As Burt Flickinger discussed with Award- Winning Journalist NATHAN HAGAR on a special Labor Day edition of BLOOMBERG DAYBREAK, shoppers are still shopping as we head into the Back to School season but increasingly doing so from sites like OfferUp, where they are buying from each other. The Bloomberg Terminal reports that 1 in 6 consumers had trouble paying electric bills in August and clothing sales are slipping along with consumer electronics and most of retail sales, with the exception of Food & Warehouse Club Stores. Best Buy's CEO says Christmas purchases may be last-minute this year because consumers are so cash and credit constrained.
Americans meanwhile attended fewer movies this past weekend, with the top three features grossing less in aggregate than the $12.6 million paid at auction for a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. In luxury, the Bloomberg Terminal reports Bloomingdale's same store sales were up 8 percent. Nordstrom had had weak numbers, but will turn it around with dynamic new board of director member Jim Donald, who manages in the tradition of five generations of Flickingers, gauging success by the number of miles on his car's odometer, spending less time with the Wall Street analysts & more time motivating the team in the stores. Notable very positive exceptions are Bob Eddy, Chris Baldwin, Dave Picot & their great BJs Wholesale Club team, Costco, and Target. Most of retail is going the wrong way because leaders aren't talking to shoppers & team members to be on trend the way they were just a few years ago. And on Labor Day, working with the non profit JLMC Joint Labor Management Council on behalf of unionized employers and labor leaders, Labor's never been more excited in terms of the organizing drives by Teamsters local in Buffalo, the first to organize Starbucks, Chipotle, and other restaurants and retailers across the country and the world.
Strategic Resource Group is the lead retail and brand CPG consulting firm throughout the United States and the globe. With more than three decades of experience, our team strategically collaborates with top retail chains, wholesalers, suppliers, and investment firms. Our retail industry experts are highly skilled at illuminating retail trends, identifying opportunities to increase consumption, and growing retail sales.
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