When reading a post with a keyboard, you can type the keys , and . to move backwards and forward between posts! You can also press 'return' to read through posts one at a time. There's freedom in Shrewd'm!
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 6
No. of Recommendations: 3
No. of Recommendations: 4
Need to hope that this works like an Economist cover :(
Similarly, JPM issued a downgrade this morning, after a 55% sell-off in share price this year
As an aside, I noticed that DG aint the only struggling retailer
Big lots down 74% over the last year
Target down 27
Macy 36
Foot locker 54%
No. of Recommendations: 6
No. of Recommendations: 6
My one and only experience with a Dollar General was the one I entered in Cedaredge, Colorado last summer. Bought a large bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and a 16 oz Mountain Dew. Tells you something about my diet.
My experience echoes the issues raised in the article... product in boxes on floor, in some case blocking access to items on the shelves. There was one employee charged with stocking shelves and manning the cash register. Seemingly not performing either role very well. When I entered the store there was no one at the cash register. Wandered the aisles to find the lone employee. Asked him - twenty something male - how long he had worked there. He said replied "a couple of weeks". Did he like the job? "It's OK until I find something else".
Munger speaks about Costco's virtuous cycle of happy customers, employees and shareholders. Not sure DG has any of these characteristics.
No. of Recommendations: 13
Cramer just said "I would not own this".
So...buy buy buy!
No. of Recommendations: 2
No. of Recommendations: 7
Many of the issues affecting/afflicting DG are issues that many companies are facing today. We own a small manufacturing business and while staffing has always been a top concern, it has become doubly or triply so in recent years.
More than one hundred years ago folks like Frederick Taylor worked to develop more efficient production plants. Forty years ago we had mass adoption of bar coding. Today we likely have countless innovators at work ranging from Amazon to surely some garage level start-ups working on ways to solve retail's stocking and shrinkage issues. While I cannot speak for DG's management, it would be reasonable to assume they have multiple efforts underway to solve their labor, store environment and related short-comings. Paying folks more money to attract and keep talent is one of the steps. Other possible steps may involve reducing SKUs, changing racking systems, having smarter rear exit doors so they do not need blocking to prevent shrinkage (maybe a sensor coupled to a camera that identifies everyone who leaves via that door or perhaps a smart locking mechanism that is tied to either a employee handprint and the store's smoke detectors or some other neat innovation that continues to meet fire codes) and who knows what else.
All these issues being raised seemingly everywhere in retail is screaming out opportunities. What we on this board need to be asking is: are there public companies poised to profit from helping retail jump over these hurdles?
I see problems of all sorts being solved at the local/site level through innovation in physical organization, new technologies, new employment arrangements, new coalition arrangements (outsourcing and other collaborations), and lots more stuff than cannot be envisioned that will be arriving out of the mists.
Uwharrie
No. of Recommendations: 6
I'm wishing there was an "ignore thread" option for the DG related posts. Does this option exist on our new board?
No. of Recommendations: 3
There may be other options, but one way to cut out the clutter is to use the "Threaded" view, as opposed to the "Unthreaded". Collapse all threads with DG in the title, and the problem is less noticeable.
I think the larger point -- that the DG discussion has drowned out the BRK specific analysis, and is usually better suited for the DG Board -- to be a good one (and one gently recommended by Manlobbi), but if you're also looking for a practical fix, that's how I handle it.
No. of Recommendations: 2
It's the economy, stupid.
m
