huge expenditures in travel, entertainment and other nonessential services to the essentials. And while Target was one of the beneficiaries of this dramatic windfall, they were hitting the ball out of the park even before Covid became a household term. In fact, their numbers coming out of the third quarter of 2019 showed eight straight quarters of …
JC Penney: Too Big to Fail
I'm no Andrew Sorkin, who given the chance, could probably make another blockbuster book, Too Big to Fail: JCP the Sequel. However, he would probably have to give the story a massive spin. While the notion of "too big to fail" might peak interest in the retail world, it most certainly doesn't contain the kind of drama, suspense, the edge of crisis and sheer magnitude of a potential economic collapse of Great Depression proportions, as Sorkin was able to brilliantly narrate in his famous book. So, I will take a shot with a mere article-sized …
AEO: Laser-Focused on Gen Z…and Winning
Consumer-focused would be an understatement in describing American Eagle Outfitter's huge competitive advantage. It's the major reason they are doing so well, even in the malls and during the pandemic to boot. AEO is parent of American Eagle, Aerie and newbies Unsubscribed and Offline. Let's say laser-focused on the Gen Z cohort, the oldest of whom are in their mid-twenties, and whose spending power is estimated to increase by 70 percent by 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group. Overall apparel sales in the US tanked by 79 percent in …
Amazon and Walmart Go Deeper into Apparel: But Why?
While retail sales of apparel were getting hammered before Covid was even part of our common vocabulary, it soared to the rank of number-one loser during the pandemic (the Work From Home phenomenon as a big contributor). According to McKinsey & Co., apparel revenue for the year is expected to drop by 20 percent to 30 percent industry-wide, and by 10 percent to 25 percent in 2021 compared with last year. Also, a big contributor to declining apparel sales pre-pandemic was the emergence of the now dominant next-gen consumer culture with a …
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“Anchors Away” Foot Locker: Full Power into the Neighborhood
In a sentence: Is Foot Locker possibly shedding its mall anchors and accelerating the rollout of its neighborhood Power Stores? For what reason? To escape antiquated malls? To get closer to its consumers? To personalize and localize the brand by becoming a part of, and contributing value to their communities? To create experiences that are cool and awesome to their sneaker culture? Try all of the above. Survival of the Fittest Prior to the pandemic, many experts were predicting that roughly two-thirds of the 1200 major malls in the U.S. would …
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