Expert: Retailers Have to Control Their Real Estate
For most, Black Friday is a frenzy of discounts and sales. But for brick-and-mortar retailers going up against Amazon.com, it's a challenge.
"Every department store is a high cost operator," founder of retail consulting and investment banking firm Davidowitz & Associates Howard Davidowitz says, calling them too big and too costly. "How the hell do they survive?"
Poor department stores and shopping malls should expect to continue to lose market share, he says, since too many stores are doing the same darn thing. "Walmart started e-commerce in '99," he says. "They should've killed [Amazon] in the cradle."
That goes for smaller retailers too. Oversupply—not to mention the flurry of online options—has got stores piling up overhead before inevitably closing up. "You've got to control your real estate," he says. [Bloomberg]
