There was a reason Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most -- if not the most -- shorted stock on Wall Street for the past couple of years. The Big Box home furnishings retailer was in a free fall, its revenues, profits, comp-store sales and virtually every other matrix falling precipitously…at the same time its overhead costs and SG&A were going in the opposite direction. What was once viewed as the best in class retailer in the home space had fallen on hard times and after an investor revolt resulted in the exit of its senior …
Management
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 …
How Sustainability Went from Just Slogan to Reality in Home Furnishings Retailing
If you mentioned the word "sustainability" to anybody in the home furnishings business a few years back -- hell, maybe even a few months back -- chances are you'd get a smirk, an "oh-yeah-that's-important" condescending response and a suggestion that it was time to go to Starbucks. My, how things have changed. Profits + the Planet As the entire consumer products industry from factories and marketers to retailers comes to grips with the issue of environmental dangers lurking in the very near-term future, the home furnishings industry is …
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Contentious Acquisition…at What Cost?
Ever since I heard the news that LVMH wanted out of its deal to acquire Tiffany and Company and the two companies' resulting suit and countersuits, George Harrison's "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" has been an earworm playing in my head: You serve me And I'll serve you Swing your partners, all get screwed. Bring your lawyer And I'll bring mine Get together, and we could have a bad time. Buyer's Remorse Speculation has swirled for months that LVMH has buyer's remorse after agreeing last November to pay $16.2 billion or $135 per share for …
Shakespeare & Co. Is Out to Transform the Entire Book Industry Supply Chain
In 2019, bookstores’ revenues were a shade above what they were 25 years ago, only $10.6 billion, falling from a high of $17.2 billion in 2007, according to the Census data. Amazon doesn’t report its book sales, but Statista puts the U.S. book publishing industry at ~$26 billion. You do the math. Decline and Fall While Amazon was gobbling up market share in the book business, it also decimated the bookselling industry. The Census Bureau is not as generous with data on the number of retail businesses as it is in reporting revenues, but in …
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Brands Masterfully Navigating the Social Issues of Our Time
The urban and suburban landscapes are becoming increasingly surreal. Thousands of retail store closures and Main Street vacancies are sweeping the nation, as coronavirus pulverizes the global economy. But the pandemic isn’t the only issue that will permanently alter the way we do business. With millions of Americans confined to their homes and a historic election underway, participation in social justice causes has skyrocketed. People are finally being forced to sit with themselves for an extended period of time without the constant demands …
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Home Depot & Lowe’s: A Tale of Two Retailers…Two Really Good Retailers
In an age of luxury merchandising and technology-fueled e-commerce selling, who would have ever thought that two of the most successful and admired retailers in the business make their money selling 2x4s, plumbing fixtures and gardening tools? Home Depot and Lowe's are weathering the pandemic as well as any two companies in the country, building on the wave of success they've been riding for the past several years. Happily, situated in a very sweet spot in the marketplace right now -- the home improvement and remodeling sector -- they are also …
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The Indefatigable Walmart Gets a Piece of TikTok
In the game of musical chairs that has been the TikTok acquisition, Walmart and Oracle are still seated as the music stops although they may on be stools, make that stools with a leg missing. Walmart has hung in there after first dancing with Google, then Microsoft, and now Oracle, but with each change of partner, the jackpot Walmart was reaching for diminished in value. Tik Tok posted on Twitter that “Oracle will serve as a trusted tech partner responsible for hosting all US server data”. The Tweet continued, “We are currently working with …