News flash: If you are waiting around for your boss to up your salary 50-70% because she/he thinks you deserve it, think again. Take your life and career into your own hands and learn how to negotiate! Too freaked out to have the initial conversation? Confused on what to say? Check this piece I wrote for www.totaljobs.com. Bottom line- don't be a part of the 42% who never negotiate (source: salary.com). Ask and you shall receive. And if you don't, know your self worth + be certain you will get something else that will meet your career criteria.
Retail Shares Struggle on Tougher Outlook- WWD
(Re-published from Womens Wear Daily January 27th, 2014 written by Arnold J. Karr) For retailers, the disappointments keep coming.
After an abbreviated holiday season in which unprecedented levels of promotion failed to generate increases in traffic and further depleted top-line results, stores are now facing disappointing January sales, observers say, and the inability of promotions to clear inventories as they had hoped.
Adding harsh winter weather to an already icy fiscal mix, expectations for fourth-quarter earnings and inventory levels have taken on a far more negative tone and retail shares have started 2014 by moving in reverse. After rising an eye-opening 43.9 percent in 2013 as hopes for consumer spending strengthened, the S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group has fallen back 5 percent so far this year, shedding 2.1 percent last week alone. In 16 trading days so far in 2014, the index has trended down in all but four, including the last seven in a row.
The index’s recent weakness worsened Friday in an abysmal day for the market overall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 318.24 points, or 2 percent, to 15,879.11, and the S&P 500 contracted 38.17 points, or 2.1 percent, to 1,790.29. The retailing index declined 1.9 percent to end the week at 892.58.
In a single day, the Dow, S&P 500 and retail index surrendered the respective milestones of 16,000, 1,800 and 900 attained at the end of 2013. Retail last year outperformed the Dow, which rose 26.5 percent, and the S&P, up 29.6 percent.
But that was before many retailers began reporting disappointing numbers for holiday and pulling down their earnings projections accordingly. In a research note entitled “Frozen by Polar Vortex, Slow Economy,” Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research at Thomson Reuters, noted that “pre-announcements” among retailers, who will begin reporting fourth-quarter results next month, have been overwhelmingly negative. Of 92 companies — apparel and broadlines retailers among them — who have updated guidance for the quarter, 74 have lowered projections, 15 have lifted them and three have left them unchanged.
The biggest declines among U.S. retail stocks so far this year have come from companies that needed to pull down fourth-quarter projections based on in-store and even online weakness. The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. cited “unfavorable winter weather conditions” earlier this month when it said it faced the possibility of a fourth-quarter loss. After boasting of earlier comparable-store gains, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. provided no specific numbers when it reported it was “pleased” with its holiday performance and soon after said it would close 33 underperforming stores in a cost-cutting move. Sears Holdings Corp. projected a larger-than-expected loss for the quarter when it divulged that comps in November and December were down 7.4 percent.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. reduced profit expectations after revising its comp outlook to down in the low- to midsingle digits, after initially expecting a flat quarter as it moves to recover from a problem-plagued year in 2013. On the same day, Ascena Retail Group Inc., Express Inc. and Stage Stores Inc. brought down earnings expectations, as did L Brands Inc., parent of Victoria’s Secret, based on disappointing comps.
Teen retailers struggled through 2013 and have continued to do so as 2014 gets under way. Retail Metrics Inc. expects the teen sector to collectively report a 7 percent decline in fourth-quarter comps and described it as the “weakest of any retail segment.” Fourth-quarter comps among all reporting retailers are expected to grow just 0.7 percent — 1 percent excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Aéropostale Inc. has seen its shares wither 20.1 percent this year, after declining 30.1 percent in 2013, after it canceled plans to appear at the ICR XChange in Orlando, Fla., this month, with speculation that it might be in talks to be taken over by any number of private equity players giving way to complaints among analysts about a lack of transparency.
