"It's all going to be very Darwinian," Beth Buccini

[mikelewis]

Luxury prices are falling; the sky, too

There is nothing new about retailers cutting prices at holiday time, and the discounts have been especially deep in this recessionary year. But few in the luxury goods trade can recall a time when the price-slashing started so soon or was so severe. By cutting prices radically, Saks's chief merchant, Ron Frasch, turned his chain's flagship emporium into a swank Fifth Avenue version of a discount outlet, moving merchandise in volume and spooking the competition as it struggled to hold on to a traditional mark-down sequence, and even to continue selling certain brands at full price. Frasch declined to comment on his corporate game plan. "It's not a conversation I want to get into," he said.

"What I hear at every level of retail is that no one has ever experienced anything like this in their careers," said Ken Downing, the fashion director of Neiman Marcus. And, while Downing suggested that the 40 Neiman stores would not soon tumble to discount fever, much of their merchandise had already been marked down by 40 percent, a sure sign that the line on price reduction cannot be held by any single player in luxury goods.

Privately, most retailers admit to being frightened by the severity of the economic downturn and are looking not merely to save the current season but their commercial lives.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/04/style/04shopping.php


"It's all going to be very Darwinian,"
Beth Buccini Wins First Prize for Perfectly Hitting the Nail on the Head

[msongs]

1. "luxury" goods probably have the highest markup of all - snob appeal vs actual quality nt

[Waiting For Everyman]

2. That's why they should have some top management who are older.

Some people who HAVE been through some bad times before, and remember what to do from it, might be a thought.

[glitch]

3. Lots of people forget that Cooperation was a key element of Darwin's theory.

They love to focus on Competition, but that was only part of it.

I think Cooperation is going to make a big comeback in the coming years.