Since84
Moderator
To infinity and beyond!
Posts: 3,933
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Post by Since84 on Aug 18, 2016 2:30:07 GMT -8
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Since84
Moderator
To infinity and beyond!
Posts: 3,933
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Post by Since84 on Aug 18, 2016 4:23:25 GMT -8
So much for the green...
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Post by artman1033 on Aug 18, 2016 4:36:49 GMT -8
TARGET, the WALMART for the "upper class" is pronounced TAR-SHAAY. It looks like products are not selling.... "As we analyze the drivers to our second quarter performance, we have identified some company-specific challenges we are actively addressing. This includes meaningful pressure on electronics, where we saw a double-digit decline in comp sales this quarter, accounting for approximately 70 basis points of overall comp decline. Notably, about a third of this pressure was driven by Apple products, which are down more than 20% in the quarter. We are focused on reversing these trends and we are collaborating with Apple and other vendor partners to evolve our assortment and accelerate innovation to deliver stronger sales." ............ "And one of the first things we have had Mark Tritton do was actually spend time with our Apple partners really making sure that we are putting the right plans together for the back half of the year, that we are ready to capitalize on their new innovation that they will be bringing to market. But again, as we think about factors that we have to address to improve our traffic and overall sales performance to the back half of the year, we have to improve electronic performance. It was a significant drag, 70 basis points on our overall comp declines in the quarter. And Apple played a significant role there. So we over indexed with Apple products. Our guests come to us looking for those products. They are looking for the newness and the innovation and we are putting together plans with Apple and our merchandising teams to make sure we are ready to take advantage of that in the back half of the year." seekingalpha.com/article/4000303-targets-tgt-ceo-brian-cornell-q2-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript
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Since84
Moderator
To infinity and beyond!
Posts: 3,933
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Post by Since84 on Aug 18, 2016 4:47:50 GMT -8
Of course, Target's results had nothing to do with management decisions... merchandising... not accepting Pay... Transgender bathrooms...
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Post by artman1033 on Aug 18, 2016 4:52:25 GMT -8
Of course, Target's results had nothing to do with management decisions... merchandising... not accepting Pay... Transgender bathrooms... IMHO: THAT is the reason.... TARGET is going to invest $20,000,000 to build an extra SINGLE restroom in each store..... now shush.... It is NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT to bring this up! "In the second quarter, our number one challenge was traffic," ......... "In grocery, despite improvements in assortments, quality, freshness, presentation and in-stocks, we were disappointed with our sales performance as we saw a small comp sales decline in the second quarter." It looks like soccer Moms with kids in tow are avoiding TARGET. "Finally, we experienced soft second quarter traffic trends in the pharmacies in our stores" It looks like GrandPa and GrandMa are " going" somewhere else.
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Since84
Moderator
To infinity and beyond!
Posts: 3,933
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Post by Since84 on Aug 18, 2016 5:54:57 GMT -8
It takes hutzpah to tell your Apple customers we don't accept Pay, then bitch because your Apple merchandise sales are down. Incidentally, I didn't notice whether they were talking YoY or QoQ. I would have expected them to be down QoQ, product cycle and all...
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Post by incorrigible on Aug 18, 2016 7:12:38 GMT -8
Of course, Target's results had nothing to do with management decisions... merchandising... not accepting Pay... Transgender bathrooms... Don't forget transgender fitting rooms.
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Post by mace on Aug 18, 2016 8:17:32 GMT -8
Of course, Target's results had nothing to do with management decisions... merchandising... not accepting Pay... Transgender bathrooms... Also nothing to do with a few store-wide credit card frauds.
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Post by mace on Aug 18, 2016 8:22:24 GMT -8
Waiting to buy lower? Next stop $111 Sure? Not $107s then $118-$120?
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Post by rickag on Aug 18, 2016 11:03:12 GMT -8
True story, copyright by rickag:
After getting up bright and early took subway to The Vatican City walked and some more walking. Toured the Vatican walked & walked some more. After the tour walked some more. Got to the subway back to the hotel, ate dinner went back to the room.
My better half had a bottle of wine and no cork opener, went to the hotel restaurant who graciously partially opened the wine. Unknown to me and my wife, it was sparkling wine. 0n the elevator returning to the room, an elderly oriental woman, her daughter and a young Italian man were quite shocked when the cork blew off with accompanied by a very loud bang.
I thought the elderly oriental woman was going to have a heart attack and the young Italian man jumped up about a foot. Me, I am proud I will be part of stories told across the globe of the crazy American who popped his cork.
Now a shower and bed, I lost at least 20 lbs from walking.
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Post by firestorm on Aug 18, 2016 12:36:17 GMT -8
Regarding Apple and Target. I think Target has been on a long decline, with a host of poor decisions, lack of innovation, the Canada debacle, poor grocery implementation, and abandoning their prior casual trendiness. Perhaps they shouldn't have made the bathroom decision, but the single stall restroom (a wider societal trend, by the way) is a sound decision that should make some people more comfortable. Hell, I don't like sharing a bathroom with other men either! Men are just gross.
