Howard Davidowitz
Howard Davidowitz
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.
gone percent retailers toy
In the toy industry, about 60 percent of the independent retailers have already gone out of business.
consumers conversation costco decision department huge investment morning retailers shopping store support terry
I had a conversation with Terry this morning and I told him that I don't support a decision to make a huge investment in another department store when many more consumers are shopping at off-mall retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Costco and Kohl's,
additional cards compared dollar gift impact increase january last less panacea retailers sales
Gift cards are not the panacea because the year-over-year increase is anemic. Because the markdowns in January will be more than last year, retailers will see less dollar impact of additional sales from gift cards compared to last year.
difference kept last promotions retailers tight year
One big difference was that last year retailers kept promotions under tight control. Things were more panicky this year.
marking retailers signs
Some retailers are already marking up 40- to 50-percent off signs as we speak.
heavy holidays meeting promotions retailers sales
I think there will be heavy promotions over the holidays because retailers have not been meeting their sales plans.
affect best promote retailers
Retailers are going to promote like gangbusters from the first minute, and it's going to affect margins. I think at best it's going to be fair.
apparel business constantly creativity fashion fickle reinvent retailers specialty themselves winners
Specialty apparel is a very fast-moving business. It's also a fickle business of fashion and creativity where the winners are those retailers who can constantly reinvent themselves and their products.
coming creative customers longer retailers specialty stores true
This is specially true of the specialty stores. Retailers have to become more creative if they want to keep customers longer in their stores and if they want them to keep coming back.
customers help lean lure retailers year
Lean inventories won't help retailers this year if they can't lure customers into their stores.
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.
cleaning concerned easy exposure inventory issue overall
I'm concerned about what the markdown exposure will be to overall sales, ... Cleaning up inventory is a big issue and it's not easy to fix.