Abercrombie has crash-landed

It tried to ride out the recession maintaining its high prices, an arrogant mindset that turned off its customers. Most other marketers were listening to customers and acting accordingly, some by lowering prices, others by adding value, offering money saving options and suggestions or reworking messaging to relay compassion to worried, cash-strapped customers.
abercrombie and fitch has crash-landed and is now trying to play catch up by lowering prices and introducing fashion trends it missed, like dresses. The company reported a second-quarter loss last week of $26.7 million, its third consecutive quarter showing double-digit sales declines. Sales dropped 23% to $648.5 million. Direct-to-consumer sales dropped 13% to $48.7 million. Employees are getting pink slips and the doors are being boarded up on its even higher-priced Ruehl chain.
CEO Mike Jeffries said, “We continued to be confronted with very challenging conditions during the second quarter. We believe we are doing the right things to address those challenges and improve our domestic business.”

The teen retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, frequented by preppy and status-conscious kids, has gone out of style. No matter how much it believed—and banked on—that kids would never, ever, ever abandon its stores filled with sexy clothes and half naked men, they did, and in record numbers.
Is it too late?
Many hollister clothing shoppers have turned their attention to Aeropostale and American Eagle Outfitters, two of the companies sweeping up the broken bits left by Abercrombie’s bad decisions.Even if kids still want to shop at its stores, parents are saying no. The glimmer of hope Ruehl No.925 may have seen of late—rising stocks and consumer confidence—has all but disappeared as stocks have slumped again on worries that consumers are still clinging to their wallets.Abercrombie’s recent financial report also suggested it has cut its marketing budget. Another bad move at a time when it should be letting its customers know it has finally come to its senses.

Abercrombie and Fitch is a stupid store

These violations included rat infested barracks (the places where the workers slept), locked fire exits (so that in case of a fire, the workers were trapped) and over 100 other health violations. Personally, i think that abercrombie is a stupid store, and it's not because i can't afford it, or am ugly, or whatever everyone who absolutely loves the store thinks. It's because of the products they sell (sexually oriented clothing, even for children) and the way they sell it (half naked models who are unhealthily thin). Plus, my sister and i both agree on this point, the stores I've always been in stink to high heaven.

Yet another American company that sells clothes that were made in a sweatshop overseas then turns around and sells the items for ridiculous amounts of money. Now, don't get me wrong. I know there are much more expensive stores out there and that they probably have sweatshops as well. However, Ruehl No.925 were sued in the 1990's for unsatisfactory working conditions in their sweatshops in Saipan, a US territory.

oh, and for all of you abercrombie lovers out there who claim that everyone who hates it is ugly, please go listen to yourself and decide if you actually sound like someone who others would care to listen to.Next time you put on that nice little minimum-material-required t-shirt from abercrombie and fitch, think about the kids that made that shirt making less than $1 dollar/hour. Yeah. have fun with that.

Abercrombie and Fitch and Winnebago

Here is a synopsis of why WGO and abercrombie outlet have a Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell) and should also most likely be sold or avoided for the next one to three months. Note that a #4 Sell rating is applied to 15% of all the stocks ranked by Zacks;
Winnebago Inc. (NYSE: WGO) is operating in what is considered to be one of the most highly elastic industries, and that has been a source of real pain for the company as domestic consumer discretionary spending has been severely dented by slumping housing prices and serious liquidity issues. The company's stock price has been in a steady decline for over a year, and there does not appear to be any end in sight for the slump. The company announced a series of layoffs in late January in order to curtail its overhead and squeeze some extra cash out of its margins. The company missed its number last quarter and the analyst community continues to downgrade their projections.
Ruehl No.925 (NYSE: ANF) is yet another company feeling the pain from curtailed consumer spending habits, due to numerous negative economic developments.
The company's share price has traded mostly sideways for the last 18 months, and is currently pressing the low-end of the previously mentioned range. Four of 20 covering analysts have lowered their current-year projections within the last 30 days. The consensus estimate now stands at $5.79 per share, down from the previous $6.00.
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About the Zacks Rank
Since 1988, the Zacks Rank has proven that "Earnings estimate revisions are the most powerful force impacting stock prices." Since inception in 1988, #1 Rank Stocks have generated an average annual return of 32.2%. During the 2000-2002 bear market, Zacks #1 Rank stocks gained 43.8%, while the S&P 500 tumbled -37.6%. Also note that the Zacks Rank system has just as many Strong Sell recommendations (Rank #5) as Strong Buy recommendations (Rank #1). Since 1988, Zacks Rank #5 stocks have underperformed the S&P 500 by 129% annually ( 5.3% vs. 12.1%). Thus, the Zacks Rank system allows investors to truly manage portfolio trading effectively.

Tiffany posts losses

US jewellery and silverware firm tiffany & Co has reported second-quarter and half-yearly that are down quite sharply on last year, but the group said it has seen some signs of a slowing in sales decline and even some sales growth.
In Europe, sales decreased 4pc to US$68.3m in the second quarter and 6pc to US$123.9m in the first half.The company, which operates 211 stores and boutiques worldwide, said it now expects a worldwide sales decline of approximately 10pc for the full year 2009."While economic and retail conditions remain challenging, we were encouraged to see many stores achieving either smaller year-over-year rates of sales declines or modest sales growth compared with the past two quarters,” said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer Tiffany uk, on the company’s results.
Kowalski said the group would be pursuing a “more modest pace “of store expansion this year, but still aims to increase the number of stores by about 6pc.
Net sales in the second quarter fell 16pc to US$612.5m, with worldwide net sales declining to 14pc and comparable store sales falling 16pc.Net sales across the first six months of the year fell 19pc to US$1.13bn.In the second quarter, net earnings from continuing operations were US$56.7m, or US$0.46 per diluted share, compared with US$82.6m, or US$0.64 per diluted share one year previous.
Group sales in the Americas suffered the most in the second quarter, falling 23pc to US$324.9m in the second quarter and by 27pc in the first half of the year to US$583.9mThe Asia-Pacific region saw sales perform more robustly, with sales falling just 1pc during the second quarter to US$211.9m. Sales growth in most countries in the region was offset by a decline in Japan, tiffany jewelllery uk said. Sales in the first half declined 5pc to US$413.4m.
“We believe the current environment provides opportunity for significant gains in market share and we remain excited about Tiffany's long-term prospects,” he said.