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 …
Management
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 …
In the Post-Covid World, Every Retailer Needs to Find Its “Essential”
As in Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, when we write the story of retail in 2020 it is going to be the best of times for one group of retailers - those deemed essential - and the worst of times for others - non-essential retailers. Two new studies, one from IBM projecting retail through year-end and another from UBS looking out to 2025, tell the tale of the best and worst to come. Retail's Uneven Bounceback Overall, IBM has good news to report: 2020 should end with retail down only three percent, excluding auto-related and food services. "The …
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Wayfair May Just Be Getting Started
Talk about a change in fortune. A scant five months ago Wayfair was trading at a 52-week low of $21.70. Then, following its August earnings release, in which it posted its first quarterly profit since its 2014 IPO, Wayfair’s stock price soared to as much as an astounding $316.50 per share. If you are keeping score at home, that means that an investment of $10,000 back in March, right when the pandemic hit, would now be worth roughly $150,000. Holy Hanna -- that’s one hell of a return in five months! Now, say what you will about the …
Will Beauty’s Recent Support of Racial Justice Actually Stick?
When I decided to write about the explosive topic of racial justice and equality in America, and how that plays out within the beauty category, I came face-to-face with a four-letter word: fear. Dead Silence First, an analytics firm that measures consumer confidence - and that had originally approached The Robin Report offering its insights - declined to answer any questions regarding brand authenticity and racial justice. Next, a digital marketing platform, used by a huge number of DTC beauty brands to send promo emails and newsletters to …
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