June was a difficult month for retailers and it's also typically a month during which comparable sales are driven by discount sales. |
Just remember one thing - the competitive world around Home Depot is changing. Lifestyles are changing. He has stay not just on top of those changes, but a mile ahead of them. |
Kmart is in a condition of repair right now, ... It is almost surprising they are down only 2 percent. They have a huge amount of over-age inventory they have to unload. |
Kmart's earnings were lower than a year ago, and the reason why they were lower is because there is a lot of money being invested in infrastructure. But it's going to pay huge dividends in the future, ... Kmart is finally very excellently positioned to turn around and create a very strong place in the sun. |
Kohl's did a few things that made the shopping experience easier, ... They introduced shopping carts, centralized checkout counters and an easy-to-shop store layout. |
Lampert signaled a long time ago that he wanted a major role for himself in the actual running of the company. That's apparently what he's doing now. |
Last weekend we saw a massacre, ... There were a few shakeups in the top ranks of some retail names, and that's to be expected. |
Last weekend we saw a massacre. There were a few shakeups in the top ranks of some retail names, and that's to be expected. |
Most retail sales were relatively decent, but were achieved with the help of deep markdowns which will show up as heavy pressure on gross margins, and that is going to be reflected in the earnings, |
No one should come to the conclusion, as some people have already done, that this is going to be a disastrous holiday sales season for retailers. For most, it's going to be a decent sales season, but it will fall for most below the levels achieved a year ago. |
Oil, jobs, housing prices, unfunded pensions and geopolitical events that could go any number of ways will have an effect in 2006. At this point it's foolhardy to forecast. Any one of those things could send shivers up the spine of consumers. |
On the one hand he's extremely capable, a very strong manager, administrator and visionary. On the other hand he seems a bit remote from the field, ... He must absolutely acquire the sense of dealing directly with Mr. and Mrs. Consumer. Can he deal with someone who places an order for $10 rather than $10,000 or $10 million? |
One [name] will probably fade out of existence, ... Don't be so sure that Sears is the one that survives. Kmart is a discount store name and perhaps more able to compete with Wal-Mart on that basis than Sears. |
One area that could suffer greatly may be her magazines because advertisers will pull out if this goes badly for her. |
One of the reasons why stores did not do better than they did is because there were not enough new designs, not enough new fashions. |