Contemporary retailing is about different approaches to familiar problems, about revisiting simple, previously entrenched principals, and about replacing outmoded ideas with new concepts. In short, independent retailing is no longer the uncomplicated, predictable profession it once was.
As we emerge form this economic downturn, it is my contention that many apparel and other independent retailers will find themselves competing in a marketplace unlike the one they earlier left… that for some among us there will be a new normal.
Sometime in middle to late January we should find out about the Big’s and Chain’s December and 4th quarter profits and it’s going to be a train wreck.
Thinking that all you have to do is mark-it-down and get your cost back, ignores the very real concern of “how will the operating expenses get paid?”.