The Eckerd sale is definitely good news for Penney on two fronts. They've generated substantial amount of money from the sale. Secondly, Eckerd was a continuing diversion of management's time. That also is resolved somewhat, |
The stock, any way you slice it, is attractive at this stage, |
They don't have a history as a digital company but they have the three requirements to support it: technology, management and ? more important probably than anything ? distribution. Their deliverance cannot happen in one quarter, in one year, but they have the best name in imaging and their quality continues to be proven out. |
They were trying to protect their turf in film when they could have been more forthcoming and aggressive in digital technology, |
They're looking to cut their debt down to half. That's the long and the short of it. |
This is not good. It was a bad year, so they were . . . writing off everything they can. |
This news shouldn't come as a surprise, |
This news shouldn't come as a surprise. They deal with the lowest income customers, on average. |
Wal-Mart isn't a home run. |
Who goes out now and pays $350 bucks for a Coach bag? In times like these, you don't really go for fashion, you go where you can get the necessities. |
With the new technology, the images can be created using anybody's camera, and the cost to print the film is about the same as for 35 mm prints. |
You first have to sell the digital cameras, the printers, the medical equipment for them to generate profits. |