freddiemertz

5 Comments

    • Wal-Mart Beats Other Retailers for a Piece of the Stimulus Pie [view article]
      Once again, very little expertise on display here. This is WMT's normal rollback program, branded as "economic stimulus" just as August's was branded "Back to school". In fact, the number of items in this round of rollback is actually LESS than normal. And more importantly, extending no interest financing on groceries and consumables is actually pretty foolish. There is a reason that grocery stores don't issue credit cards and don't give financing. It is asking for trouble with a low-end consumer. Jan 30 08:53 PM
    • Lampert's Move Is All About Brands [view article]
      Shockingly ill-informed and naive commentary yet again from Mr. Sullivan. For starters, these are divisions within a company, not completely independent units working under a holding company like Berkshire Hathaway's divisions. Second, TGT has not been begging SHLD to sell them stores for three years. They (and other potential buyers like HD & LOW) have been building stores in the same trade areas as the desirable SHLD locations because SHLD has been unwilling/unreasonable in negotiations. So although many of those locations are great, the opportunity has passed as potential buyers have built out nearby locations. And why exactly is a REIT a good thing? Please give me one example (other than Alexanders which held a single location in the heart of midtown Manhattan that is now the Bloomberg tower) of a retailer becoming a REIT and creating value. RVI, which many had been valuing on real estate value just had TO PAY someone to take their Value City locations off their hands. Third, the day you can buy Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard in non-SHLD retail outlets is the day that SHLD packs it in and stops being a retailer, because without those brands there is simply no reason to shop at Sears. Fourthly, Covington, Structure and Canyon River Blues (Canyon River Blues?? -- you can not be serious) are worthless brands that Wal-Mart or any other retailer would not stock in their stores if they were paid to do it. And Joe Boxer is not owned by SHLD -- it is owned by ICON -- do your research. SHLD bought the failed Structure brand from LTD for less than $10mm. Jan 27 11:16 AM
    • Lululemon Athletica: Heading for Single Digits [view article]
      Neither of your examples, UA & CROX are retailers and neither has a business model that is vaguely close to LULU. Also, coming up with a per store value for a hyper-growth retailer is meaningless. It gives no value to the growth, when in fact, that is where nearly ALL the value is. Jan 25 12:04 PM
    • How Good Were Holiday Sales Really? [view article]
      Barry -- you're confusing comp store sales with total sales. TGT's comp was flattish for the period, but total sales were up 6%. WMT's total sales were up in the high single digits. I still agree that the holiday season was rough and that ShopperTrak's numbers are bogus -- they count traffic and have no idea what people do once they are in the stores.
       Jan 11 09:22 AM
    • The Weak Housing Market Hits... Office Depot? [view article]
      Every retailer that has reported over the last three months has at least partially blamed the housing market. Nov 21 10:58 PM
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