American Eagle Outfitters Inc., considered by many to be best positioned to recapture some momentum in the teen market, turned heads last week when it said that Robert Hanson was out as its chief executive officer, succeeded on an interim basis by chairman Jay Schottenstein.
“Of the Three A’s” — American Eagle, Aéropostale and Abercrombie — “a lot of people felt that American Eagle was the strongest and Hanson had made a positive difference,” said analyst Janet Kloppenburg, president of JJK Research. “Now they have to bring in a new ceo who’ll go through a honeymoon as he or she figures out what to do with the assortment, how sharply to discount remaining inventory.
“And it’s disturbing when you see heads start to roll at good companies in any case,” she added.
Kloppenburg noted that some of the weakness in stocks in general is derived from doubts about, for instance, the strength of the manufacturing sector in China and uncertainty in many emerging markets. Retailers’ concerns are less global in nature, she said.
“Analysts, myself included, expected margins to be tough and sales to be challenging, but we figured that, with discounting, there’d be some success in working inventories down and moving the needle at least a bit in January,” she said. “But the discounts are deeper and it doesn’t seem to be generating traffic or sales, and a lot of us are beginning to look at our estimates for retailers for the first quarter, both the top and bottom line, and wonder if they need to be brought down. There’s no overwhelming fashion trend coming for spring and there are a lot of questions about inventory. There is a large body of evidence telling investors to be conservative.”
Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, expects that final holiday numbers from the Commerce Department will point to a 3 percent gain in spending for holiday merchandise once adjusted by the government. He noted that while winter storms and the abbreviated holiday calendar hurt results last year, a more fundamental challenge was simply a lack of spending money in consumers’ wallets. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported growth in disposable personal income of just 0.1 percent in November.
“If there’s no real disposable personal income growth, you will never have strong retail spending growth,” he said, noting that the metric ran above 3.5 percent in the years prior to the Great Recession.
He noted that the apparel business has shifted from wants to needs, with consumers more interested in subscriber-based services providing experiential value, such as cable and telecommunications providers. And, with inventories growing faster than comps at retail, promotional proclivity has lingered, driving down dollars per transaction and further limiting revenue gains.
Johnson noted that the growth in online shopping is among the factors pushing up the rate of merchandise returns to retailers, eroding fourth-quarter results further. Promotions have contributed to the growth in returns observed by Johnson and his associates.
“They tend to get people goosed up beyond what they can afford or like,” the CGP official said.
Rebecca Duval, an analyst at BlueFin Research Partners and a former retailer, said that the reluctance to pad inventories was being felt throughout the industry supply chain now, with orders being pushed back, reduced in size or in some cases canceled altogether. “The Street is going to be looking for margin recovery in the first quarter,” she said, “and it’s not going to be easy to come by. Investors are asking who has a fundamentally strong story for 2014, and there will be some winners, but a lot of the analysts’ numbers are going to have to come down for a lot of the companies they cover first.”
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Unleash in NYC (and the reason why I barely use Uber)
Target credit card breach: it's worse than you think.
40 million. 70 million. Now close to 110 million customers of Target ($TGT) have not received word their personal data including financial information, phone numbers and home addresses are now in the hands of overseas hackers. Sound like a scene from Girl with a Dragon Tattoo? The executives at Target only wish. Right now the retailer is getting ready for a congressional probe into their consumer protection practices. This is a run down of what you should know (source: Reuters):
What is happening: Democratic members of the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives are calling for the panel to investigate the hacking of credit card data belonging to millions of customers of Target Corp stores.
The letter said a hearing should review current consumer protection laws and determine what could be done to ensure the future security of consumers' card information.
Quote from the letter: "It is incumbent upon our Committee to explore whether industry data protection standards are appropriate, and examine whether heightened regulatory standards are needed to more effectively protect consumers," the Democrats wrote.
What that means: Congress wants to figure out if Target was in violation of failing to effectively protect the consumer.
Hearing is supposed to be scheduled for late January.
What can we expect out of the hearing: Would allow for an airing of grievances and potentially bring Target officials to Washington for a grilling about how the case has been handled, they would not necessarily result in taking any kind of action or in legislation.
