Thoughts & Insights - 1st Monthly Newsletter

Hi There, Thanks for reading! I wanted to start this newsletter as means of discussing the variety of issues facing the retail world in the unpredictable circumstances we find ourselves in. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts or to tell me you think I’m dead wrong. I’ll also be including a few tried and true recs of things I didn’t really need (but love) as well as local recs as a recent NYC transplant to the DC/Bethesda area. 

The question I’ve been most interested in was what strategy worked better in 2020; holding inventory or having a fire sale?  At the onset of the pandemic, Rag & Bone’s CEO Marcus Wainright sent out this letter explaining the extreme markdown of their high priced line. When I read this as a retail professional, I had a lot of questions: Was their markup already so extreme that they could still make $ at 70% off? Had they ordered so much that they wouldn’t have room for future deliveries if they didn’t start off loading? As a customer, I wondered why if they so desperately needed this sale how were they already sold out of my size of high waisted jeans?  Retailers during the Pandemic face an extreme version of the age-old problem of having too much product in your supply chain/warehouse or not having enough to satisfy demand, ultimately losing a sale or customer. In a world where as a brand you no longer have the luxury of an in store experience- your only interaction with the customer is online. This means that the stakes for satisfying customer demand are even higher. Admittedly, since that letter I haven’t been back on Rag & Bone’s site (although I may attribute that to a variety of covid related reasons). In the cyber week that seemed to last at least 10 days, brands took a variety of markdowns to boost sales for the year. Although consumer spending on the whole is up, I am curious to see what happens to a number of my favorite smaller brands: Rebecca Taylor, Veronica Beard and the like, who have all invested in high-priced retail locations in the past fews years - were their holiday sales enough to cover their overhead and continue making product? Will many of these brands be up for sale in the next year? My thought would be: decide how much cash you need to operate for the next year and tailor your markdowns to fit that goal but not any more. 

Thoughts, comments?

xx Rachel

Also, a few fun links:

1. Superfluous yet necessary: OXO Salt Shaker. After getting very into SALT FAT ACID HEAT at the beginning of the pandemic, I love that this shaker has both a normal salt top and a side dispenser for heavy salting things like pasta water or meat. 

2. The most made recipe in my house: Half Baked Harvest crinkle top brownies. My toddler and I made these for my very picky chocoholic mom for mothers day and have made them at least every 6 weeks since. The scoop of coffee grinds makes them taste richer, fancier than the simple recipe (again, made with a toddler) would imply. 

3.New stationary product shop: I’ll now be selling Nona E Rose Illustrations on a variety of products via Society6.

4.Newly found local rec: Plane Jane Salon. Admittedly my first couple of cut and color sessions since covid were in my backyard but now that it's cold I was looking for a replacement for my favorite New York Salon that was also taking Covid precautions seriously. Enter Plane Jane Salon in downtown Bethesda. Feels trendy and upscale without being pretentious. They only take 2-3 customers at time in a salon that fits at least 12-15 stations, gave me a new medical mask as they did not deem my GAP mask high tech enough and had a very fancy looking new air filter built in. Covid aside, the stylist nailed the color and it's probably the best haircut I’ve gotten in years. 10/10, definitely going back. 

New original illustrations available on Society 6!!