Posted on 06/03/2019 7:23:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
Mall-based retailers reported dismal earnings last week, reminding investors of the sector’s fundamental problems
Retailers’ earnings season has gone from bad to worse. The bleeding intensified last week, with shares of Abercrombie & Fitch plummeting 26% on Wednesday, the biggest percentage decline since the company went public. PVH Corp., owner of brands including Van Heusen, Tommy Hilfilger, and Calvin Klein, dropped 10% that day, too. On Thursday, women’s wear chain J.Jill was down a jaw-dropping 53% and on Friday, Gap Inc. slid 9%.
It is hard to miss what all of these retailers have in common: They are mall-based.
While retailers posted generally strong numbers in 2018, raising hopes of a retail renaissance, this year has seen a reversion to the pre-2018 trend: department stores and mall-based retailers giving up share to discount stores and e-commerce. The perceived renaissance now seems to have been largely a function of lean inventories, not an actual increase in demand. Now inventory is high again, and retailers are resorting to promotions.
Gap, for example, warned Friday that it may have to rely on promotional activity in coming months to move unsold merchandise off shelves. That will weigh on gross margins. The company, which posted its weakest quarterly sales in three years, has suffered not merely at its namesake brand, where comparable-store sales were down 10% for the quarter, but also at Old Navy, typically its best performer. Comparable-store sales there fell 1%. By comparison, in the same period last year they climbed 3%.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Our mall is empty most of the time, now.
We lost Sears and Hallmark and Radio Shack and several others over the last couple of years.
Used to be full every weekend, teens used to gather their in the Food Court. Now even that has several open rentals...............
It is hard to miss what all of these retailers have in common: They are mall-based.
How many of the CEO’s were pro Clinton and now anti Trump as
an added reason for lower sales?
When malls went from pleasant places to shop to dreadful place filled with unruly teens and large scary parking lots - it was over.
Malls have a very poor value proposition for retailers and customers. They could innovate, but won’t so off to the ashheap of history with them.
I love shopping online.
Sooooo... about 20 minutes after they made the first all-indoor air conditioned mall?
Apparently so does everyone else................
The floors are too hard.
I have a friend who has never been online. She goes to the mall, but not with me. :)
In Pensacola they even tore down a mall and replaced it with separate stores, unconnected.............
They will soon go the way of the Automat Cafeterias.............
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
well who want to go get chased by a “group of teens”?
I rarely go there anymore and am sure to get out in less than an hour if I do. Instead of encouraging people to go and browse, eat, and shop, they have incentivized their customers to get in and get out as soon as possible. How can businesses be this tone deaf? As you would expect, their sales are way off. There is even a FB page about the paid parking.
Don’t tell this to Apple.
I was in one of their mall stores yesterday and it was elbow to elbow. Well over 100 people in a store that’s not that big. I would guess there were at least 15 Apple sales people on the floor and you still had to queue up and wait to talk to one of them.
I prefer the all outdoor strip malls....
Exactly.
Even those are struggling.
Just look at the number of empty storefronts, for rent.
We have many..............
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