Hello Friends,
While Labor Day is often filled with long-weekend sales, family and friends barbecues, and a shortened work week, this week has had no shortage of retail excitement.
Radioshack may be making a comeback - The beloved 80s retailer, often considered a relic of retail past and multiple times bankrupt, is staging a remarkable comeback under new ownership. While exact plans have not been revealed, Radioshack is hoping to capitalize on nostalgia, product quality and customer loyalty as the iconic brand makes it’s return.
There has been a ton of movement on the retail front….
Mitchell + Gold filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced they would be ceasing operations effective immediately, citing an inability to secure adequate funding to resume business operation. The high-end furniture retailer operated 30 retail stores and 40 virtual store locations across the US.
In an effort to revitalize the brand, Under Armour announced earlier in the week that John Varvatos, who previously served as a consultant to the company, will step in as Chief Design Officer. Varvatos will lead the creative design direction of the company and oversee the design studios in New York, Baltimore and Portland, Oregon.
Ann Taylor, Loft and Talbots have come together under a new holding company dubbed KnitWell Group, according to a Wednesday press release from owner Sycamore Partners. KnitWell will be providing services to plus-size specialist Lane Bryant as well, Sycamore said. The brands now under the KnitWell umbrella generate more than $3 billion in annual sales.
Amazon has raised the free shipping amount to $35 for non-prime members in some regions of the US. Previously the required spend was $25. This is not the first time Amazon has changed it’s minimum spend for free-shipping and at times has been as high as $49.
As the commitment to reining in stock levels continues, on a Q2 earnings call last week, Kohl’s announced that it achieved inventory cuts by 14% YoY. The retailer’s aggressive, ahead-of-schedule inventory reductions represented significant progress toward those goals. “As we implement new planning and allocation processes, we’re becoming more responsive to the customer’s demand, operating with additional open-to-buy to chase trends and minimize risk, maintaining better in stock levels in core basics, and improving inventory flow from our distribution centers to the selling floor,” CEO Tom Kingsbury stated on the call.
In some social media news….
Although TikTok has denied the claim, a new report shows that the social media platform plans to ban links to outside e-commerce sites like Amazon. This would encourage users that want to purchase items they see on the platform to shop exclusively through the TikTok shop.
On the grocery front….
Kroger Co and Albertsons Cos Inc are nearing a deal they hope will secure U.S. regulatory clearance for their proposed $24.5 billion merger, by selling more than 400 grocery stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers for nearly $2 billion. The stores that Kroger and Albertsons plan to shed are primarily in the Pacific Northwest and the Mountain states, along with some in California, Texas, Illinois, and the East Coast.
And to wrap up….
I wanted to share an article CNBC posted regarding shrink and theft in the retail space, where they analyzed the balance sheets of seven retailers to determine how much money they’re actually losing. Target reported a $219.5 million loss due to shrink in Q2, while Dick's reported a $27.1 million loss in the same period. Ulta and Foot Locker, which previously blamed "organized retail crime" for losses in May, did not mention theft in their recent results and instead referred to "shrink" affecting their profit margins. Lowe’s had some shocking results the retailer revealing that its shrink in 2022 rose to $997 million, up from $796 million in 2021. A further analysis can be seen in the article.