It is hilarious to see how a large department store with JC in its initials is scrambling to find the magic recipe to have shoppers come back and shop its vast cavernous stores. To those that know which mega store I am refering to it is obvious that for starters people don't actually need any motivation to shop. They just do. Given the average American much to their chagrin only has so many hours in a week that they can actually shop has to decide on which pavement they should pound. Could it be inside the store that also has Penney in its name or its equally boring competitors that have equally strange names like Sears or Macys.
Selling clothes to make profit to me is moronic. I mean first of all there is not that much to the notion of shopping for clothes. You wear those to protect yourself from the environment and largely be able to conduct your business without getting parental guidance sticker plastered on your butt.
But of course the designer industry and the other jobs that go with it would convince you otherwise. Frankly a $10 pair of jeans at Target or Walmart can very comfortably do the job that an overpriced garment that has two tubes, looks vaguely bluish but has a designer tag on the ass with a sticker that is 20 times more can do.
American consumers need to be told what they should be doing. They feel lost without a splashy advertisement or beckoning signage announcing latest and greatest garment from a designer whose name is hard to spell. Add to that the glorious gimmicky language advising of a once in a lifetime (that of the store manager if he does not get this sale done) opportunity to get your grimy hands on the fashionable sweaters and cardigans and swim shorts and bras - never mind what the weather - and of course jeans is a sure bet in any mall.
The silliest thing to watch is that crowds actually review all this data and decide on what they want to shop and what according to them the best value is. Then they continue to spend endless hours grovelling through the various racks, rounders, endcaps, shelves and other architecture inside one of these massive warehouses to procure that one garment (or many) depending on their math skills. Forget if they need it - they just want those shoes even if they spell UGG or CROC(s).
Brands make money exploiting all these denizens so I suppose its not all that moronic. For every dumb shopper there is a smart marketeer. Eventually the proverbial shit hits the fan and Mr. Bernanke poor guy has to answer the loaded questions around why America is now bankrupt and what HE plans to do to fix it!
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
What would all the MBAs do if there were no brands/dreams to sell, and no derivatives/dreams to market? Not to mention the thousands of B schools and their professors? Bernanke also needs something to do to prove his usefulness.
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