Bill Dreher
Bill Dreher
believe colder february impact likely majority negative retailers sales sets spring store stores weather
We believe this will have a negative impact on February sales for the majority of our retailers as the much colder weather will likely impede store traffic, and sales of spring merchandise sets that are now in stores may be impacted.
appears beginning christmas clearly concerned consumer extremely holiday impact scale type
The announcement by Neiman Marcus...makes us as concerned as we have ever been that this Christmas will be extremely lackluster. It appears now the high-end consumer is beginning to scale back their purchases, which does not bode well for the holiday season. This type of thing is clearly going to have an impact on other high-end retailers.
lower translate
Not only is there top-line pressure, but this is also going to translate into lower margins,
began concerned investor sponsored woo
Historically, Wal-Mart has only been concerned about the consumer. But 12 years ago, Wal-Mart began to woo the investor and sponsored fieldtrips to their headquarters. These were tremendously successful,
advertising aggressive good holiday job louder stealing
I think it all comes down to Wal-Mart's aggressive advertising campaign, ... They are being much louder with their campaign, and I think they've done a good job of stealing the 'early-bird' holiday shoppers.
advertising aggressive good holiday job louder stealing
I think it all comes down to Wal-Mart's aggressive advertising campaign. They are being much louder with their campaign, and I think they've done a good job of stealing the 'early-bird' holiday shoppers.
cents number pull telling
They're telling us to pull our number down by 4 cents (per share).
acquiring card companies continues cost credit department gross improved improving lowering margin problems retailers seeing stores strong struggle target turnaround
The companies that are seeing strong gross margin improvements are getting it not from improving their merchandising mix, but from improved buying. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are lowering their cost of acquiring products. Sears on the other hand, continues to struggle with the turnaround of its department stores and problems with its credit card unit.
chasing losing money point sales
There's no point in chasing sales if you're losing money on those sales.
intent last learned lessons repeating year
They've learned the lessons from last year and are intent upon not repeating the same mistakes.
ballpark far sales shows
It shows they're in the ballpark as far as sales go.
alan bad confidence convinced dealing deceitful department feeling head hiding investor restore sounds tackling
He (Lacy) was dealing with a deceitful department head who sounds like he was hiding some bad news, ... Our feeling is Alan Lacy is being very forthcoming and straightforward with the problems, and is tackling them very aggressively. But we're not convinced that's going to be enough to immediately restore investor confidence in shares.
bargains best consumers game held holiday last mad minute result retailers rush spirit unknown until waited week
Consumers were not in the holiday spirit up until the last week of the holiday season, when there was a mad rush for the store. And the big unknown is the result of that game of chicken, where shoppers waited until the last minute to get the best bargains and retailers held off.
battery build clear company efforts itself management national sale step strengthen tire unit
It's clear that the company is redoubling efforts to strengthen itself and build a competitive advantage. Anything that distracts the management from doing just that will be de-emphasized. The sale of its National Tire and Battery unit is a step in that direction.