Howard Davidowitz
Howard Davidowitz
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If you've got one name, Macy's, you can save a tremendous amount of money in supplies, marketing cost, advertising umbrella, promotions. You enhance your margin because you're buying more. It's just a fantastic way to do things,
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When a company has bad performance and new owners, look for musical chairs,
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Those retailers who promoted like mad got the business and they won.
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Within the retail industry Federated is known for catering to the classes and May to the masses. For the May customer, it's an opportunity to get more upscale merchandise that a Bloomingdales' customer is familiar with.
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When Sears Essentials came in, you had a lot of morons running around screaming this was the greatest thing. I said it was a bowling alley with no customers. This business of going off-the-mall is much more complex than it looks.
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What happened in the third quarter is that retailers controlled inventory and expenses tremendously. So expect to see pretty good gross margins and expect to see inventories down. Put it all together and earnings will be fair.
execution problem
The problem at Linens 'n Things is execution.
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The private equity companies have never had this much money. They have $125 billion available for acquisitions.
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Bon-Ton is one of the weakest players in a very weak sector. It is increasing its risk profile tremendously by taking on debt. How does this all hang together?
buying losing market share
Bon-Ton has been losing market share and now it's buying more losers, who have also been losing market share,
number store
We've had an astronomical number of store closings.
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We'll have to see if these measures also will induce consumers to buy more in the second half of the year,
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May has paid a crazy amount of money for what many think is a declining asset. Not all of the Marshall Field's locations make sense to May, especially in areas where the Field's stores overlap with its stores. I think the company will try to recoup some of that money, the hefty premium it paid for the chain.
amount areas company crazy declining locations marshall money overlap paid premium stores
May has paid a crazy amount of money for what many think is a declining asset, ... Not all of the Marshall Field's locations make sense to May, especially in areas where the Field's stores overlap with its stores. I think the company will try to recoup some of that money, the hefty premium it paid for the chain.