In addition: The Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and state attorneys general would potentially look into Target's actions in this situation.
The FTC does not confirm or deny the existence of ongoing investigations and would only get involved if Target is shown to have failed to protect its customers' data.
Target has said it is working in partnership with the Secret Service, the lead agency involved in the data breach case, and the Department of Justice but did not comment on any FTC involvement
Why do we care/why is this important: Not real Federal regulation on the retail side when it comes to security and consumer protection.
A bill by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy remains the only data security bill on tap for now-- THAT'S THE ONLY BILL THAT EXISTS!
FTC has the power to investigate companies’ privacy and information security policies and ensure that they meet proper standards, it has asserted.
It has previously brought cases against companies that it determined didn’t do enough to protect consumer data, and Blumenthal suggested it should consider doing so again.
QUOTE: “Given the scope and duration of Target’s recent data breach, it appears that Target may have failed to employ reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect personal information,” Blumenthal wrote. “If Target failed to adequately protect customer information, it denied customers the protection that they rightly expect when a business collects their personal information. Its conduct would be unfair and deceptive, and it would clearly violate the FTC Act.”
Additional info on $TGT you as a consumer should know:
Point of sale: As a merchant, you’d better make sure shoppers trust that they’re not exposing themselves to identity theft and credit-card fraud every time they swipe. Even Target, a huge company with big bucks to spend on security, hasn’t managed to assure such certainty (source: Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
Methods hackers use to get information:
Skimming: Attaching a physical device to a machine to gather information
"RAM Scraping": "Random Access Memory" Malware scans computer system's memory for personal information.
U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT), a cyber watchdog that’s part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Target has not disclosed how malware got into the system
Is NOW a good time to buy real estate? Depends on where you are.
The cool thing about covering retail and consumer spending is that I get to stories on industries like real estate. And... truth be told, for the past 6 months I'be been hunting around for a place to purchase here in NYC. To say it's been difficult is an understatement. More on that later (I promise) but for now, check out the segment I did for MSNBC's The Cycle on this subject. From my extensive research and first hand knowledge, I discovered the following: 1) It all depends on where you want to buy. 2) The housing market is in direct correlation with employment. 3) Currently the market seems to be indicating that people are buying and building. 4) People are purchasing in "trophy" cities like New York, Miami & LA. Chicago is not included on the list.
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Hello.
Oh hi. As much as I love updating my blog on my own (rest assured there is NO bots, assistants or other "Hitha's" blogging on my behalf) it's not easy to do it everyday. Or every week. But after a month with a new Mac Book Pro, and a couple lessons on how to use Garage Band and a sick retina display, I'm inspired all over again. So here it goes...
LGP and TOPSHOP: Why we care.
By now you've probably heard. LGP has bought a 25% equity stake in TOPSHOP in a move to expand presence in the US. The entire deal was for $805 million almost DOUBLE the amount dealmakers initially thought they were going to get. For fashionistas out there reading this, I'm going to back up and explain who and what LGP is. Leonard Green & Partners is a private equity firm that tends to make significant investments in retailers like Whole Foods, JCrew, Neiman Marcus, PETCO and The Container Store. The firm's involvement is MAJOR since a ton of British brands have tried to come state side, and have failed. For market followers there are two major take aways: 1) with this investment, TOPSHOP is now valued at $3.2 billion and 2) the company is now cash positive and ready to make siginificant investments/acquisitions in other of the Arcadia businesses/companies. In the last year Arcadia (the holding company of Sir Philip Green's companies including Miss Selfridge, Evans, Dorothy Perkins) has seen a pre-tax profit increase of 25%.
And since it's Throwback Thursday, check out an old report I did for the launch of the TOPSHOP store here in NYC. Good times.
