When Home Depot reported outstanding numbers for its most recent quarter earlier this week and said it expected to continue to do well, what did Wall Street do? Of course, they focused on the few sentences of warnings in the HD statement about going up against storm-boosted numbers from a year ago and the general slowdown in the housing market. And the stock took a hit.

I just don’t get it. Clearly Depot is doing really well, continuing to gain market share and continuing to reap the benefits of homeowners staying in their current places and spending more on remodeling.

Here’s my take from Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2018/11/14/how-home-depot-is-still-riding-the-housing-wave/#1642e1482151    

To me it’s just another example of Stupid Wall Street business.

From the Department of Redundancy Department, it’s time to say a little something about Sears closing more stores…again. This week they announced another 40 would go away, which will leave them with only about 500 in total. This is mind-boggling when you realize at one time the company had more than 3,500 stores and as recently as this past February there were still 1,000 locations under the Sears and Kmart banners still open for business.

Here’s a little something from my Forbes.com post but really, the story is just one sad tale: https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2018/11/09/with-40-more-closings-has-sears-found-a-new-marketing-campaign-shop-us-before-its-too-late/#68a7128e60e2

It’s getting very close to the end of the road.  Call it what it is: Stupid Business.

 

Why does J.C. Penney keep rolling out all these lame incremental merchandising programs when what it really needs is a top-to-bottom merchandising reset? Its latest intro is from yet another B level celeb — Ayesha Curry —  for a home program. Wasn’t Lionel Richie enough?

This retailer has to come up with a big, compelling story to tell its increasingly turned off — and diminishing — customer base. And it needs to do it quickly.

Anything short of that is just Stupid.

What happens when you put all your muscle behind a plan…and that plan isn’t the right one? I’m not saying that’s what’s going on at Bed Bath & Beyond but the troubled retailer has come up with a new marketplace positioning strategy that I have my doubts about. Maybe it will ultimately work…but maybe it’s what we call around here Stupid. Guess we’ll find out. Here’s my take on Forbes.com.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2018/10/25/is-focusing-on-life-events-the-right-long-term-strategy-for-bed-bath-beyond/#3a324f401f4a

Hope I’m wrong.

What in the world becomes of J.C. Penney? And what does the ongoing mess that Sears is making mean for the beleaguered retailer? All of this could mean some good things for Penney…but then again it might mean just the opposite. The correct answer, as I surmise, in this Forbes.com posting is probably a little bit of both. We’ll find out soon enough if they are smart…or whether this becomes another example of Stupid Retailing.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2018/10/24/a-tale-of-two-penneys-in-a-post-sears-world/#29a2327f41d0

Shed some tears, but mostly you should have genuine fears for what happens to Sears next. The pain and suffering is far from over.

First off, Eddie Lampert is far from removed from the situation. As the largest creditor, he stands to be in a position to convert his debt into equity when that mechanism invariably rears its ugly little head during the bankruptcy process. He could end up owning even more of the company than he did before. And since much of the most valuable former assets of the retailer — the best real estate and other assorted treasures — are owned by Lampert under other corporate entities he remains deeply involved in what happens next.

And if you thought he did a rotten job managing Sears before all of this, just watch what he’s capable of doing next. Employees, suppliers and shareholders should be scared…very scared. Another case of Stupid Business laws and practices.

Our friend Fast Eddie Lampert has signaled game over for Sears. By bringing in a bankruptcy advisor, reportedly stopping paying vendors and indicating he is not going to pay the debt bill coming due next week it appears the Sears saga will come to its natural conclusion probably as early as next week.

Of course, that’s not exactly true. Lampert owns or has the rights to most of the best assets of Sears and no doubt has a plan to exploit them even further after any bankruptcy filing. The man has been ten steps ahead of everybody else on this entire thing and there’s no reason to believe he hasn’t thought this through to the next steps.

In the meantime, I did this piece on Forbes.com on the plight shared by Sears and Penney and the common denominator for the slide of both retailers. Spoiler alert: Gordon Gekko said it best.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2018/10/09/got-592-million-you-could-buy-sears-and-penney/#1848ebf43db6