Word: stores
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Consider recent apartment buyer Hong Chang-Ying, who owns and runs a small electronics store in central Shanghai. She bought her apartment in Shanghai three years ago for the equivalent of about $80,000, and was "sure she could sell it by now at a profit, and buy a bigger place." Ask her if that plan still holds, and she just laughs. "I have no idea now what my place is worth now - and I don't intend to find out, because I'm not going to sell into this market." China may not confront the disastrous effect that huge...
...While Walmart, the largest company in the world, has always dwarfed rival Target ($406 billion in annual revenues vs. Target's $65 billion), until recently Target had been decisively winning the growth game. From 2003 to 2007, Target's annual same-store sales growth averaged 4.6%, while Walmart's clocked in at 2.9%. Over the same period, Target's annual profit growth averaged 16%, while Walmart lagged behind at 10.3%. "Target was frying Walmart's brains out," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail investment-banking and consulting firm...
...onset of the recession, however, Target and Walmart saw their fortunes flip. Target's same-store sales have fallen for eight straight months; Walmart's have risen for 22 straight months. Target's 2008 same-store sales fell 2.6%, while Walmart's rose 3.3%. More recently, Target's February sales dropped 4.1%, while Walmart enjoyed a 5.1% jump. (See the best business deals...
...Despite these efforts, Target's transformation won't guarantee success. It's hard for a retailer to shake its reputation as a clothing outlet, while at the same time quickly mastering the management of perishable grocery items. "You can't just flip the switch and change the store overnight," says David Heupel, a senior equity portfolio manager at Thirvent Financial in Minneapolis. Plus, if Target drops grocery prices below Walmart's levels, the big boy will quickly respond. "There's no reason to put a stick in the bear's eye," says Ed Weller, a retail analyst at ThinkEquity Partners...
...massive outlet that peddles cheap wares; it has focused on food for a long time, and is really hitting a stride during the recession. "Walmart works hard to build a strategy around groceries," says ARG's Beemer. "They look at groceries as a way to get people in the store for the first time. Target sees it as an add-on sale." In a research note titled "It's Walmart's Time & Investors' Opportunity," Deutsche Bank analyst Bill Dreher Jr. wrote, "Bottom line, Walmart is executing flawlessly...