HIP Retail Detail: US port strike ends, Philip Green to sell Topshop stake + GAP stock pulls down sector
L.A. Ports Strike Ends, Focus Shifts East (via WWD): http://www.wwd.com/business-news/government-trade/la-ports-strike-settled-6521728?src=nl/newsAlert/20121205-3
Gap Stock Pulls Down Retail Sector http://www.wwd.com/business-news/financial/european-markets-edge-up-6518624?src=nl/newsAlert/20121204-4
Best Buy Moving Dividend Payment up to December in Anticipation of Potential Tax Increases for 2013 (via Bloomberg Businessweek): http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-12-05/best-buy-moving-up-dividend-payment-date-to-dec-dot
#SNAPchallenge organic menu: not just beans and rice
S.N.A.P. = Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
When I think of budget eating I think of two food items: rice and beans. The thought of eating two things I can't stand for seven days straight made me dizzy and nervous. After careful thought and planning I came up with a menu that was 1) all organic ingredients 2) 80% vegetarian 3) had equal parts protien, veggies and fruit. THE problem with budget eating (and eating in general) in this country is that no one wants to take the time to plan out their meals. Slow down people! COOK more. It's healthy, cheaper and better for you.
TUESDAY:
Breakfast: banana, tea
Egg, toast + glass of milk
Lunch: Tuna sandwiches
Dinner: Asian noodle dish x 2
WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast: banana chia seed porriage, tea
Steel cut oats w/ almond milk, agave + frozen blueberries
Lunch: Tuna salad (artichoke hearts, cannelli beans, olive oil, green beans, onion)
butternut squash soup
Dinner: left over Asian noodles
THURSDAY:
Breakfast: banana, tea
Egg, toast + glass of milk
Lunch: Tuna sandwiches/lunch meat sandwhiches
Dinner: Beef burgers, roast veggies
FRIDAY: Breakfast: banana + chia seed porriage, tea
Egg, toast, + glass of milk
Lunch: Tuna + quinoa salad with Siracha sauce
Dinner: Potato Latkes and homemade apple sauce
SATURDAY:
Breakfast: banana + tea
Lunch: Egg sandwich + cheese
grilled cheese w/ tomato soup
Dinner: left over asian noodles OR pasta + homemade sauce
SUNDAY:
Breakfast: banana + tea
Lunch: Blueberry muffins/ eggs
Dinner: Beef patties + baked french fries
MONDAY:
Breakfast: Steel cut oatmeal + frozen fruit
Lunch: Tuna sandwiches + soup
Dinner left over pasta + meat balls
TUESDAY:
Breakfast: banana + tea
Lunch: Lunch meat sandwiches
Dinner: leftovers/soup
Bite on a budget: organic eating on $4 a day #SNAPchallenge
Let's be clear.
I'm not here to judge what people eat. I'm fully aware that it's not easy to eat healthy when you are dealing with work/school/kids/husband/wife/life. But when Mayork of Newark, New Jersey Cory Booker announced he was planning to spend only $4 a day on food for a week (the same amount food stamp recipients get) as part of the #SNAPchallenge, I decided to one up him. MY plan was to spend $4 on food a day while ONLY eating organic food. What's more, I was going get my food at Whole Foods ($WFM)- easily one of the most expensive grocery stores in New York City. The point of me doing this wasn't to complain about not being able to drink my usual soy chai latte from Starbucks (which costs me $4.40 every morning) or worse, try and portray myself as some food martyr. Nope. I wanted to show everyone that if you had to live on only $4 a day, you could do it in a healthy way. Here's the list of items purchased:
Almond milk (Whole Foods Brand): $1.99 4 cans of Whole Foods brand tuna: $1.69 Imagine soup: 2 for $4.00 .5lbs of steel cut oats .25 lbs of quinoa 1.8 lbs of bananas at .89 cents 2.56 lbs of butternut squash @ $1.29 4 granny smith apples @ $2.99 per pound Box of shitake mushrooms Jewel yams (sweet potatoes) $1.99 per lbs .67 lbs of grass fed beef $6.69 6 cage-free eggs $2.19 2% milk @ $1.29 Andrew and Everrett Provolone cheese Wholefoods organic english muffins $2.99 Frozen edamame $2.49 Frozen organic wild blueberries $2.99 365 Whole Foods brand 2% milk
Total amount spent: $57.59 (the amount two adults living on food stamps for a week). I went over budget by 19 cents, but didn't realize being a member of the Wellness Club + using your own bag to carry groceries + giving back the glass milk bottles for deposit put our household under budget by $10. Cool, right?
