The Stalwart

Organic Vegetable Monopolies & Snack Food Vitamins

In regards to the Whole Foods/ Wild Oats merger. Won't burden you with a tirade here. But this is hilarious:

FTC lawyer Matthew Reilly told Friedman he could impose a range of remedies, and that because a lack of competition in the premium natural and organic groceries is harming consumers, the agency wants to stop further integration and impose a hold separate for the Wild Oats assets that its new owner hasn't absorbed.

Hard to see how premium natural and organic groceries are some sort of opportunity for an invincible monopoly. I got another good one, two in the same day. In regards to Diet Coke Plus:

The FDA said the soft drink, Diet Coke Plus, doesn't contain enough nutrients to qualify for use of the word "plus." Foods may use that name only if they contain at least 10% more of the reference daily intake or daily reference value of a nutrient than a similar product. The FDA also invoked a longstanding rule under which it "does not consider it appropriate" to fortify snack foods such as carbonated beverages.

I'm actually a bit moderate and not too perturbed by the requirement for 10% additional vitamins in order to qualify for "Plus". But nevertheless, I had a good laugh whereby a company is told not to add vitamins and minerals to a product. I think diet coke with vitamins sounds like a pretty good drink. What's another good idea, but one I haven't seen yet? Coffee with vitamins and minerals. Hopefully that is allowed. Would make for a pretty good start to the day. Anyhow.

(Vincent)

Zouch!

WSJ: Mr. Lamper, Fire Thyself:

Another dismal quarter shows that Sears Holdings' strategy is failing. The retailer's stock has fallen 36% in the past year. Rivals are eating its lunch. And it missed out on reaping potential gains from the credit and property booms. As Sears's top shareholder, activist investor Edward Lampert should fire the chairman and architect of this woeful strategy -- himself.

Pinkberry Got The AmEx Plum Card....

But Red Mango got $12 million. That's right: The Next Gen Frozen Yogurt (aka FroYo, aka Froze Yogurt 2.0) wars are heating up. You've got so many companies all offering delicious, semi-sweetened frozen yogurt. They all beat the pants off of late 80s hero TCBY... but can they all survive. Of course here in North Brooklyn we've got Eks (Yelp), which is fairly delicious.

Anyway, Red Mango:

Red Mango, the wildly popular authentic frozen yogurt concept that has become one of the most exciting new franchises in the United States, today announced a $12 million Series A investment led by veteran retail executive John Antioco, and CIC Partners, a leading private equity firm based in Dallas, Texas. Red Mango will use this investment to further develop its brand, optimize its store concept and complete its world-class management team.

More details in the full release.

What A Long Week

It's hard to believe that Blockbuster's bid for Circuit City was just earlier this week. It seems forever ago, especially since the news seems to have receded so deeply into the back of my consciousness already. I like Oligopoly Watch's take:

Movie rental chain Blockbuster added some comedy to the business pages this week by making a $1.35 billion unsolicited bid for consumer electronics chain Circuit City. They are kidding, aren't they?

The real difficulty is deciding which company is more likely to go belly up first. But, even forgetting that, there is not even a whiff of synergy between the two companies. There is some talk of setting up Blockbuster kiosks in Circuit Cities, but the problem is that 1) people are not going into Circuit City stores very much; 2) they certainly aren't likely to drop in every week to pick up a movie; and 3) while Blockbuster stores are in easy-in, easy-out strip malls, Circuit City stores are in large shopping centers with a long walk in and out of the store. The other thought is that maybe Blockbuster could sell electronics on the side. Wrong, the company tried that a decade ago and it failed miserably.

I also enjoy Om's take quite a bit, as it most closely align with my own thoughts, having listened through the conference call:

So, Blockbuster’s genius CEO, Jim Keyes, wants to combine his struggling retail giant with Circuit City. WHY? It’s the kind of deal you can only justify if you’re coming off a major spring break bender.

The first word (honestly) that came to my mind after the conference call: Mushrooms. I kid you not.

Here's a little business advice for all the captains of corporate America courtesy of The 'Wart. Nobody believes you when you try to sound like visionaries. When you announce a major acquisition, don't try to sound like geniuses. Stick to brass tacks, like cost savings and footprint redundancies. Don't talk about some new retail paradigm nonsense. Nobody's going to believe it. Even Steve Jobs doesn't do that. He rolls out the product and lets everyone else talk about paradigms.

Oh, and especially if you're the CEO of Blockbuster. Don't try to sound like a visionary.

I Find This Hard To Believe

The Volokh Conspiracy

Starbucks allows its customers to purchase somewhat customized Starbucks cards. As David Boaz reports, it's okay to get a card emblazoned with the slogan "People not Profits" or "Si Se Puede," but not "Laissez Faire." The former is just fine, but Starbucks finds the latter to be "inappropriate."

That Wal-Mart Blog

I wrote about this last week at Dealbreaker, but I've increasingly been keen on the Wal-Mart blog Checkoutblog, written by a handful of Wal-Mart buyers. It's actually, well, a worthy read, which is pretty rare for a corporate blog (my basic view is that most shouldn't bother trying). But, looks like the world's catching onto this one, because now the NYT is talking about it:

Microsoft is one of Wal-Mart’s biggest suppliers. But that did not stop the Wal-Mart employee in charge of buying computers from panning Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista.

     

“Is it really all that and a bag of chips?” he wrote on his blog. “My life has not changed dramatically — well, for that matter, it hasn’t changed at all.”

