Father’s Day Results Mixed: Father’s Day results seemed to be in the range of meeting or slightly exceeding plan, depending upon the retailer. The bestsellers were: tailored clothing, dress shirts, knitwear and accessories. Brooks Brothers reported sales were “a little better than we anticipated,” according to chief merchandising officer Lou Amendola. Tom Ott, SVP and GMM of Men’s Wear at Saks said that their private men’s brand was the best category. At Lord & Taylor, which made a major statement in an expanded, re-kindled men’s area, Jonathan Greller, SVP and GMM of Men’s, said they were seeing double-digit increases prior to this past week and saw that fall to mid single digits. Several of the better men’s specialty stores saw increases of 3-5 percent. BizRate.com reported online sales for Father’s Day gifts were $91 million, almost triple the number from lasy year. Best sellers on-line were in the portable electronics category.
Nook and Kindle Fighting for the Non iPad Reader Market: Crunchgear.com reports that sales of Barnes & Noble ereader, the Nook, surpassed sales of Amazon’s in March for the first time. Digitimes reports that 53% of readers shipped that month were Nooks. They estimate that the total market will reach 11 million by the end of the year. Both of those are being chased by Apple’s iPod which features a reader in addition to other capacities, which has forced by Amazon and Barnes & Noble into cutting prices substantially on their products.
Kohl’s and Aldo Join Forces: Kohl’s announced that they have signed a deal with Aldo to produce private label men’s and women’s footwear. The products will be available in the stores and on-line for Spring of 2011. Footwear is one of the leading growth categories for Kohl’s, and their private label and exclusive brands segment is now at 47% of total sales and a larger share of gross margin. This looks like a very good move for both parties.
New York and Co have New Issues: The one billion dollar specialty store chain, which already released poor numbers for second quarter, said that 2 top design executives have quit. Marie Holman-Rao, the well-regarded chief design officer and Anne-Charlotte Windal, senior VP of Design, both abruptly resigned this week. The chain has been struggling with image and focus for some time and this seems to be more bad news. The stock is at 2.65 and is in dire need of something positive to happen.
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