Early on, Apple worked well at introducing its products to Target, Walmart, and Best Buy with concentrated store-within-a-store areas; since then, Samsung has copycatted this (and every other) Apple idea, and now these stores all have electronics sections with little sections for each manufacturer. This was bound to have an impact. Plus: Apple simply is not revolutionizing its product line like it once did, with constant improvements. It is stale. The iPads and phones just don't seem as ahead of the curve as they once were, so they aren't selling as well. We do need some new management at Apple to continue the disruptions the company was known for. I hardly bother to check Apple Rumors any more, because it can be months or years between new products in some product categories. The thrill is gone.
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Ted
fire starter
Posts: 882
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Post by Ted on Aug 18, 2016 13:18:05 GMT -8
Regarding Apple and Target. I think Target has been on a long decline, with a host of poor decisions, lack of innovation, the Canada debacle, poor grocery implementation, and abandoning their prior casual trendiness. Perhaps they shouldn't have made the bathroom decision, but the single stall restroom (a wider societal trend, by the way) is a sound decision that should make some people more comfortable. Hell, I don't like sharing a bathroom with other men either! Men are just gross. Early on, Apple worked well at introducing its products to Target, Walmart, and Best Buy with concentrated store-within-a-store areas; since then, Samsung has copycatted this (and every other) Apple idea, and now these stores all have electronics sections with little sections for each manufacturer. This was bound to have an impact. Plus: Apple simply is not revolutionizing its product line like it once did, with constant improvements. It is stale. The iPads and phones just don't seem as ahead of the curve as they once were, so they aren't selling as well. We do need some new management at Apple to continue the disruptions the company was known for. I hardly bother to check Apple Rumors any more, because it can be months or years between new products in some product categories. The thrill is gone. Hmm, well, firestorm, as JD quotes in his tagline: "Great advances in mankind don't happen every year." -- Steve Wozniak The thrill is gone for you, but, meanwhile, every other tech company is rushing ahead and putting out revolutionary products each and every year, huh? You might need to moderate your expectations a bit. Advancing tech takes time; new management wouldn't magically be able to change Apple - or the universe - and enable the creation of mind-bending, radically new devices at a faster pace. Do you not remember the video Apple showed a few years ago about a thousand "no"s for every yes before the Watch came out? Oh well, I think next year's iPhone should do the trick nicely...
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Post by mace on Aug 18, 2016 13:36:50 GMT -8
Watch is not sufficient for firestorm - to stomp.
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Post by firestorm on Aug 18, 2016 14:42:07 GMT -8
Regarding Apple and Target. I think Target has been on a long decline, with a host of poor decisions, lack of innovation, the Canada debacle, poor grocery implementation, and abandoning their prior casual trendiness. Perhaps they shouldn't have made the bathroom decision, but the single stall restroom (a wider societal trend, by the way) is a sound decision that should make some people more comfortable. Hell, I don't like sharing a bathroom with other men either! Men are just gross. Early on, Apple worked well at introducing its products to Target, Walmart, and Best Buy with concentrated store-within-a-store areas; since then, Samsung has copycatted this (and every other) Apple idea, and now these stores all have electronics sections with little sections for each manufacturer. This was bound to have an impact. Plus: Apple simply is not revolutionizing its product line like it once did, with constant improvements. It is stale. The iPads and phones just don't seem as ahead of the curve as they once were, so they aren't selling as well. We do need some new management at Apple to continue the disruptions the company was known for. I hardly bother to check Apple Rumors any more, because it can be months or years between new products in some product categories. The thrill is gone. Hmm, well, firestorm, as JD quotes in his tagline: "Great advances in mankind don't happen every year." -- Steve Wozniak The thrill is gone for you, but, meanwhile, every other tech company is rushing ahead and putting out revolutionary products each and every year, huh? You might need to moderate your expectations a bit. Advancing tech takes time; new management wouldn't magically be able to change Apple - or the universe - and enable the creation of mind-bending, radically new devices at a faster pace. Do you not remember the video Apple showed a few years ago about a thousand "no"s for every yes before the Watch came out? Oh well, I think next year's iPhone should do the trick nicely... Well, perhaps an update of the Mac Pro, a willingness to please the professionals that have long supported the Mac, an update to the displays, more frequent updates to the MacBook Pro line, and a hundred other tweaks would meet my expectations. I wish that they had said "yes" to a few more possible products, because I, and many others, perceive that Apple is stale. I mean, even Amazon keeps doing amazing stuff in all sorts of new ways, while Apple plods on. Yes, the thrill is gone.
