To my mind, Amazon’s biggest strategic advantage is that they started without brick and mortar retail. The business was built for ecommerce and then, using the systems and data they’ve developed, they could look at brick and mortar making sure to have the right number of stores in the right places configured in the right […]
Finally, some positive movement in the trade show space. I’ve hung back on writing about this for a few days but SIA President Nick Sargent sent out an email to all SIA members announcing and describing the deal, which is subject to approval by SIA’s premium members. The email from Nick was labeled “CONFIDENTIAL: DO NOT […]
Well, there you have it. At some level, it is that simple. But let me complete CFO Scott Roe’s comment in the conference call. “…we are sharply focused on fundamentals and willing to sacrifice a little growth in the near term for quality. Our efforts are clearly paying off in the gross margin line. And […]
This morning, the Seattle Times featured this article telling us that REI wage hikes for store employee announced last summer will be costing the company $24 to $25 million. The company’s net income for its last complete year was $38.3 million. Meanwhile, my oldest son sent me this article from Investor’s Business Daily, telling us […]
People don’t like people who make them uncomfortable. And when I do it, like now, I’m pretty sure it makes it less likely I get calls for consulting. But I’m all about trying to help you to run your businesses better and think you need the bad news as well as the good. Probably you […]
Zumiez has been telling us for some time now, correctly I think, that they are approaching the number of Zumiez stores the U.S. market can support. They ended their January 31 year with 603 U.S. stores. No doubt they will continue to selectively open (and close) stores and there is certainly no exact number of […]
Last Week Emerald Exhibition (EE) filed the S-1 that includes the first draft of its prospectus to go public. Because it’s the first draft a lot of information (like price per share and number to be sold) is missing. Still, it’s worth a review. We’ll summarize the company’s history and activities, look at the financial […]
GoPro’s press release of yesterday had the following title: “GoPro to Offer $150 Million of Convertible Senior Notes due 2022.” Well, okay, they’ve run through a lot of cash lately. That they might want to raise some makes sense. We don’t yet know anything about the terms. “The interest rate, conversion rate, offering price and […]
The way The Buckle 10K and conference call come across, you can’t quite decide, at first read, if they’ve made a specific decision to focus on brick and mortar or if they are just way, way behind in online. I think it’s the former given how they describe their business and how they compete.
It’s all the Lydians’ fault. The Lydians were a people who lived in what’s now Eastern Turkey in the second millennium BC. Herodotus, writing around 450 BC, tells us this about them: “…the Lydians lived their lives in a way not dissimilar to the Greeks. So far as we know they were the first people […]
