The CM Graveyard: First Sartoria Partenopea... next J. Crew?

[SartodiNapoli]

Which one is the brand going down right now?

 

[smittycl]

Barneys sale now at 10% across the board.

 

[smittycl]

Barneys added another 10% off for a limited time:

 

[gdl203]

 

[ThinkDerm]

will be 50% off december 26th

 

[smittycl]

Pretty impressive early sale at Saks. Lots of winter CM stuff, cashmere ties, sweaters and such. Pretty early to have a sale like this I think. NM has some stuff already on sale but not that much. Losing interest in them in general. I imagine they are watching Barneys' sale closely.

 

[gdl203]

Pretty impressive early sale at Saks. Lots of winter CM stuff, cashmere ties, sweaters and such. Pretty early to have a sale like this I think. NM has some stuff already on sale but not that much. Losing interest in them in general. I imagine they are watching Barneys' sale closely.

I think "they" are watching their job closely and they're putting pressure on their bosses to go on sale early and hard, so they can get their numbers up, and because they have no understanding or really care about margins and the effect those sales have on the survival of the company. Their job performance metrics first, then we'll see if it kills the enterprise.

 

[smittycl]

I think "they" are watching their job closely and they're putting pressure on their bosses to go on sale early and hard, so they can get their numbers up, and because they have no understanding or really care about margins and the effect those sales have on the survival of the company. Their job performance metrics first, then we'll see if it kills the enterprise.

Makes sense. I watch all this with more than a little sadness. Certainly not above taking advantage of a good sale but understand people's livelihoods are involved.

 

[othertravel]

Speaking of which, are these cordovan? Or only the colour cordovan?

Paul Stuart Hartford Leather Perforated-Tip Balmoral Oxfords | SaksFifthAvenue

Buy Paul Stuart Hartford Leather Perforated-Tip Balmoral Oxfords at SaksFifthAvenue. Shop our collection of Paul Stuart Dress Shoes online and get free shipping!

www.saksfifthavenue.com

 

[gdl203]

Makes sense. I watch all this with more than a little sadness. Certainly not above taking advantage of a good sale but understand people's livelihoods are involved.

I hear you. Everyone likes a deal. And sales have their purpose, and sale shoppers help retailers for that purpose.

It's very difficult in large (or small) organizations to align performance metrics with the overall success of the organization - so when you see retailers panic and slash early and hard, it's usually driven by the sales team, which gets paid based on revenue and sell-through data, not on whether that is sound from a margin and profitability perspective. In theory, upper management should be balancing that, but I think that panic always wins and short term revenue numbers are more palpable than long-term risk.

 

[LA Guy]

I think "they" are watching their job closely and they're putting pressure on their bosses to go on sale early and hard, so they can get their numbers up, and because they have no understanding or really care about margins and the effect those sales have on the survival of the company. Their job performance metrics first, then we'll see if it kills the enterprise.

I think that ill-founded attempts at quantification of performance plague pretty much all industries. It certainly has for the industries that I've been involved in in either a direct or indirect capacity: academia, advertising, retail, and especially in larger organizations, over reliance on garbage metrics to reach garbage goals lead to some real crap incentive structures which leads to garbage performance being rewarded, and sometimes, good performance and performers being punished. There probably ought to be many more control cases constraining the modeled results, and many more active checks on the models as well, though the latter often just results in a proliferation of metrics of dubious value.

 

[usctrojans31]

The now former Barneys CEO was named Chief Brand Officer at Tiffany's. Reward for running one business into the ground? Fall upwards into a better job.

 

[smittycl]

Entire Wash Post business section is devoted to Malls. The middle keeps hollowing out as Malls with Nordstrom and up seem to be surviving but the rest are in danger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/22/malls-are-dying-only-these-ones-have-figured-out-secrets-success-internet-age/?arc404=true

 

[Proleet]

The now former Barneys CEO was named Chief Brand Officer at Tiffany's. Reward for running one business into the ground? Fall upwards into a better job.

this unfortunately happens a lot...once people have reached that level they slide into the next cushy job once they get canned. They defend their stupid pay by saying they are more at risk but that’s simply not the reality...

 

[am55]

I hear you. Everyone likes a deal. And sales have their purpose, and sale shoppers help retailers for that purpose.

It's very difficult in large (or small) organizations to align performance metrics with the overall success of the organization - so when you see retailers panic and slash early and hard, it's usually driven by the sales team, which gets paid based on revenue and sell-through data, not on whether that is sound from a margin and profitability perspective. In theory, upper management should be balancing that, but I think that panic always wins and short term revenue numbers are more palpable than long-term risk.

What I've observed in Asia in the last decade at least, is that the easy availability of funding, but conditional on growth numbers, has made it very attractive to squeeze everything you can out of end of month numbers. Once you present a certain narrative well, many options become available that weren't before. In that sense it is rational management. I've definitely seen a number of "long term, healthy growth" type companies get their market eaten from under them by companies raising a round every 6 months, including in fashion.