Decline of Macy's, Kroger's (Mason, Perry: stores, food, richest)

[WILWRadio]

just found this.

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinna...s-off-100.html

[take57]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

just found this.

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinna...s-off-100.html

Let's see, someone who made it as far as Senior VP, not an Exec. VP, President or CEO who's experience prior to eBay was 10 years at Home Depot in the eCommerce side, apparently having nothing to do with the brick and mortar part of the business taking over a company with a $17B market cap loss since 2015.

Yeah, this will work out swell...

(At least he got a decent comp package: $1M salary, $1.25M target bonus, stock options of $4M in FY 2018, a $5.5 sign-on bonus and $10.5M equity grants to replace compensation forfeited from eBay. Presumably hard-wired in should Macy's be sold or goes under)

[Clayton white guy]

Yes, Bloomingdale's IS at the Davison's/Macy's space at Lenox Square and Macy's is in the larger former Rich's flagship space at the front facing Peachtree. No, the Macy's IS NOT merchandised as upscale as it was when it was Rich's flagship in Atlanta's uptown Buckhead District (The City of Atlanta's and some say the South's premier neighborhood). Right after the Macy''s conversion, Rich's Regency Shops (Lady's Bridge Sportswear that is Bloomingdale's bread and butter) disappeared from the store along with their Waterford crystal shop, and upscale collectable porcelains and All-Clad's premium cookware from housewares. It was said at the time that 1. Federated felt that Rich's was cannibalizing Bloomingdale's sales. and
2. Many vendors felt that the Macy's name was less "upmarket" overall, especially in the South. The overall assortments at Macy's (former Rich's) Lenox Square ARE more upscale and extensive than their suburban stores around Metro Atlanta (as was true with Rich's, too with a Lenox being such a large store 500,000 square feet in such an affluent urban location), but fathoms below how it was merchandised as the flagship of "the South's Premier Department Store". Yes, we miss Rich's. Yes, keeping hyphenated names may have helped our feelings some, but the change in merchandising at this store would even make keeping the Rich's name a "hollow" victory at best. Even a "Macy's" that was stocked the way the old Rich's, Lenox Square was would be MUCH better.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

Yes, we miss Rich's. Yes, keeping hyphenated names may have helped our feelings some, but the change in merchandising at this store would even make keeping the Rich's name a "hollow" victory at best. Even a "Macy's" that was stocked the way the old Rich's, Lenox Square was would be MUCH better.

They've been shrinking for 12 years (since they bought May Co.). Well, even before that. You would think somebody might ask themselves what they were doing wrong?

I don't like Macy's at all.

[take57]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

They've been shrinking for 12 years (since they bought May Co.). Well, even before that. You would think somebody might ask themselves what they were doing wrong?

I don't like Macy's at all.

You ain't the only one, brother (Look at their 5 yr. stock chart)

[WRnative]

Amazon intends to lower Whole Foods prices and offer lockers in stores for Amazon pick-ups and returns. Perhaps most importantly, Amazon will offer additional Whole Foods discounts to the Amazon's huge base of Prime customers.

Amazon: We're lowering Whole Foods prices on Monday - Aug. 24, 2017

What matters most, however, is how Amazon's Whole Foods net prices will compare with those of Kroger and other competitors.

Will Amazon be able to operate Whole Foods at very low profit margins and perhaps even at a loss without trashing its own share price.

As of this writing, Kroger's share price is at $21.17, down almost 8 percent. Amazon's share price is down less than 1 percent. Wal-Mart's share price is down almost 2 percent.

[take57]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Amazon intends to lower Whole Foods prices and offer lockers in stores for Amazon pick-ups and returns. Perhaps most importantly, Amazon will offer additional Whole Foods discounts to the Amazon's huge base of Prime customers.

Amazon: We're lowering Whole Foods prices on Monday - Aug. 24, 2017

What matters most, however, is how Amazon's Whole Foods net prices will compare with those of Kroger and other competitors.

Will Amazon be able to operate Whole Foods at very low profit margins and perhaps even at a loss without trashing its own share price.

As of this writing, Kroger's share price is at $21.17, down almost 8 percent. Amazon's share price is down less than 1 percent. Wal-Mart's share price is down almost 2 percent.

