Howard Davidowitz
Howard Davidowitz
best customer found gone loyalty product school store time
There is no loyalty to a store -- that's what Federated has gone to school and found out. The place with the best product at the right time and at the right price, that's where the customer loyalty is.
ball company easy few gigantic last money performance pot smaller time turn
The performance of the company over the last few years has been very erratic. It's also a smaller player. It was time for Milstein to take it easy and make a gigantic pot of money and turn the ball over to someone else.
business cash cow growth invest whip
When you're a cash cow like Federated, you should invest in a growth business and not another buggy whip company.
facing future looking plead woman
I think the advertisers are going to go away. She's tarnished. And in looking to the future will she plead guilty? If you're an advertiser, you're facing a woman who may go on trial.
strike transit worse
The transit strike is devastating for retail. It couldn't have come at a worse time, and we don't know how long it's going to go on.
fickle game impress money numbers potential public rule stays
The rule of the game is go public for the money when you have the numbers to impress potential investors. Retail, and especially apparel, is so fickle that nothing stays the same forever.
marking retailers signs
Some retailers are already marking up 40- to 50-percent off signs as we speak.
chairs deck moving
This is moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.
emphasis
If you look at what's going on in retail, there's more and more emphasis on price.
brilliant cut financial record retail run sell
He's a brilliant financial engineer. His record is always the same: cut costs, sell assets. That's terrific, only that's no way to run a retail business.
business closed company cut inventory less losing maintain market money past performing stores sure themselves worst
Kmart said it closed its worst performing stores because it couldn't maintain inventory once its vendors cut themselves off. Now that the stores are shuttered and inventory is up, Kmart is still doing less business than before. The company is still losing money and market share. I'm not sure the company can get past Christmas.
brilliant cut financial record retail run sell
He's a brilliant financial engineer, ... His record is always the same: cut costs, sell assets. That's terrific, only that's no way to run a retail business.
magical question stock
The advertisers are gone. It's a question of getting them back. But getting every one of them back is priced into the stock. The stock is priced as if everything she does is magical and perfect.
martha message
I think there's a message to Martha in here, and part of this may be negotiation.