LIZ. You might be right to be avoiding it. I have shares, and I'm concerned. Not that the stock is down. Historically the stock is trading at near a ten-year low on some measures, so as styles change, and with LIZ's diversity, I look for a reversion-to-mean, normally.
I just wonder if there's a shift going on among preteens/teenagers from clothes to communication.
My 12-year old niece is crying for an unlimited text-message service. Once her friends have it, she rightly feels she's excluded from her social group. She gets partial texting; it gets used up quickly though, and after that it's something like 10c a word (is that about right?) whether incoming or outgoing. She tells her friends to stop texting her, (her father complains to her about the add-up of those 10c charges), but they don't apparently. Anyway, unlimited texting for the family (Dad says what do mom and I need that for?) is about $40/mo. which the kid says she needs (to make her happy or regain or have status in her circle (a priority for most kids)). And then of course they all have to have their iPods and incur the fees that go with that.
$40/mo --- that's a lot of money to a lot of people. I suspect kids would rather have commo access now and just be satisfied with simple jeans and tops, if it come down to allocating monies. Not good for teen retailers, if that's so. |
