- Joined
- Sep 7, 2011
- Messages
- 356
- Reaction score
- 527
I think the real story here is why do successful independent retailers try to become the next mega-retailer? I went to college in Richmond and Need Supply was THE store. In 2015, they were doing ~$9M/year in sales, 40+ employees, and growing - a completely respectable business anyone could be proud of. But for some reason this wasn't enough for them. They had spent 20 years building up to $9M/sales, but decided to take on investors, acquiring Totokaelo, and trying to keep up with huge players like Farfetch. They got what they wanted "peaking at $50M/year in sales", but did so with a "growth at all costs" mindset that left them over-extended and easy prey to unusual circumstances. Boutiques need to learn when to say "Enough is Enough" and stop trying to expand every season.
agree 100%. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I guess I wonder, were they profitable at 9m/year? If so, what does the end game need to be? Scaling up has big risks, and NEED got burned by being overextended, which is tragic.