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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Amazon Gets All Dressed Up

Aired October 30, 2002 - 09:23   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It is cold out there this morning. So it not only looks like the holiday shopping season is here, it feels like it, but at nation malls, I guess you can't really feel the temperatures. It's always pretty consistent in there, but making it worse, because more people could be doing their gift shopping from the comfort of their own PC?
Andy Serwer is here. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Paula.

Yes, a lot of stuff is happening. Consumer confidence numbers down sharply yesterday and also chain store sales down. What is that suggesting? It's suggesting that it might not be a great shopping season for the nation's retailers. The stock market held up pretty well, but, you know, consumers are wary. They're worried. One thing bothering them still, CEOs not telling the truth. The story about the Bausch & Lomb CEO John Zarella.

ZAHN: This is amazing. What's this guy do? He lied on his resume?

SERWER: He lied on his resume. He said he got an MBA from New York University, and it turns out he didn't. He went to New York University, but he never got an MBA. Yesterday, the company affirmed they would keep this guy on. He gets to keep his job, which is surprising in this environment. He loses his bonus for the year, but still has a salary of a couple of million dollars. Consumers see that, and they see the economy shaky, and they're really not in the mood to go out there and shop.

ZAHN: This guy had a resume strong enough, he didn't really need to pad it, right?

SERWER: I think so, absolutely.

ZAHN: He was a successful guy.

SERWER: Right. He's had a pretty good track record. One reason why I think they're keeping him on, Bausch & Lomb's stock holding up pretty well, only down 6 percent this year, while the overall market is down three times as much. So doing a pretty good job, and I think the company just said, we'll keep you on, but not so great.

ZAHN: So let's talk about the folks who are freezing outside who might be better off ordering stuff from home. There is a huge trend of people buying stuff online. SERWER: Right, online shopping continues to grow , although it is starting to top off a little bit. It will pick up again as we get more towards Christmas. The big news today, though is amazon.com is opening up an online clothing mall for the Christmas holiday. So now you can buy clothes at Amazon. Here are some of the stores they'll be linking you to, so they have a little mall there, the Gap, Old Navy, Sears, Lands' End, which is owned by Sears now, and Nordstrom.

Why are they getting into this? Because clothing online, the business is going up, up, up. Last year $4.4 billion, this year expected to climb to $5.2 billion, and that's a lot of money. So Jeff Bezos at Amazon says, we need a piece of that pie.

And I don't know, Paula, if you've ever bought clothes online and...

ZAHN: Yes, and I've usually had to send them back. I usually get the right charges, they give you the measurement charts, and you do the best you can.

SERWER: This is the thing, groceries online, clothes online, you have to feel in touch. I bought shoes online -- I had to send them back. I think some things online as far as clothes work, like coats, but you know, getting shirts that really fit, pants, I don't know if that's ever really going to be a huge business.

ZAHN: It doesn't sound like the malls will be too crowded, so I guess you can go probably head to the mall and buy it there.

SERWER: Thanks, Andy. Take care.

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 October 30, 2002 - 09:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It is cold out there this morning. So it not only looks like the holiday shopping season is here, it feels like it, but at nation malls, I guess you can't really feel the temperatures. It's always pretty consistent in there, but making it worse, because more people could be doing their gift shopping from the comfort of their own PC?
Andy Serwer is here. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Paula.

Yes, a lot of stuff is happening. Consumer confidence numbers down sharply yesterday and also chain store sales down. What is that suggesting? It's suggesting that it might not be a great shopping season for the nation's retailers. The stock market held up pretty well, but, you know, consumers are wary. They're worried. One thing bothering them still, CEOs not telling the truth. The story about the Bausch & Lomb CEO John Zarella.

ZAHN: This is amazing. What's this guy do? He lied on his resume?

SERWER: He lied on his resume. He said he got an MBA from New York University, and it turns out he didn't. He went to New York University, but he never got an MBA. Yesterday, the company affirmed they would keep this guy on. He gets to keep his job, which is surprising in this environment. He loses his bonus for the year, but still has a salary of a couple of million dollars. Consumers see that, and they see the economy shaky, and they're really not in the mood to go out there and shop.

ZAHN: This guy had a resume strong enough, he didn't really need to pad it, right?

SERWER: I think so, absolutely.

ZAHN: He was a successful guy.

SERWER: Right. He's had a pretty good track record. One reason why I think they're keeping him on, Bausch & Lomb's stock holding up pretty well, only down 6 percent this year, while the overall market is down three times as much. So doing a pretty good job, and I think the company just said, we'll keep you on, but not so great.

ZAHN: So let's talk about the folks who are freezing outside who might be better off ordering stuff from home. There is a huge trend of people buying stuff online. SERWER: Right, online shopping continues to grow , although it is starting to top off a little bit. It will pick up again as we get more towards Christmas. The big news today, though is amazon.com is opening up an online clothing mall for the Christmas holiday. So now you can buy clothes at Amazon. Here are some of the stores they'll be linking you to, so they have a little mall there, the Gap, Old Navy, Sears, Lands' End, which is owned by Sears now, and Nordstrom.

Why are they getting into this? Because clothing online, the business is going up, up, up. Last year $4.4 billion, this year expected to climb to $5.2 billion, and that's a lot of money. So Jeff Bezos at Amazon says, we need a piece of that pie.

And I don't know, Paula, if you've ever bought clothes online and...

ZAHN: Yes, and I've usually had to send them back. I usually get the right charges, they give you the measurement charts, and you do the best you can.

SERWER: This is the thing, groceries online, clothes online, you have to feel in touch. I bought shoes online -- I had to send them back. I think some things online as far as clothes work, like coats, but you know, getting shirts that really fit, pants, I don't know if that's ever really going to be a huge business.

ZAHN: It doesn't sound like the malls will be too crowded, so I guess you can go probably head to the mall and buy it there.

SERWER: Thanks, Andy. Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com