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Weekly Top 5 Articles
Weekly Top 5 Articles – Five Articles Worth Reading
Samsung Plans Mini-Stores in Best Buys – Click to Open PDF
Did Samsung test a mini-store in an actual Best Buy location? Do they really want to rely on Best Buy employees for the customer service aspect of this partnership? Regardless, rolling this out in such a major way (1,400 stores) without testing the concept is a recipe for disaster.
Date Published: Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Source: New York Times
Wal-Mart Strains to Keep Aisles Stocked Fresh – Click to Open PDF
Not sure this is an issue for anything other than produce. The fact is that inventory growth has exceeded sales growth in 6 of the past 8 fiscal quarters. But, that’s what the media does… take an issue that may be isolated to just produce and turn it into something much larger.
Date Published: Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
Source: New York Times (more…)
Weekly Top 5 Articles – Five Articles Worth Reading
Toys R Us Pulls IPO Filing – Click to Open PDF
Yeah, they pulled the IPO in part due to “unfavorable market conditions.” How market conditions could be more “favorable” is beyond us. Simply, a melting ice cube.
Date Published: Friday, March 29th, 2013
Source: WSJ
Wendy’s Cut Affordable Care Act Cost Outlook by 80%: CFO – Click to Open PDF
Many of these outrageous prognostications from company management teams were made during the election cycle… begging the question in the case of WEN and others that predicted doom and gloom, were they made primarily for political purposes?
Date Published: Wednesday, March 27th, 2013
Source: CFO Journal (more…)
Weekly Top 5 Articles – Five Articles Worth Reading
What’s In Your Digital Wallet? Lucrative Data – Click to Open PDF
Digital wallets are not (generally) providing specific merchant-level information to the credit card network or credit card issuer. Therefore, issuers are retaliating by charging fees to digital wallets.
Date Published: Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Source: WSJ
Tiffany Sees Lackluster First Quarter But Stronger Second Half – Click to Open PDF
How many times does the “abysmal first half of year followed by a strong second half of year” managerial guidance actually come to fruition (excluding FY 2012′s sourcing cost tailwind)? Almost never. But, that certainly does not sway head cheerleader Oliver Chen at Citigroup (see quote).
Date Published: Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Source: WSJ (more…)
Weekly Top 5 Articles – Five Articles Worth Reading
Samsung Launches Tour of New Galaxy – Click to Open PDF
It will certainly be interesting to look back in 6-12 months to see if this week’s launch was a true inflection point.
Date Published: Friday, March 15th, 2013
Source: WSJ
Eyes Turn to J.C. Penney’s Joe Fresh Launch – Click to Open PDF
Can a shop roll-out that is less than 1% of the company’s square footage (800K of 112M) reverse the company’s fortunes? We’ll know shortly. But, it’s interesting to see how quick Mr. Johnson was to throw Liz Clairborne under the bus (see quotes on page #2).
Date Published: Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
Source: WWD (more…)
Weekly Top 5 Articles – Five Articles Worth Reading
Gap’s Sales Released Early – Click to Open PDF
Do you ever wonder why stocks seemingly react ahead of a significant news event? Think about it after reading this article. GPS outsources its monthly sales recording to a firm called InterCall (unit of West Corp.). ODP posts financial releases on its web site via Thomson Reuters.
Think about the potential for foul play as market moving information comes into the hands of folks outside the company (prior to release of the information to the rest of the world).
Date Published: Thursday, March 7th, 2013
Source: WSJ
U.S. Retailers See Tepid Growth – Click to Open PDF
The “business” of sales release Thursday is dying. Will retail stocks become less volatile and/or generate less trade volume as a result?
Date Published: Thursday, March 7th, 2013
Source: WSJ (more…)