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Difficult Time For Retailers
Aired April 29, 2003 - 13:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's a good news/bad news day for Rhonda Schaffler, I think. Last we told you, consumer confidence is up. But if you're a retailer, you're having a hard time -- many of them fighting to stay in business, Eddie Bauer among them in bankruptcy having to close down a bunch of stores.
Here's Rhonda.
We can't make heads nor tails out of this. What's going on?
RHONDA SCHLAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's still a tough environment out there for retailers. And remember, retailers sort of have their own stories out there.
Some people think we got overmalled -- depending on who you talk to -- that there's a lot of retail stores out there, and you don't have enough consumers out there who are buying enough to support all them.
So that's why we still see this shakeout in the retail industry from time to time. And we've got that today. The Eddie Bauer chain, which is known for that outdoor image, is having some tough times at this point. It's got to close 60 stores. That comes down to about 10 percent.
Its parent is Spiegel. That's the catalog company. It's been trying to reorganize operations under bankruptcy protection.
Stores will remain open until a bankruptcy court gives the okay to the retailer's plan. Spiegel filed for Chapter 11 protection in March. Says it is cooperating with a federal investigation into its accounting practices.
It's business as usual, though, for the catalogs. About one- fourth of Eddie Bauer sales come from catalogs and the Internet.
Also an interesting story involving Wal-mart today. Lawyers suing Wal-mart say male managers made their female counterparts attend meetings at strip clubs and at the restaurant chain Hooters.
The allegations were made in documents filed yesterday. They detailed more than 100 complaints by women who work for Wal-mart, the nation's largest private employer. It's all part of a two-year-old lawsuit against the company. A hearing is set for July. Attorneys for the women want to elevate that suit into a nationwide, class action, sex discrimination case. As far as what's going on here on Wall Street, early gains that we saw after those consumer confidence numbers released surrendering here. Stocks pretty much unchanged. The Dow weak now by 11 points. And that's despite the fact there's some decent earnings news out there today.
Dupont Princeton did pretty well, coming in with better than expected results. Nasdaq, too, has given back some of those strong early gains to trade right around the unchanged level.
Those are the very latest business headlines. Back to you -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Rhonda Schaffler telling us consumers have been overmalled. That's M-A-L-L-E-D, not M-A-U-L-E-D.
SCHLAFFLER: That's correct. I'm not even going to try and spell it.
O'BRIEN: Good to see you. Check in with you later. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 29, 2003 - 13:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's a good news/bad news day for Rhonda Schaffler, I think. Last we told you, consumer confidence is up. But if you're a retailer, you're having a hard time -- many of them fighting to stay in business, Eddie Bauer among them in bankruptcy having to close down a bunch of stores.
Here's Rhonda.
We can't make heads nor tails out of this. What's going on?
RHONDA SCHLAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's still a tough environment out there for retailers. And remember, retailers sort of have their own stories out there.
Some people think we got overmalled -- depending on who you talk to -- that there's a lot of retail stores out there, and you don't have enough consumers out there who are buying enough to support all them.
So that's why we still see this shakeout in the retail industry from time to time. And we've got that today. The Eddie Bauer chain, which is known for that outdoor image, is having some tough times at this point. It's got to close 60 stores. That comes down to about 10 percent.
Its parent is Spiegel. That's the catalog company. It's been trying to reorganize operations under bankruptcy protection.
Stores will remain open until a bankruptcy court gives the okay to the retailer's plan. Spiegel filed for Chapter 11 protection in March. Says it is cooperating with a federal investigation into its accounting practices.
It's business as usual, though, for the catalogs. About one- fourth of Eddie Bauer sales come from catalogs and the Internet.
Also an interesting story involving Wal-mart today. Lawyers suing Wal-mart say male managers made their female counterparts attend meetings at strip clubs and at the restaurant chain Hooters.
The allegations were made in documents filed yesterday. They detailed more than 100 complaints by women who work for Wal-mart, the nation's largest private employer. It's all part of a two-year-old lawsuit against the company. A hearing is set for July. Attorneys for the women want to elevate that suit into a nationwide, class action, sex discrimination case. As far as what's going on here on Wall Street, early gains that we saw after those consumer confidence numbers released surrendering here. Stocks pretty much unchanged. The Dow weak now by 11 points. And that's despite the fact there's some decent earnings news out there today.
Dupont Princeton did pretty well, coming in with better than expected results. Nasdaq, too, has given back some of those strong early gains to trade right around the unchanged level.
Those are the very latest business headlines. Back to you -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Rhonda Schaffler telling us consumers have been overmalled. That's M-A-L-L-E-D, not M-A-U-L-E-D.
SCHLAFFLER: That's correct. I'm not even going to try and spell it.
O'BRIEN: Good to see you. Check in with you later. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