Don't know what to tip this season? Read/watch THIS.
Going over budget for me is like a holiday tradition in itself.Every December since I've started working I put aside a certain amount of money to spend on dinners out, gifts, travel and of course tipping. Without fail, I ALWAYS go over budge. Now when I say "tipping" this isn't referring to servers at restaurants, cafes and bars. But since we are on the subject, you should always tip minimum 20% (or tax x 2) regardless of where you are in the country. In this case, "tipping" means that added cash bonus you give to the people who help you the most during the year. Kids baby sitters, hair/beauty technicians, mechanics, doormen (if you live in an apt), housekeepers (if you are lucky enough to have one) and teachers/trainers. With the economy on shakey ground, and uncertainty creeping into our bank accounts, the last thing you want to do is be a grinch- however, you also don't want to bankrupt yourself. Hence, the dilemma. I had the opportunity to break down my guidelines given the tough economy with Savannah Gutherie on the Today Show last Thursday. Check it:
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Who is on your list to tip this year? Let's discuss!
Black Friday 2012 TV + Radio schedule
Whenever I have a TV or radio appearance the first thing I hear is this: "Why didn't you tell me? I would have tuned in!" This is mostly from family members who don't follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest + refuse to use e-mail or cell phones. So to make life easier (and to spare you the incessant twittering + facebook updates/calls/smoke signals asking you to tune in), here is my schedule of appearances for the week which is taken from my weekly email to a group of tech savvy close friends and family. I hope you get a chance to watch and as always feel free to join the Black Friday discussion by emailing me or sending me a note on Facebook/Twitter. Or better yet, go analog and CALL ME. Sheesh. Wednesday November 21nd @ 11:30 am ET on MSNBC: Pre-Black Friday- what you need to know, what numbers is the National Retail Federation expecting for online and offline sales AND what is going on with that Wal-mart labor dispute?
Thursday November 22nd @ 7:00am ET on MSNBC: Cyber Monday- with so many retailers trying to take market share away from Amazon, how much to online sales really count? What can we expect for post Black Friday?
Friday November 23rd @ 5:30 am ET on CBS WOR 710 AM talk radio: Black Friday? More like "Black Quarter." Why retailers feel the need to start promotions in October and will that help sales?
THEN @7:15 am ET on FOX 5 Good Day NY: Mobile shopping and Black Friday: The best apps to use while trolling through the stores.
AND RIGHT AFTER THAT HIT: @ 8:30 am ET on MSNBC: Black Friday- how much are "Fiscal Cliff" and Super Storm Sandy fallout going to have an impact on shopping and consumer sentiment looking forward?
Saturday November 24th @7:20 am ET and 1:20pm ET on MSNBC: "3 Big Money Headlines." Can you guess what we are going to talk about? Black Friday, housing starts and $AAPL stock volatility.
Black Friday starting with Best Buy
Oh hi. Yes I know I've been away from the blog for a while and with good reason. With Black Market Billions off to an awesome start, I've been asked to write more books (3 to be exact). I've also been soul searching. Details for all projects including my "summer of Hitha" TK, but first let's get to Best Buy. This is a retailer I've been following closely since 2010. Why? Because it was once the star of the S&P and one of the bellwether retail stock. Um, not any more. Former Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn made some pretty crap choices in the merchandising, product mix and overall sales strategy of the store. The result? Shoppers now go to Best Buy (which was once a destination to PURCHASE all things electronic and tech) to price compare. Sales have been slowly dropping off. And internet superstore Amazon is taking market share away from Best Buy. So here's a question- do you go to Best Buy only to price compare? If you do you aren't alone and Best Buy executives are finally cluing in. Here's the thing- they don't think there is anything WRONG with the idea of "showrooming." In fact, when new CEO Hubert Joly presented his five step plan to get the company back on track at the investor day, showrooming was one area he wanted to focus on. Question is-- will it help or is it a case of "too little, too late?" The awesome Jeff Macke host of Yahoo! Finance show Breakout and I agree- the concept of a showroom is quickly becoming a thing of the past. And Best Buy better realize that-- FAST.