His public burst of candor was not isolated. On the same blog, a video game buyer for Wal-Mart slammed a “Star Wars” film as a “debacle” even though Wal-Mart still sells the movie.

The blog is only a couple months old, but I think the reason it got on everyone's radar screen is  because that's where the company broke the news that it was going Blu-ray only, delivering the decisive final blow against HD-DVD. I don't think anyone, myself included, had really heard of it before that. Anyway, I'm glad I wrote that thing at the above link, just so I can have proof that I was into the Wal-Mart blog before the NYT wrote about it... a rare moment of being ahead, culturally, of the Old Gray Lady (and yes, I realize that there's been a lot of NYTblogging here lately. Not sure what's up with that).

Nike Hunting in the City

I mentioned previously that I'm a bit of a sneaker collector. Not at all like the kids who waited three days in the cold for a pair of Jordans, but I do like a good pair of collector Nikes. It's probably the only thing I have a modest collection of. Anyway, I had a good friend in town this weekend and plenty of time to kill, so we did a sneaker tour of the city. Started off at the sneaker boutiques around the Lower East Side, went to Alife Rivington Club, which buzzes everyone in and keeps several of its pairs behind a glass case.

It was when we were leaving there that the light went off in my head: what were we doing in Manhattan, when we were just four train stops away from the Fulton St. Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, aka Valhalla for sneakers? Every store down there has sneakers, mainly Nikes -- more varieties of Nikes than you'd ever imagine. It can't really be described. You just have to experience it.

Anyway, I ended up with the pair seen above, which I scored for $39.99. Not bad. What's crazy though is that at one of the fancy places in Manhattan, they were $180. And actually, a few places in Brooklyn had them for between $80-$100. Why is there such a big difference in prices? I'm not sure. Obviously, part of what you're paying for in Manhattan is the fact that the sneaker boutiques only carry premium pairs, so your paying for their curation, which has value. Going down to Downtown Brooklyn is a bit of adventure, as you have to wade through countless more pairs and going into about 20 different shops before you find the perfect pair. What's less understandable is why there's  such different pricing at stores that are right next door to each other.

Anyway, while down there, I asked the lady ringing me up how business was these days. You know, I'm always curious about the health of the US consumer. The answer: shoes are flying off the shelves lately. The reason: tax return season.

By the way, I think I know which shoe store the above picture was taken in. It's on Lafayette St., just north of Houston.

(pic via Kix and the City)

Jordan Vs. iPod

Yesterday when I was in Manhattan, I walked by the NBA store and saw a line outside. I knew right away that the kids must be waiting on some new sneaker (probably a new Jordan), because this isn't a particularly rare site. It's pretty common to see a line outside of a specialty sneaker shop on the day (or even the eve) of a big shoe release.

And being a bit of a Nike fanboy myself, I stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes. Yes, they were waiting on a new Jordan, that was coming out... Friday. This was Wednesday. And the front two had actually been there since the night before. And it's damn cold out. At night, it's probably been in the mid-teens. They were obviously seasoned pros at this, though. The one in front, who claimed to have between 500-600 pairs of Jordans, had a sleeping bag that was probably designed for arctic travelers, not sneaker freaks. By the way, the sign, in case you can't read it, says "Camping for Sneakers, Do Not Disturb." The do not disturb wasn't directed at passers-by. They were all happy to talk. Instead I think it was intended for cops who might come upon them in the middle of the night and assume they're vagrants.

Anyway, at this particular location, they're only going to have 23 pairs and there will only be 529 (get it?) in the entire US. And of course, the shoes will cost $230. But that's not really the price, cause it's $230 plus three days in the cold. In fact, one guy in the line told me he'd already been offered $250 for his spot and the same person said they'd pay him $500 for his spot on the morning of the shoe's release. He hadn't decided yet whether to take up the offer, but it's still a useful data point. A few nights in the freezing cold waiting for a shoe is evidently worth about $500.

As for the shoe, well... let's just say it's not the prettiest pair of Jordans. Here's a pic. It's also not the ugliest pair, either. On the other hand, these are beautiful, though I have no idea whether this particular pair are fakes or if the listed price is realistic.

And it occurred to me that these kids have waaaay more dedication to Jordans than those people who waited in line for the iPhone had. Sure they waited for a long time, but that was in June.

The Hydrox Cookie Is Gone

The Hydrox cookie. It's name always seemed so perversely, but brilliantly clinical. Absolutely nothing appetizing about it at all. So in your face about that too. Not being a child, I don't eat cookies, but I was amused by this WSJ about the death of the Hydrox cookie and its fans on the internet trying to bring it back.

Clorox's Bees

NYT has an interesting article about Clorox's recent acquisition of Burt's Bees, the sorta hippy producer of natural cosmetics.

The story has shades of Ben & Jerry's sale to Unilever, which seemed similarly incongruous. Ben & Jerry's was in Vermont; Burt's Bees got its start it Maine. And both were started by a quirky pair of folks. Interestingly, the pair behind Burt's Bees, who were once a couple, had a falling out several years back. So the actual Burt has made a sliver of the money made by his partner, Roxanne Quimby, who bought him out. IIRC, Ben and Jerry had disputes too, but it was mainly that one of them liked chunky-style ice cream and other preferred smooth. That's not a joke; that's what I heard from someone close to the company a while back.