I was in Nordstrom's last week, on a Saturday afternoon about 3pm. I found a parking spot five cars from the main door (and had a choice of the sixth, seventh, and ... spots as well). You could have shot a cannon off in the third floor and not hurt anyone.
I was at Best Buy on Friday this week, me and fifteen staff. I found the TV I wanted -- $250 cheaper than the cheapest we found the week before, which itself was $800 off the "list price" (altho Sony had dropped its price $400 midweek). When I asked about a DVD player, they "threw in" the DVD and the 5-1 surround speaker set for another $50, ostensibly a $500 value. I took the deal. Then, they wanted $399 for the articulated arm to allow the set to move for better viewing, and $139 x 3 for the special cables that allow HD connections. None of these are discounted.
I objected, and said "why don't you give away the TVs and just become an accessory seller". The clerk laughed and said, 'don't you buy HP printers?' I recalled the time Kevin Kelly and I consulted for some unnamed Japanese manufacturer and said they should give away three big-screen TVs to every household in return for a $100/mo content delivery fee (ala the I-phones). They thought us daft, but even then (3 years ago) they knew that they could build a 52" set for $500 cost.
Margins are not what they used to be. Nor is the world.
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Today's Wall Street Journal carried a story about Waterford Crystal (now merged with Wedgwood China and Royal Doulton) is in default, and going bankrupt. And Borders Books is in trouble too.
Hardly the stuff of Wall Street meltdown and Detroit woes, but iconic in their own sphere for awhile (a long while in crystal and china).
And a German billionaire has just committed suicide, after speculating in VW shares -- not quite a Maloff story, but big. Buried inside the same issue though is a note mostly missed -- the two auto makers with the best year-over-year sales in America in December were VW (w Audi), down only 12% (vs. 37% for BMW, Toyota and all of the big 3), and Ferrari, down only 3% for the year, and 19% for December. ???
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