Richard Hastings Quotations

Where there is pressure there is change, universally.

There are five business days until the comparable-store sales figures come out. Stores will be assessing things, and we could see some warnings, if they haven't done well.

We're at an extremely dangerous situation where home heating bills could be shockingly high this winter, ... This is very bad news especially in the northeast part of the country, where the population represents a pretty big chunk of national retail sales.

Sears did a superb job on seasonal holiday promotions in circulars and TV ads and enjoyed a strong November. Sears comparable sales gains compares favorably to last year when November 2003 same-store sales were down 3.6 percent,

One area of trouble in consumer spending is households and individuals with weakening credit profiles. So far it's not yet a majority of households but the number of consumers in credit distress is on the increase. That's something to keep an eye on,

New seasonal fashions brought out many apparel shoppers beating our sales expectations for some specialty apparel retailers. Overall, the industry is getting better at fixing short-term merchandising missteps, and October's cooler weather certainly brought out favorable reaction from many shoppers.

On shopping networks, people model the products, demonstrate how it works and actually make it fun for viewers to associate with what's being shown.

But, what's Wal-Mart's assortment and customer experience compared to Best Buy? That's an important deciding factor for consumers.

China could choose to retaliate against yesterday's announcement by hiking up prices on a key export to the U.S. or suspending purchase of certain commodities from the U.S,

Gift cards are like proprietary currency issued by a retailer. The intention is to get a potentially new consumer to come in and trade in that currency and try new merchandise. We're seeing retailers across the spectrum doing as much as possible to promote them.

I expect this number to rise toward the end of the year. At the same time jobs and wages won't rise fast enough to offer relief to already overstretched consumers. This could hurt retail spending in the second-half.

If trade relations between the United States and China begin to deteriorate, and the dollar declines in a disorderly manner, then a minor thing such as raw cotton prices could become very important,

If spending on durable goods slows down, it could also weaken sales of consumer electronics, especially on big ticket items that have a higher profit margin but are interest rate sensitive.

I think it's kind of funny they're changing roles, but I'm also getting the impression that, over the past two years, there seems to be a trend to moving top management around so they get more well-rounded experience. I think that's a good move and maybe a part of the company's succession plan.

January is not just clearance month anymore. It's winter-season full-price selling, because Christmas and holiday merchandising is really promotional. These days, that's when you see the really deep discounts.

Retailers know that many people will wait until after Christmas for the big purchases. So they don't want to go too far into the holidays with excess inventory that they eventually will heavily discount.

Retailers have very big orders from vendors ready for delivery right before and right after Christmas. They want to look really, really good. That's when they come out with the richest displays of winter merchandise, and it culminates with Valentine's Day.

Our recent visits to some stores indicate better controls over displays, clutter, and shelf appearance, necessary steps to stabilize store aesthetics in support of their apparel initiatives.

Mass merchandising and discount retailing is moving in a big way toward private labels and exclusive designer brands, ... That Wal-Mart is rumored to be contemplating something like this is logical, given the trend in the industry.

July sales were weaker than expected. Summer can be a volatile season for retailers but I am a little surprised by the weakness in apparel. I'll be keeping an eye on discretionary spending going forward.

Management has been defending the brand. If we look at the last six years, it's become clear that they have made no progress.

Management is concerned about return on invested capital and return on shareholder equity and that's the focus. Everything else takes a backseat to that.

The assortments weren't there when cold weather snapped back, and shoppers were curious about something other than a bikini to match their mittens.

Will the anticipation of more expensive bills hurt holiday sales? I don't think so. I think consumer spending will see more of a marginal change rather than a substantial change, primarily at the lower-income level.

We're already seeing heavy markdowns particularly in apparel,

Unlike Europe, Asian markets are more receptive to big-box formats, ... The model of relationships between households, labor, production, the market and resources are more easy to replicate there.

We are not surprised to hear of the sale of 24 Kmart units to Home Depot,

Weaker spending on seasonal goods has been building up for four months now. The two factors hurting consumers particularly at the low- and middle-income levels are that wages have not grown and gasoline prices could go even higher.

To be concerned about the strength of consumer spending is wise. Wal-Mart as a barometer of consumer spending is significant. Consumer spending will start to moderate off of its hot pace in the second-half of the year.

The outlook for them this year is the best it's been in about the last three years.

Wal-Mart's much slower rate of sales growth in November clearly shows this is a matured global business. As supermarket goods continue to increase as a percentage of sales -- and this includes consumables and perishables sold in big volume at Sam's Club -- we will expect to see a persistently slower rate of top line growth.

The fact that the Chinese currency is pegged to the dollar helps eliminate the inflationary effect on goods from China, ... The U.S., however, doesn't see that benefit from its other trading partners.

This remains one of the most interesting major retailing case studies in the past 20 years.

We believe Lewis is the better person to lead a customer-centric business,

What's holding up the consumer is habit. Until things change in a very material manner, American consumers won't alter their shopping habits significantly. The jobs market is strong and there's been a little bit of improvement in wage growth. I still don't believe that gas prices are high enough to derail consumers. If there is one thing that could shake consumers it's the housing market and not gas inflation.

With Christmas Eve falling on a Friday, sales have the potential of being very intense.

