What the change in the value of the Chinese renminbi, the cost of shipping containers, the 2010 cotton crop, steel prices, labor unrest, shortages and wages and just about everything else in China means—and does not mean—to the home furnishings industry in the U.S.:
Column AA1: The Chinese...
The ’em in this case refers to those dastardly guys who were going to destroy retailing as we knew it: e-commerce.
Remember back in the late 1990s when every forecaster worth his Blackberry and Brooks Brothers suit predicted that the Internet was going to kill conventional retailing, taking 30, 40...
OK, guys, has anybody learned anything?
As the economy slowly creeps back, big business in general—and retailers specifically—will be put to a new test: Have the lessons so painfully learned over the past 24 months been absorbed and understood? Or is everyone just going to go back to doing things...
Whatever ultimately caused the insane activities in the stock market last week, you have to love the theory that it was the result of what the experts call a “fat finger trade.” The technical definition seems to be that some trader somewhere hit the wrong key, hitting a B for billion rather than a...
I sure hope Target and Walmart sell boxing gloves because they are going to need them now.
These two megamonster retailers usually co-exist just fine and are not generally known for taking shots at each other. Each has pretty much staked out its positioning and when one tries to intrude upon the...
Ashley Furniture is used to breaking the rules and defying the common logic of the business and at this week’s High Point Market it did it once again. The company--which is both the biggest supplier and retailer of furniture in the country -- introduced a new retail concept called Furnish 123,...
How long does it take to build up a brand? Years, sometimes 30 or 40 years to really make it stick. How long does it take to tear one down? About the time it should take to stop a Toyota going 60-miles-per-hour ... around 60 seconds.
How Toyota comes out of this safety—not to mention public...
At the risk of sounding like the head of the Department of Redundancy Department, I think it’s important that all of us in the home furnishings business take a moment to fully comprehend something that happened this week that is one of the most important developments in global economics ever.
It...
So, the latest retail rocket science theory is to start condensing assortments around key brands, eliminating others and consolidating ordering from fewer suppliers.
This gives the store more buying power as its orders get larger as well as making it easier for retail operations and stocking...
What’s that old saying about what to do when life hands you a lemon? Make lemonade?Well, lots of people don’t like lemonade so maybe we should add another alternative: Get rid of the lemons and go out and get some new fruit.And before you think I’ve been drinking something other than fruit juices,...