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Posted
Nov 09 2007, 10:25 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The turkey ads showed up in my mailbox the other day. This week I can get a gobbler for 39 to 79 cents a pound, or even for free if I were to spend $100 at one store. Compare that with the $4.99-a-pound cost for the "heritage" (exotic breed) turkeys featured in a recent article in Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times Sunday magazine. Author Lynda V. Mapes described supermarket turkeys as having "cottony meat" and as being "so blanderized by industrial-style production it can be like eating sawdust with butter." The chef of a renowned regional restaurant orders the heirloom turkeys each year, Mapes wrote. "Not just any bird, after all, would do for his nine-course holiday dinner that goes for $189 per plate and up, including wine." Last year's menu included a choice of poached white meat on king bolete mushroom bread pudding, confit of leg on mashed delicata squash with shallot, or herbed crépinette on cabbage with quince. Then there were the side dishes, like cauliflower fenugreek soup
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Posted
Nov 15 2007, 08:52 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Within the past week Wal-Mart and Corning delivered positive earnings surprises due in part to the strength of large, flat-panel televisions. Investors responded by driving the share price of both stocks smartly higher. If you missed both of those moves, you might want to consider jumping into Best Buy ahead of that company's earnings report due in mid-December.
No company is better positioned to exploit the growing demand for large television sets this holiday season than the country's top electronics retailer. Price competition might keep margins from expanding greatly, but robust sales growth in the television/home theater area should result in some very favorable bottom-line comparisons. Best Buy is projected to earn 40 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter, up an impressive 30% from last year.
But Best Buy's results won't be driven only by big TV sets. Despite the difficult economic conditions, strong demand for other consumer electronic items such as gaming consoles, digital music players, high-end cell phones, portable navigational devices and laptop computers should make Best Buy a top holiday destination for shoppers. Most of these items are priced to move and even though consumers are feeling the pinch from higher energy prices and declining home values, crowded Best Buy stores suggest that, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus -- and he will be filling his sleigh with consumer electronic goodies again this holiday season.
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Posted
Nov 28 2007, 11:40 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Now that the dust has settled back on our keyboards, which company was the big winner of Cyber Monday? Was it a) Amazon with its new Kindle, b) Wal-Mart with its cheap big-screen TVs, c) Blue Nile with its sparkling diamonds, or d) none of the above?
If you guessed "d" then you are today's winner. While anecdotal evidence suggests that each of the highlighted retailers fared reasonably well on Monday, the real winner of Cyber Monday was FedEx.
Internet sales totalled a whopping $733 million Monday, an impressive 21% jump over the year-ago total. But to jack up sales so significantly at a time when consumer confidence is in the toilet required some serious effort -- and by effort I mean discounting prices. Sales were everywhere online Monday, and that's why I'm not as excited by the retailers as I am by FedEx. You see slashing prices might jumpstart sales, but it does so at the cost of lowering margins. Lower margins mean slow to no profit growth, and it's earnings growth that ultimately drives stock prices.
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Posted
Dec 18 2007, 08:52 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Remember when it was cool to own/buy a Dell computer? Not that long ago it was Dell, not Apple, that had the laid back young kid starring in commercials that resonated with consumers. "Dude, it's a Dell," was the stuff of genius. Dell's were cool, they were cheap and they were everywhere.
Yet in little less than five years Dell has gone from cool to ice cold. Its share of the PC market has eroded due to misguided retail practices, poor customer service and outdated design. The company has also lost its price advantage. Despite the cheap prices you see on the company's web site, or in the flyers that arrive in the mail, once you configure the computer to match even the most basic of needs, the price ends up being as high or higher as PCs from Toshiba, Hewlett Packard and Acer.
Quite simply there's nothing that sets the company apart anymore -- at least nothing positive. Its abysmal technical service group certainly set it apart, as waiting on the Dell help desk was an exercise bordering on cruelty. To its credit, Dell's management team has begun to address this issue by adding staff, but once you get a bad reputation it can be very hard to change consumer perceptions. Dell has a lot of making up to do and some blunt talk from its back-in-the-saddle CEO, Michael Dell, just might help remake its image. Let's face it, Apple was left for dead a few years back and look at what the return of Steve Jobs did for that company.
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Posted
Dec 28 2007, 11:15 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Wal-Mart has canceled its online video download service, blaming HP for discontinuing the technology behind it. What a lame excuse. If the Wal-Mart video store was doing well, do you think HP would yank the engine powering it?