The pundits that said department stores are dying are wrong. This is a different channel. What you get there, in terms of brands and variety, you can't get elsewhere. There's no substitutability.

The pundits that said department stores are dying are wrong, ... This is a different channel. What you get there, in terms of brands and variety, you can't get elsewhere. There's no substitutability.

Wet Seal is a turnaround situation that has been helped by strong industry vendor credit support and solid communications with their vendors.

Electronics is certainly carving a big chunk of money out of the pockets of shoppers. Back-to-school is increasingly about how cool is your phone, or how new and cool is your notebook -- that $1,350 notebook -- and students are judging each other by their gizmos at least as much as by their clothing.

The risk for Wal-Mart is that as wages improve, consumers will go to alternative retailers such as Home Depot, Gap, Bed, Bath & Beyond or a Best Buy for better quality and more variety of products,

The store of the future will be more of a 'do-it-itself' event with not much human interaction. These new systems will eventually be able to recognize your tastes and preferences and what you like to buy better than you yourself know.

Prices are much firmer in the high-end product arena than in the moderate price discount arena.

People are still crazy. Sure, gas is expensive, but look on the bright side. People are still crazy and they're going shopping.

As long as people can find the right merchandise, have a job and borrow a little bit, they are going to go shopping. Overall, the holiday season was good. Retailers who had it all nailed down were the winners.

This is about putting your career on the line. They need to go in there and do something really dramatic to retool the business.

This is a favorable development for Saks and a big improvement to its balance sheet, which shows a lot of debt leverage,

They're paying attention to their problems. They are aware that when it comes to store-level execution there are problems and they're paying attention to it.

It's just a number. Vendors are worried about getting purchase orders, and getting paid. That's a real concern. But investors are worried about getting on the momentum express before it leaves the station.

For a company doing about $19?$20 billion in sales, this is not a big float.

It's basically the same formula that we saw last year because once again there's an absence of a must-have item,

It's great if you attract lower income shoppers looking for low prices, but what if those shoppers who were really struggling between 2000 and 2003 now have jobs? They might be spending more and looking for different merchandise...maybe something Wal-Mart doesn't have,

Consumers have a way of pulling it together for the holidays. We could see weakness in apparel and footwear sales but electronics, entertainment products and gift cards could do very well in the fourth quarter.

Consumers have a way of pulling it together for the holidays.

Consumers are benefiting from a combination of tax stimulus, new products, good apparel fashions and compelling prices.

The additional cash on the balance sheet from the asset sales will put Kmart in a position to further reduce debt and possibly buyback more shares in a move that could boost share prices further, ... At the same time, the big cash position will enable management to look at an attractive range of choices, including the possibility at some point in the future of a major acquisition.

Their third-quarter profit was supported by a really solid quarter at Sam's Club. This shows again why Sam's matters so much to Wal-Mart's consolidated profitability, ... Smoother performance at Sam's has been a big plus recently, and it has to hold up in order to offset the rising influence of supermarket margins from the other division.

The consumer is jittery. Rising debt levels, inflation and higher gasoline prices are all real threats and a drag on spending.

I'm expecting the holidays to be a stimulating environment for (sales) growth, ... But the deeper discounts could also mean that profit margins will be off for some retailers.

If Wal-Mart's December comparable sales do go up 3 percent, that means they did much better in the last two weeks of the month,

It ended up a pretty good season. The retailers that didn't do well did it to themselves.

But higher costs were enough to hit operating income in the quarter, which grew only 7 percent, compared to a 7.4 growth rate for the comparable nine months. Despite these issues, the quarter held up very well and the holiday quarter should hold up nicely,

I continue to believe that the effects of higher gas prices on the consumer are overestimated. Most of the important measures of discretionary spending such as furniture, lawn and garden and food sales held up nicely.

This holiday season Wal-Mart hasn't been able to differentiate itself from the competition or really take advantage of the early wave of promotional activity.

The holiday is clearly growing in importance for the industry. Halloween is fun, enjoyable and doesn't require a big investment to celebrate. The primary focus is the child and families typically do all they can to make sure the children have fun.

All that a week ago was neatly put out there. Today Mother Nature took all of it.

The economy still has to prove itself and create millions of new jobs.

The capital markets are so liquid, despite some of the increase in borrowing costs, that they create wonderful choices for consumer companies like Tommy Hilfiger and J. Crew to go private, ... break themselves into pieces, gobble someone else's pieces or just try to raise money to get bigger.

The company is showing stable business improvement and there's a higher probability the stock will shoot higher in the near-term.

The management shakeup is no surprise, and we welcome the change, ... We believe Lewis is the better person to lead a customer-centric business.

We had a strong back-to-school season and discretionary spending on low-priced items has trended higher. These are good indications for Halloween, which typically sets the tone for the rest of the holiday shopping season.

Halloween this year falls on a Friday. That should be helpful for retailers because the party carries into the weekend.

Halloween will be a slam-dunk for merchants despite the weakening consumer spending trends.

The holiday is clearly growing in importance for the industry. Halloweens fun, enjoyable and doesn't require a big investment to celebrate. The primary focus is the child and families typically do all they can to make sure the children have fun.