Admittedly it was a very "Barbie In Her Beauty Bubble" stance to take, but this was my first thought when Forbes dropped its "Kylie Jenner fooled us about her billionaire status" bombshell: Wait -- by Forbes's calculations she's worth $900M? That's so close! But then I remembered that old saw about horseshoes and hand grenades - and this little thing called shareholders - and I knew I had to do some serious digging and reading to understand the ramifications for all parties involved. If Coty overpaid for its 51 percent stake of Kylie …
Management
Pandemic Planning Is No Panacea
Business continuity planning alone is not enough to survive a global pandemic. There is no amount of planning that could have prepared retailers for what has transpired over the past several months. This is especially true for retailers and brands which distribute exclusively in the U.S. where a significant percentage of revenue was abruptly cut off when stores closed. The coronavirus enveloped the country in one quick, fell swoop, especially disrupting retailers which began the year on a strong footing, building on solid performances from …
Under Armour: More Than a Covid-19 Bump
Let's hear it one more time: Those who were at-risk before Covid-19 are more likely to succumb and die from it. And Under Armour came into the pandemic on life support. In fact, it had its own pandemic virus beginning at the end of 2016, and I wrote about it: "Is Kevin Plank into "Alt-Facts?". The Q4 2016 results presaged the early symptoms of an Under Armour pandemic, which would continue to ravage the brand right smack into the throes of Covid-19. Prior to those Q4 results of a mere 12 percent increase in revenues, Under Armour was hitting …
Survival of the Fittest
The "once in a life-time" impact on retail created as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the secular shift that has gradually been impacting retail for the past 10+ years; namely the shift to digital and the declining viability of regional "B," "C" and "D" malls. This secular shift over the past decade has resulted in a gradual decline in retailer productivity and profitability as, for most retailers, digital sales represented a cannibalization of their brick-and-mortar store volume, rather than an increase in total revenue. Many …
J.Crew and Neiman Marcus: A “Not What You Think” Lesson
The retail and general business media are jammed with news, insights and perspectives around the bankruptcies of J.Crew and Neiman Marcus. And unfortunately, too many readers could finish these articles believing that a heavy debt load combined with the shutdown due to Covid-19, were the major culprits in bringing these brands down. There are many other major factors that pushed them onto a declining curve beginning in the early to mid-2000s. So, in my opinion, they were heading to a cliff's edge long before the virus. It just accelerated their …
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OMG!! A Final Gap “Hail Mary” Play?
A Case for Euthanasia? Gap on Life Support In 2011, I opened with this salvo: "I don't care how much cash The Gap is sitting on or how much they generate on a daily basis. Just as Sears keeps pumping blood (cash), through its veins, Gap is, and has been for a long time, staying alive on "life support." Essentially, the body (the retail business) is dying, but the nearest and dearest relatives (shareholders and the Board) obviously do not want to pull the proverbial plug. They all stand around the dying patient, hoping for some kind of miracle …
What the World Needs Now Is Great Leadership
There are a multitude of leaders around the world, by title only. There is a scarcity of great leaders. The same applies in the retail ecosystem. The United States has been the de facto leader of the "free world" since the end of WWII. However, we are arguably witnessing its demise in real time (some would say over the last three years). In title only, we have a leader, but in my opinion, he is the opposite of "great," and in many ways endangering the country. However, this article is not about politics and the performance of our current …
Coronavirus Has Pushed A Rapidly Growing List of Retailers to the Edge
With consumers' heightened awareness of the danger of being in confined places with strangers, it is highly unlikely they will flock to stores and malls even once they reopen. Anxiety and a healthy paranoia are likely to linger - possibly for a long time. Ever since March 14, America has been effectively closed for business. That was when the Trump administration declared a state of emergency and called on Americans to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, retail establishments classified as …
Coronavirus Has Pushed A Rapidly Growing List of Retailers to the EdgeRead More