Extreme couponing: not just for hoarders
I know what you're thinking. How can I possibly think those crazies on TLC's "Extreme Couponing" may be on to something? If you haven't seen the show I will give you brief rundown: people (mostly women) spend hours of their day taking coupon clipping to the extreeme. No, I'm not talking about using bigger scissors- I'm talking about stealing newspapers, trolling the internet at all hours of the night, even dumpster diving. Gross. While the stars of the show use their coupons to buy crazy amounts of product for example, 250 bottles of Tide detergent, there are some couponers out there that are JUST as diligent about couponing but can come up with a more well rounded grocery cart. Check out the piece I did with Reuters TV I did this week on extreme couponing. I had the extreme pleasure of shopping with Susan Samtur aka "coupon queen" where we bought $167.88 worth of groceries for $4 + tax (total was $8.88). I'm someone who likes to cook and save money at the same time. Maybe there is something to be said for taking some time out on the weekends to clip coupons of foods you like, take advantage of store deals and really become a more active consumer. I'll just pass on the 500 tubes of Crest.
Want a job at Burberry? Start speaking Mandarin!
Earlier this morning, luxury retailer Burberry reported earnings that after taxes rose by 26% to $415 million. Revenues were up a staggering 24% to around $2.5 billion. What's driving the growth? Asia, baby. Burberry launched flagship stores in Hong Kong, Teipei and Paris. An intereesting sign of the times: If you walk into almost every luxury flagship store stateside, you will find at least TWO people who speak Mandarin. Why? Because SURPRISE luxury sales outside of Asia and Europe are mostly driven by Chinese tourists. Want to know something else? Burberry trench coats are still a top seller. And given all the rain we've been getting on the east coast, a trench could definitely come in handy.
(YES that's me from the Art of the Trench campaign shot by my friend Scott Schuman. I really don't look like that when I am getting out the cab.)
How many hoodies can a Facebook IPO buy?
A LOT according to Bloomberg News. Recent info. suggests Morgan Stanley (IPO underwriter) allegedly hid weakened growth forecasts from investors, making the $104 billion original valuation significantly less. In real people terms, that means Morgan Stanley may have made Facebook seem more valuable than it is. That didn't prevent Mark Zuckerberg from dumping 30.2 million shares and profiting (before taxes) $1.13 billion. If The Zuck wanted to take a page from the Steve Jobs playbook, could buy close to 8.7 million Betabrand pinstripe hybrid hoodies. OR he could buy 325,000 more of the custom made hoodie he always wears which are going for $4,000 on eBay last time I checked. OR he can just upgrade his wardrobe like we suggest here in this Reuters TV video:
Whatever he does, here's hoping he doesn't take his fashion cues from the dudes on the Edison, NJ train. The programmer uniform of pleated front khakis and a short sleeve polo shirt is just bad. Sorry fellas.
$FB (Facebook) mania begins: will fashion and retail FINALLY get on board?
