Urban Outfitters CEO Says the Retail Bubble Has Burst

[Eugene]

Source: Bloomberg

Urban Outfitters CEO Says the Retail Bubble Has Burst

by Nick Turner
March 8, 2017, 9:07 AM EST

Shares of Urban Outfitters Inc. and Express Inc. fell on Wednesday after the apparel chains gave a dour outlook for the industry, renewing concerns about America’s overabundance of retail stores.

Urban Outfitters’ fourth-quarter earnings fell short of estimates, and same-store sales were flat. At Express, sales tumbled 13 percent on that basis last quarter. The company warned that it may post a loss this quarter, surprising analysts.

Clothing sellers are struggling to cope with slow foot traffic at malls and a shift to e-commerce. The industry also has had to rely more heavily on discounts to attracts shoppers, weighing on margins. Urban Outfitters Chief Executive Officer Richard Hayne said the holiday season was disappointing, with higher markdowns than expected.

But the broader problem is there are just too many stores, he said on a conference call Tuesday evening.

“The U.S. market is oversaturated with retail space and far too much of that space is occupied by stores selling apparel,” he said. “Retail square feet per capita in the United States is more than six times that of Europe or Japan. And this doesn’t count digital commerce.”

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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-08/urban-outfitters-tumbles-as-ceo-warns-retail-bubble-has-burst

[PsychoBabble]

1. Check out this equation ...

Too many stores + Too few buyers + Not enough income = Consumer Economy Collapse

[Angry Dragon]

3. good one

[procon]

2. The whole house of cards is gonna crash. Nt

[democratisphere]

4. This has been coming for a long time. If a companies executive management

didn't see this coming, they should all be fired.

[Warpy]

5. Nobody's spending anything they don't have to

because they know from recent and very bitter experience that Republican administrations crash the economy.

That's in addition to purchasing power that continues to fall. No one is going into debt for new clothes or camping gear now.

[Achilleaze]

7. True that

Republicans always screw the economy up. Bush the lesser really laid A massive economic turd. Then he left it on Obama and the Democrats to clean up, and leave Trump and the Republicans in great shape. But the Republicans will FAIL that to oblivion

[elleng]

6. U.S. Private Employers Step up Hiring; Productivity Sluggish, fwiw.

'Hiring by U.S. private employers surged in February, pointing to underlying strength in the economy that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next week.


The ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday that private payrolls grew by 298,000 jobs last month, well above economists' expectations for a gain of 190,000. January's private payrolls gains were revised up to 261,000 from 246,000.

The report, jointly developed with Moody's Analytics, came ahead of the release on Friday of the U.S. Labor Department's more comprehensive employment report. The ADP report, however, has a poor track record predicting the private payrolls component of the government's employment report. . .

In a separate report on Wednesday, the Labor Department said nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, rose at an annualized 1.3 percent rate in the final three months of 2016, as it had estimated last month.

Weak productivity suggests it will be hard to significantly boost economic growth. President Donald Trump has pledged to boost annual growth to 4 percent. The economy has not achieved 3 percent annual growth since the 2007-2009 recession ended.'>>>

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/08/u-s-private-employers-step-up-hiring-productivity-sluggish.html

[Kittycow]

8. Besides all that up thread from me

I don't buy anything outside of the necessities because it's all crap and I don't want to waste my money!

[littlemissmartypants]

9. And yet we still have

Walmart fashion faux pas.

Sorry about the hijack.



Thanks for the thread Eugene. I love this group.


♡ lmsp