Suzanne Kapnar and Imani Moise of The Wall Street Journal report that consumers are shifting away from store credit cards as brand loyalty wanes and interest rates rise. They write: Retailers aren’t just having trouble getting shoppers to buy sweaters and other holiday items this season. Store credit cards are also a tougher sell. The cards, which typically can only be used at a particular chain, have been a lucrative source of revenue for retailers as merchandise sales have slowed. But the stream is drying up as Americans carry fewer cards and increasingly finance purchases with buy … [Read more...]
Stockpiles Running Low as Peak Shopping Demand Starts
Liz Young of The Wall Street Journal reports that a sharp pullback in stockpiles comes as merchants are trying to focus on getting a better handle on volatile consumer demand. She writes: Retailers are heading into their most crucial sales period of the year with a very different inventory strategy than they undertook in 2022. Warehouses are no longer stuffed with merchandise and store shelves aren’t spilling over with discounted goods in hopes of luring wary consumers into last-minute sales. Instead, merchants from big-box retailers like Walmart and Target to more specialized sellers … [Read more...]
A New Top Dog in the Delivery Business
Dana Mattioli and Esther Fung of The Wall Street Journal tell their readers that Amazon is eclipsing both UPS and FedEx in the delivery business, and the gap is growing. They write: The Seattle e-commerce giant delivered more packages to U.S. homes in 2022 than UPS, after eclipsing FedEx in 2020, and it is on track to widen the gap this year, according to internal Amazon data and people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Postal Service is still the biggest parcel service by volume; it handles hundreds of millions of packages for all three companies. A decade ago Amazon was a major … [Read more...]
Happy Black Friday
You know how Your Survival Guy feels about money: save a third, spend a third, pay taxes with a third. Well, today, let’s focus again on the spending. One of the best ways to keep you motivated and in the game is to take some trips every now and then. Your Survival Guy and Gal just got back from Anguilla, celebrating our 25th anniversary. It wasn’t cheap, but it had also been 25 years since we were last in the Caribbean. That’s a long time. You know there’s plenty of bucket trips you want to take. Now is the perfect time to start making it happen. Action Line: Enjoy Originally … [Read more...]
Young Americans Tighten Their Belts as Boomers Consume
Young Americans are getting hit hard by the interest rate tightening cycle. Coupled with the impending implosion of Social Security and the $33 trillion in debt their parents and grandparents racked up, the future looks hard for Millennials and Gen-Zers. In The Robin Report, Warren Shoulberg explains that despite the troubles faced by younger generations, Baby Boomers are still consuming. He writes: The boomers, we all know, generally never met something they didn’t think they needed to buy. All those idealistic values that guided them earlier in their lives — the creation of Earth Day, … [Read more...]
Another Strategic Disaster for Amazon
Robin Lewis of The Robin Report writes, that billions of dollars, years, and time were wasted for another failed brick-and-mortar experiment for Amazon. He continues: Here’s a glimpse of a strategic disaster. I gave Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, kudos as he took the top job as, in my opinion, Amazon was slipping into maturity. I said the meteoric ecommerce frontrunner needed a level-headed business professional to turn the growth strategy from the “get big fast” culture created by its brilliant founder to a more sustainable and profitable forward arc before it might tip into the abyss. One of the … [Read more...]
Can Toys “R” Us Learn to Fly Again?
Robin Lewis of The Robin Report reports that WHP Global brand is betting on that nostalgic desire for the resurrection of the Toys "R" Us brand and is simply pacing itself. He writes: Let’s speculate about Geoffrey, the lovable giraffe-like “mascot” of the once category-killer Toys”R”Us stores. To review, the brand went public in 1978, and during the peak of its power in the 1980s, had 1450 locations globally, selling 18,000 different toys, including all of the major toy brands. Indeed, they owned a 25 percent share of the overall toy industry. Geoffrey also became somewhat of a TV star as … [Read more...]
Spooky Prices for Halloween Candy
Joseph De Avila and Joseph Pisani of The Wall Street Journal report that prices for candy and gum jumped 7.5% in September, compared with the same month last year. They write: Scary-high candy costs are giving consumers a fright this Halloween. Gretchen Alvarez of Sacramento, Calif., said she passed on purchasing a $24 bag of organic, allergy-friendly candy. She bought a few bags of cheaper traditional candy instead. Because of the rising cost of sweets, Alvarez is limiting each trick-or-treater to one piece of candy. Last year, she let them take as much as they liked. “It is making … [Read more...]
Does Anyone Know About Clothes at the Gap?
In The Robin Report, Robin Lewis wonders about the lack of experience in the apparel industry at the top of Gap's organizational chart. He writes: I was reluctant to write this article, only because I was getting kind of bored being TRR’s Chief Critic Officer railing against Gap Inc’s serial selection of five CEOs over roughly the past two decades. None of those executives had experience in apparel retailing, despite the fact that such experience was a key qualifier for the top job. Gap Gone So, while Gap Inc.’s overall business (across its four major brands) following the exit of Mickey … [Read more...]
Paris’s Big Plans for the Champs-Elysées
In The Robin Report, Mark Faithfull describes how a new master plan will transform Paris's famous Champs-Elysées. He writes: However, with more optimistic news, Paris authorities have won approval to transform the famous Champs-Elysées into what Mayor Anne Hidalgo describes as an “extraordinary garden.” The ambitious renovation plans will likely cost over $250 million and by 2030 will transform a 1.2-mile stretch from Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe into a green corridor, designed by French architectural firm PCA-Stream. The plans include widening sidewalks, adding … [Read more...]
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