When I say "on board" I'm not referring to the 200,000 or so "likes" designers like Diane von Furstenberg have on her page. I'm talking about real retail transactions, people. Like buying stuff and shiz. In all seriousness, in the past four years I've listened to retail C-levels drone on about how social media is changing the way their customers shop. However, everytime I sit through these presentations, earnings calls and convos over drinks I've never heard an actionable plan put in place. Now that Facebook has gone public topping out (there is still an hour or so to this trading day) at a $104 Billion valuation, retailers finally have a reason to get a plan together- and quick. This piece on Racked pretty much spells it out. Here are four main reasons for retailers to take this IPO seriously: 1) Hello, acquisitions!: Now that Facebook has a ton of CASH on the books and a keen interest in world wide domination, the next step is for it to start snapping up companies to help make this happen. Instagram is super cool, but so is a technology company that can help facilitate customer engagement, aggregate sales or customer feedback.
2)Advertising: With over 500 million + users, retailers would be dumb not to want to try and target new and returning customers. However there is one sticking point: do you actually click on those ads when they come up? My survey says: NO.
3) People will actually BUY stuff via facebook recommendations: Did you know $JWN has close to 1.5 million likes on facebook? And department stores are banking on the notion those "likes" will translate into sales. Personally just because my little sister likes something doesn't mean I am going to like it enough to buy it, but that's just me.
4) Bigger than just social media: Retail technology companies are actually building their technologies on the Facebook PLATFORM. Why is that a big deal? Because 15 years ago, the same companies were building it on the Microsoft platform. Crazy, right?
Gasoline Prices Rise- Big Box Retailers Feel the Most Pain.
I don't have a car here in NYC. There really is no need. But after I took a trip out to the Gateway Plaza Mall in Brooklyn, NY a couple weeks ago, I realized how much of an impact rising gasoline prices are having on shoppers wallets. I did my research, spoke to analysts at Global Hunter Securities, even analyzed what shoppers cut back on when those prices started to rise. But it wasn't until we filled the car up with gasoline on the way home and saw the bill for $70 for a FULL TANK OF GAS did it hit me-- this is a real problem. For me $70 equals a couple things: a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant, a facial at Mario Badescu, a new handbag at a sample sale, or two weeks of groceries at Whole Foods. Check out my report here:
Licensing Deals + New Management Still Didn't Help $CROX and $GPS
Unbelievable. Crocs JUST announced two weeks ago that it would be entering into a licensing deal to create a greater product mix(surprise-- but those plastic clog type shoes aren't selling well other than in Asia)! Everyone thought this was 2012's turn around story. And now... NOW with an outlook for Q1 that missed analyst estimates, the street is back to where it started at the beginning of Q4 of 2011- doubtful that this company can really turn it around. And Gap is another one. Same store sales have been negative for a couple months now. And all of those holiday promotions didn't help Q4 numbers- in fact it narrowed margins. The company is offering a buyback program of $1 billion but analysts I spoke to were skeptical. Check out the vid from Friday:
The State of the Union: WWMW (what will Michelle wear)?
(photo credit: Vogue)
In addition to jobs, the economy, homeland security and housing set to be on the agenda for this evening's "The State of the Union" address, there is another topic everyone is buzzing about; and it doesn't have to do with policy.
Instead, it has to do with Michelle Obama's sartorial choices which to some people, are just as important as the message the President plans on delivering tonight. In her most recent controversial appearance the first lady appeared clad in a red Alexander McQueen gown at a state dinner thrown for the People's Republic of China president, Hu Jintao- a seemingly good choice until critics accused her of being a communist sympathizer (wearing the color red when greeting the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China is apparently a no-no) as well as being un- American for not wearing an domestically based designer (looking at you Oscar de la Renta).
Tonight's choice is anyone's guess. I am pretty vocal about how I do not think our first lady is a style star, but to keep the nuetrality and patriotism I would love to see her come full circle and wear a purple (a non- partisan color) Jason Wu or Michael Kors (because they represent America much more than Oscar de la Renta) sheath.
P.S., now might be a good time to plug my friend's book, "Power Dressing: First Ladies, Women Politicians and Fashion" available for pre- order on Amazon. I LOVE books like these- it takes an atypical/intellectual/political look at fashion and Robb got Pamela Golbin, curator in chief at the Musee de la Mode et du Textile of the Louvre in Paris to write the forward. SO great!