The Wall Street Transcript Announces Investment Opinion on the Specialty Retail Industry
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<) An in-depth roundtable forum featuring three prominent analysts: John Glass of BT Alex. Brown, Mark Mandel of ABN AMRO, and Amy Ryan of Prudential Securities. The panel discusses consumer spending trends, growth factors, comp store sales, overseas expansion, pricing, and Internet retailing. While consumers won't accept price increases, leading retailers in specific sectors have become dominant, and are wielding pricing pressure, and demands for inventory increases, logistical supports, and new products upon vendors. Mandel states, "Sector leading companies like Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) are gaining increasing leverage over their vendors/suppliers as they become larger and larger."
Because many segments are already duopolies, retailers are using acquisitions to address issues other than expansion or consolidation. Glass asserts, "As retailers are moving into non-retail segments, such as Staples into the office products group and perhaps Home Depot into the catalog business, for example, acquisitions are the way to go, and that's because these retailers lack experience in these areas. Plus, there's real brand value in the acquired names." > |
