Sunday night OT rant re. Nike.
At my local Nike store 10:30 am today. Busy as expected with holiday shoppers/buyers. Not as busy as I would've expected, but it was a few minutes after store opening. Large selection of clothes I hadn't seen couple months back.
Tried to buy a gift card. They were out of them. Never said come back early next week we will have more. How can this be? You can tell me you're out of a particular shoe because your Vietnamese/Chinese aren't making them now, but how can you be out of a piece of plastic? You can't call the next Nike store nearby for temporary resupply? Are they out too? You can't call HQ and Fedex more to stores? Management, are you sleeping? Christmas isn't here yet.
Gift certificates -- so easily good sales. You get to gift somebody who wants to buy the product, and who wil buy it, AND you also get to have people who don't necessarily want Nike stuff to also buy Nike. As in, I don't know what my young niece wants, but if I get her a Nike gift card, she can choose from among clothes, footwear. Nike is socially acceptable for a gift, and I would be off the hook for a Christmas present.
Indifferent and/or ineffective management.
Implication I have: I would like to believe management at least anticipated some good sales, and gift cards really don't necessitate bulking up inventory for Christmas. A lot of people must want Nike stuff, if they've run out of gift cards. Maybe Nike mgmt will eventually wake up to the business that's in front of them.
I hope somebody at headquarters or an activist investor eventually will. I will up my tracking position a few more shares tomorrow a.m. |