The reality is that few people used it. Those who did were not impressed. On paper, the service sounded great. All the major movie studios participated. New releases cost up to $20, and older films sold for as much as $10. TV shows were available the day after they aired for $2. Wal-Mart claimed it would only take 45 minutes to download a "near-DVD" video using a high-speed connection.
So why didn't it work? According to HP, the market for paid video downloads didn't perform as well as it had expected. I think Wal-Mart is having a tough time figuring out its online strategy. Does anyone remember "The Hub," the retailer's attempt at social networking? Shut down after 10 weeks, the site was supposed to be a place where teens could upload photos and videos and talk about Wal-Mart products.
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Posted
Jan 14 2008, 11:16 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The "softer side of Sears" no longer refers to its apparel merchandise, but to its sales and earnings history.
Citing difficult economic conditions and growing competition, the company warned that fourth-quarter sales and earnings would fall well shy of Wall Street estimates. Management now expects quarterly earnings of between $2.59 to $3.48 per share, a whopping 20% to 40% below the Street's consensus estimate. The stock responded by falling to its lowest level in three years.
It's a bit surprising to me that so many investors were surprised by the company's dismal quarter -- especially given that Sears issued an even bigger warning last quarter. The company has also had a history of underperforming expectations over the past several years. Let's face it, the Lampert experiment has been a total bust. You can prop up numbers only so long by cutting costs and repurchasing shares -- at some point you have to improve the core business and Lampert, chairman and architect of the merger with Kmart, never had the retailing experience necessary to get the job done.
The idea of merging two struggling retailers in hopes of creating a thriving one was doomed from the start -- especially since management was more concerned with pleasing Wall Street analysts than store customers. The folks on Wall Street might not be the brightest bunch in the world, but even they are beginning to realize that Lampert's financial razzle dazzle hasn't done anything to make Sears or Kmart more relevant to shoppers.
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Posted
Jan 28 2008, 06:01 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Trust Nick at Punny Money to come up with an alternative, "much more awesome" economic stimulus plan. After all, this is the guy who refers to the Fed as "aka Kevin Federline." Nick says the plan to give people tax rebates won't work for three reasons, including this one: "Writing checks to stupid people is stupid. I promise you that 90% of the money issued by this tax rebate plan will go straight to drugs, booze and hookers. And that's just my share!" So what is the government to do?
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Posted
Feb 25 2008, 02:44 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
What is probably the most-hated corporation in the United States is poised to become its private-sector savior.
Wal-Mart rang up monster sales last quarter as cash-strapped American consumers flocked to its stores for its famous "everyday low prices." Profit rose 4% to $4.1 billion as consumers redeemed holiday gift cards for basic necessitates like groceries and toilet paper. The company's stunning earnings report shows that during a holiday season in which its rivals faltered, Wal-Mart won by going on a price-slashing rampage, marking down more than 15,000 items by up to 30%.
This is how Wal-Mart will help the average American: By stretching the purchasing power of their dollars. While the Federal Reserve frantically stimulates the economy with liquidity injections and interest rate cuts, the dollar remain weak. This stokes inflation. And of course, continued economic growth in developing countries only adds to the pressure on food and fuel prices.
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Posted
Feb 27 2008, 06:53 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Apple's iTunes store has surpassed Best Buy to become the #2 music retailer in the country, second only to Wal-Mart in sales. And an analyst from the NPD Group, which tracks these sorts of things, said that Apple is on track to catch Wal-Mart this year. Apple shares dipped less than a percentage point yesterday to close at $119.15. Best Buy shares rose 3% to $46.50, and Wal-Mart shares rose 2% to $51.40.
This news says much about the way we consume music. NPD notes that 1 million people stopped buying CDs last year, a trend most apparent in young people. In 2007, 48% of teens didn't buy a single CD -- up from 38% in 2006. So retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target -- who mainly sell physical CDs -- are going to see music sales slide. But what does the news say about Apple? Is the rise to No. 2 a result of its own sales savvy, or is iTunes the lucky beneficiary of the CD's decline? A closer look at the numbers sheds a little more light.
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Posted
Mar 03 2008, 11:50 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What will be the "Wal-Mart effect" on health care as the retail behemoth proceeds with plans to open walk-in clinics in hundreds of its stores? A post by Jessica Hupp at RNCentral.com describes 20 possible impacts -- and most are positive. Consider this: Isn't it likely that health care costs will come down as other providers try to compete with Wal-Mart's lower prices?
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