The Buying Process

• Merchandise, Merchandise, Merchandise.
  • How do you know your sales are off because of the merchandise?... simple, always assume it's the merchandise… assuming anything else is usually a distraction
• Planning for Uncertainty
  • The fine line between having enough stock to do the sales yet remain lean enough to avoid a markdown bath is hard to walk... lean and mean says it all
• Off-Price: Friend or Foe?
  • I know retailers that die for off-price and think it's how to make money and I know retailers who never touch it... O/P... love it or hate...
• When in Rome…
  • I love what the European designers and manufacturers contribute to our industry, but watching a store attempt to manage its European merchandise is painful
• Buyer Beware
  • Specialty independents read the same publications, "shop" the same "it" stores, attend the same trade shows and "work" the same hot lines... so why does one retailer/buyer identify something that another misses?
• It’s Always About The Merchandise
  • With few exceptions, there was something for every customer to get excited about… and what about this year?... what's changed?... what's gotten the customer's attention?... what are the new must haves?
• In Search Of Hip
  • Maybe all those years inhaling fibers and sniffing leather has finally taken it's toll, but, for me, the thought of a department store and hipness in the same sentence is a non-starter… hip comes from the ground up, not the top boardroom down... hip is attitude... and hip is only hip if not everyone "gets it"