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Originally Posted by GA Russell
BMB, you don't really believe that investors are fired, do you?
I was referring to Penney's largest shareholder, William Ackman.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97P0TA20130827
The comments following the article linked to in the original post wonder if there is indeed more than coincidence in large shareholders of two retailers getting out, your assurances that they have nothing to do with each other notwithstanding. |
Sorry, I was confusing him with the CEO, Johnson. I wasn't paying attention to the names and Ackman was more than just an investor:
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...Ackman has been calling the shots at Penney throughout, bringing in Ron Johnson as CEO, green lighting an...
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So I guess he fired himself. Or fired his investments himself.
He was told to go away by the board and I guess he decided to take his money and go play somewhere else.
My point (not that I came close to making one) is that Penny's has been in trouble for a lot of reasons that has nothing to do with normal retail operations. I've been in that story in the last 5 years and ever since Penny's decided they didn't have to have sales, the place was EMPTY. Everything was overpriced. The ghosts had even left when I went there with Mom because she insisted they would have what she wanted. They did--at 40 dollars more than she was willing to even consider. I was in there about a month ago and there were more people, but not a lot. They ran everyone off with their "no sales" campaign and they weren't starting from a popular retailing position then.
In other words, they were doing poorly before any other retailers and they still are.
B&N has also been struggling, some of it their own making, some of it the sheer convenience and selection at Amazon.
I do think that right now retail is struggling across the board. People have their wallets closed.