Yeah, I got murdered today between COST & KR. KR is quickly becoming a great stock if you're looking for a capital loss carryover. The only thing that makes me feel good about the situation is there are undoubtedly a fair amount of folks on Vine St. that are feeling the pain of their poor decision-making as well. Wonder how long it will take for a few heads to be put on stakes in the lobby? (then again, has KR ever let anyone go due to incompetence?)

Amazon will be just fine with a little to no profit margin with WF for some time. Amazon never turned a profit in their first 7 years of existence instead focusing on growth and market share. Seems to have worked out...

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by take57

Yeah, I got murdered today between COST & KR. KR is quickly becoming a great stock if you're looking for a capital loss carryover. The only thing that makes me feel good about the situation is there are undoubtedly a fair amount of folks on Vine St. that are feeling the pain of their poor decision-making as well. Wonder how long it will take for a few heads to be put on stakes in the lobby? (then again, has KR ever let anyone go due to incompetence?)

Amazon will be just fine with a little to no profit margin with WF for some time. Amazon never turned a profit in their first 7 years of existence instead focusing on growth and market share. Seems to have worked out...

I don't know if I posted the article link here, but I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal or maybe it was the New York Times about WF. The author was based in Columbus and made a good point that he introduced someone to Fresh Thyme and she saw that the sales ticket was noticeably cheaper than Whole Foods. The next trip she went back to Whole Foods.

The point the author was trying to make is that a big part of shopping at Whole Foods is snob appeal. Their shopper wants people to know that they can afford to pay the high prices there to be healthy.

I like Whole Foods but I don't shop there. Kroger, Meijer and Giant Eagle are just fine for me. I do like fresh thyme though, but it's a little far for me for grocery shopping on a regular basis and I am not so much of an organic nut that I'm willing to take that trip regularly.

Do you know who else was a big organic nut? Eddie Albert the actor who played Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres. He was heavily into organics beginning in the 1960s and had his own organic garden. He lived into his nineties so I'm sure being so dedicated to organics didn't hurt.

----

Re: your last paragraph. I ordered 4 gel pens through eBay that were fulfilled through Amazon. I received them in a corrugated box that was basically a little larger than my hand. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems to me that this box cost a lot more than a plastic bag at a store. I haven't seen any detailed breakdown and what their cost structure is but it is still hard for me to believe that shipping things can compete with people picking them off the shelves themselves and bagging them themselves price wise. But they're keeping all the mailman employed so I guess that might be a good thing.

[take57]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

I don't know if I posted the article link here, but I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal or maybe it was the New York Times about WF. The author was based in Columbus and made a good point that he introduced someone to Fresh Thyme and she saw that the sales ticket was noticeably cheaper than Whole Foods. The next trip she went back to Whole Foods.

The point the author was trying to make is that a big part of shopping at Whole Foods is snob appeal. Their shopper wants people to know that they can afford to pay the high prices there to be healthy.

You might be right and if you look at Fresh Thyme as well as Sprouts there's definitely a place in the market for healthy, appropriately priced grocery items. Remember, Whole Foods was tanking to a certain extent because of their pricing model. They responded in part by introducing their '365' line. I think there was a feeling on the part of long time management that there were lines they weren't going to cross (dropping prices overall) because they may have believed it was core to their business. Turns out that wasn't a good call and they paid for it. Amazon has the luxury to toss that out the window.

The more relevant question at least in terms of this thread is what's Kroger doing? What can they do? Thus far they seem paralyzed. Remember, they sat at the same table WalMart, Amazon and who knows who else sat at when WF appeared to be open for acquisition. Granted, Amazon was in stealth mode, but what was clear was whomever ended up with WF, there were going to be changes made. So Kroger loses twice. They didn't get WF and apparently never had a plan to respond to whoever got WF. For God's sake, AMZN makes this bombshell change less than 24 hours after FTC approval. Kroger? Still standing there with their **** in their hand.

[JeanneVanderbilt]

Their organic line is ever expanding and beats the heck out of Whole Foods' prices. They offer way more than Trader Joe's, too. Love Krogering here in Cinci! We'll see if prices really come down now that Amazon owns Whole Foods.