Airborne Handcart M3A4

Dang....nice barn find!

Yeah! Nice find!    



What is it?

I'm in retail - clothing.

We're off probably about 4-5% from last year. In our segment of the retail market, we are doing as good as anyone is. Gap is reportedly off 30%. Goody's 20%.

We were knocking 'em dead prior to Sept 11, and even managed postive comp store sales thru Oct.

But then things REALLY went dead. But still, compared to others, we are getting by.

Kemet (tech manf.) just had a layoff of 600. So I think your woes are being felt by everyone.

Suggestion: Don't read WSJ (Wall Street Jouranl) Its depressing.

However, many sources are presicting an upswing for Spring / Summer 2002. So mang in there.

How's reserves going? or are you active???

You could say that I'm in distribution. UPS traffic has been busy but everything else seems to be slow.  

I am so busy I can't keep up!!
Since Sept I have been going strong but Christmas is really looking good.
I guess local competion should have followed my lead and priced stuff were it will sell.
With the Internet the way it is if you own a small business you better be competive on price or folks will order online.

My wife owned her own store for years.  She closed it this past summer due to health reasons and so I could change jobs and cities.

Her whole family has been in retail for some years now.

After her 20 years of experience she has sworn it off.

She keeps saying she should write a book..

" Why Retail will make you HATE PEOPLE"

I'm not in retail at the moment but have spent many years in that and allied businesses.

Forgetting what's going on in the rest of the country for a moment and respectful I suggest so should you.  What matters is what you're doing where you are under the local conditions that drive your market.  Of course I agree there are times when national/international events  produce "macro"  national events that will affect most of the nation (Recession for Example - 2.9% unemployment for another.) But, you can't do crap about those - and anyway a pretty good percentage of the time, retail like politics, is mostly local.

Looks as if from a financial management stand point you don't have a clue as to what poor management is about.  You were so dumb you took your excess cash-flow from the 9/11 bubble and pre-paid some bills - probably got some discounts too for early-pay. (Not to mention the penalties avoided that would be due from late-payment caused by "poor" cash management.)

Although you don't specifically state this as a fact, by reading betwen a couple of lines it seems to me that you've already adjusted your inventory to meet the new projected sales estimates.

With proper cash managemnet obvious and inventory almost certainly "managed" from this very distant location I would suggest that you take a 7th look at your ad budget as well as ad content.

Also you need to get on the phone and find three or four folks whose business isn't doing worth a crap and all of you together chant "Whoa, whoa, whoa (Or is it woe, woe, woe) is me while all of you ring your hands.  Or I guess you could continue to explore alternative marketing channels such as ebay and continue on to the internet as a whole.  (Course such actions only serve to bring ever closer to being guilty of being a business man/woman.)

If you were actually stupid enough to pay me to consult I would also be thinking about a couple more things:
1)  I'm gonna go out on a short-limb and predict a good January 2002.
2)  Have enough inventory - cain't nobody sell out of that proverbial "empty wagon."

(That'll be $.25 -  by check if you please.)

I am a independent rep up here in Michigan selling to the chain stores. As a rep if sales are down 10% I lose 10% commissions. Not the end of the world. What hurt was my big customer cut back on inventory in mid summer which really hurt commissions. Every retailer up here though is upbeat about next year, We'll see.

I humbly apologize for the above "too lengthy" post but I haven't had the opportunity to write a quick "down-and-dirty" for several months.
Took this opportunity.

I'm gonna let it ride and collect the interest !
[:D]