Warren Shoulberg

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The Penney Post-Partum Predicament

With the return of Mike Ullman, the birthing process has once again taken hold at JC Penney and retailing from Plano to the Plains and from coast to coast is about to get reborn again.Certainly the RonJon dividend that stores like Macy's and Bed Bath and TJX cashed in is now null and void as Ullman tries to bring back the not-so-glory days of Penney...which would still represent an improvement ove... More

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1,000 Count

Sadly, this is not a story about thread count. Sadly, the 1,000 count is about the number of people - actually some 1,100 - killed in the apparel factory building collapse in Bangladesh a few weeks ago. And sadly, this is about the utter and near total failure of apparel and soft home importers in the United States and the rest of the Western world to act decisively, properly and morally to addres... More

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Leadership

Say what you want about the bad old mill days in the home textiles business - and they sure had their bad parts - but there were also some good things about the way the industry functioned then.With several very large, very powerful and very dominant companies controlling the sheet and towel business, you had what amounted to a benevolent dictatorship in home textiles. Those giant mills - West Poi... More

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Home (Very) Goods

They opened a new Home Goods store down the road from me last week.You'd think it was the second coming of Sam Walton, R.H. Macy and Sol Price rolled into one.The store was jammed on opening Saturday with shoppers lined up at the cash registers, eagerly waiting to hand over a piece of their disposable incomes. And all without the benefit of grand opening coupons, klieg lights or skywriting.Of cour... More

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Ron Johnson Wasn't Wrong...

But that doesn't mean he was right, either.Say whatever you want about Johnson's failed attempt to reinvent JC Penney. And it doesn't matter whether you thought he was a brilliant visionary or an empty sweater who was in way over his head, Johnson's basic premise was absolutely correct: The Penney Company was a broken, dysfunctional and declining retail business that was headed for the mall scrap... More