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Post by tuffett on Aug 18, 2016 16:41:55 GMT -8
Agree with Firestorm. Let's face the facts - the iPhone is having a down year amidst a growing market. The iPhone 6 super cycle is not an excuse - does anyone remember Tim Cook bragging on the conference calls about what a small percentage of the install base had upgraded to the 6, obviously implying growth for the 6s. The fact is the 6s was not a desirable enough upgrade and the S7 and Note are back in vogue as well as local Chinese brands. I struggle to reconcile the data point of all-time high switchers without knowing how many people are switching the other way. The only way the numbers make sense is if that number is also high.
I'm not expecting something revolutionary every year but I do start to get concerned when the numbers slip and I see competitors phones with bigger screens, better screens and bigger batteries all in a smaller footprint. It's true that the iPhone has always lagged in this respect but it's really starting to get old now, and the fact that isn't going to change for another year at the least is highly disappointing. iOS is the crown jewel but Apple can't get complacent on hardware. The gap between the quality of operating systems is narrowing.
Also agree that perhaps they should say "yes" to a few more things, because what they are saying "yes" to seems pretty uninspired. A company the size of Apple should not be this slow.
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Ted
fire starter
Posts: 882
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Post by Ted on Aug 18, 2016 17:34:30 GMT -8
Hmm, well, firestorm, as JD quotes in his tagline: "Great advances in mankind don't happen every year." -- Steve Wozniak The thrill is gone for you, but, meanwhile, every other tech company is rushing ahead and putting out revolutionary products each and every year, huh? You might need to moderate your expectations a bit. Advancing tech takes time; new management wouldn't magically be able to change Apple - or the universe - and enable the creation of mind-bending, radically new devices at a faster pace. Do you not remember the video Apple showed a few years ago about a thousand "no"s for every yes before the Watch came out? Oh well, I think next year's iPhone should do the trick nicely... Well, perhaps an update of the Mac Pro, a willingness to please the professionals that have long supported the Mac, an update to the displays, more frequent updates to the MacBook Pro line, and a hundred other tweaks would meet my expectations. I wish that they had said "yes" to a few more possible products, because I, and many others, perceive that Apple is stale. I mean, even Amazon keeps doing amazing stuff in all sorts of new ways, while Apple plods on. Yes, the thrill is gone. OK, I agree on some of this, but for as many folks as think Apple products are stale, it seems the common user - those outside the media-driven & forum-based echo chamber in which we all reside - may in fact still get excited about the new iPhone this September. FWIW: 9to5mac.com/2016/08/18/comment-iphone-7-launch-perspective/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29
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bud777
fire starter
Posts: 1,352
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Post by bud777 on Aug 18, 2016 18:48:07 GMT -8
Agree with Firestorm. Let's face the facts - the iPhone is having a down year amidst a growing market. The iPhone 6 super cycle is not an excuse - does anyone remember Tim Cook bragging on the conference calls about what a small percentage of the install base had upgraded to the 6, obviously implying growth for the 6s. The fact is the 6s was not a desirable enough upgrade and the S7 and Note are back in vogue as well as local Chinese brands. I struggle to reconcile the data point of all-time high switchers without knowing how many people are switching the other way. The only way the numbers make sense is if that number is also high. I'm not expecting something revolutionary every year but I do start to get concerned when the numbers slip and I see competitors phones with bigger screens, better screens and bigger batteries all in a smaller footprint. It's true that the iPhone has always lagged in this respect but it's really starting to get old now, and the fact that isn't going to change for another year at the least is highly disappointing. iOS is the crown jewel but Apple can't get complacent on hardware. The gap between the quality of operating systems is narrowing. Also agree that perhaps they should say "yes" to a few more things, because what they are saying "yes" to seems pretty uninspired. A company the size of Apple should not be this slow. Back in the PC wars, there was a lot of talk about specs and price. It didn't seem to matter to the dialog that Apple was doing the hard work of producing systems, the story was that computers were commodities and people had to compete on price eventually. Except they didn't. People who were actually using these systems realized that it is one thing to have a computer that can play a few games, but if you wanted to get real work done, the system had to work. We used to say that there were two kinds of people...those who wanted to use a computer and needed a reason to use it (PC) and those who wanted to get work done and needed a computer to do it (MAC). I guess another way to describe it was that MAC users saw the computer as a means to an end and PC users saw the computer as an end in itself. I think that the same paradigm applies to phones. Apple is the only company that does hardware, software and services. The solutions it brings forward can always be copied by Android, or Samsung, or Amazon, but none of them cam innovate solutions across all three areas. And the moat for each of them to add the missing pieces gets larger by the day. This is what makes Apple such an intriguing bet for the long run. Certainly, each of these competitors can add some new feature ahead of Apple. But when Google adds a software feature they have to negotiate with all the hardware manufacturers to provide any needed new hardware, like TouchID for example. Or if Amazon wants to offer cloud services, they have to get the apps onto Apple and Android, and they can never get into IOS. Sure Apple could be pushing out new bells and whistles like Samsung or others, but why should they? They have the high ground and they know it. To their credit, they are using it to advance how technology benefits mankind, rather than to make the next quarter look good. The fact that this approach makes them the most profitable company in the history of the world doesn't bother me at all.
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