ETD: 831 RIAA:750 More P2P Suits;
Children's Place to buy Disney stores;
When Consumers Shop for Luxuries, They Prefer Traditional Department
Stores
etd_post at gapent.com
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Nov 2 13:31:57 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0831 November 2, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] RIAA Targets College Students with 750 More P2P Suits
[3] Children's Place to buy Disney stores
[4] When Consumers Shop for Luxuries, They Prefer Traditional Department Stores
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Is there another way? Can the Recording Industry Association of America find another way to generate revenue from downloaded music?
Disney Stores are now going to be part of The Children's Place, which gets me to wonder what really happened. Are Disney products saleable in stores? Should they be in their parks only? Perhaps catalogs? The Children's Place is headquartered here in Secaucus, NJ and is in the local news frequently. I question whether they will succeed.
Pam Danziger brings her latest report on luxury shopping - at traditional department stores. Interesting to note the lack of growth there. I hope this revitalizes that segment of retailing. Otherwise we will see more failed chains.
53 days until Christmas. What are you doing this year to increase business?
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at our "Members: Who Are You?" site. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] RIAA Targets College Students with 750 More P2P Suits
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"In order for legitimate services to continue their growth, we cannot ignore those who take and distribute music illegally, " Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman said. " There must be consequences to breaking the law or illegal downloading will cripple the music community's ability to support itself now or invest in the future."
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has revived its long-running campaign to stem file-swapping through legal action, suing 750 alleged file sharers across the U.S. for copyright infringement.
The latest batch of suits included 25 users on 13 university campuses around the country and like past batches focuses on users of peer-to-peer services such as eDonkey, Kazaa , LimeWire and Grokster.
In addition, the RIAA said it filed another 213 suits against defendants whose names were discovered through earlier legal action but have not settled suits.
"Our legal efforts help build an essential foundation for the continued development of the legal online music marketplace," RIAA President Cary Sherman said. "On that count, we continue to see promising developments."
Going Legit. Sherman noted the rise of legitimate downloading services, with industry data showing 58 million tracks downloaded from licensed sites in the first six months of the year. To emphasize the rise of such services, the RIAA issued the first of what it said will be annual awards to various artists whose songs are among the popular downloads.
"In order for legitimate services to continue their growth, we cannot ignore those who take and distribute music illegally," Sherman said. "There must be consequences to breaking the law or illegal downloading will cripple the music community's ability to support itself now or invest in the future."
The suits were filed in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Current estimates put the total number of legal actions filed at nearly 6,000 and the average cost of settling the claims at less than US$10,000, depending upon the extent of the swapping alleged.
Among the campuses where file-swappers allegedly used networks to share music are Indiana State University, Iowa State University, Ohio State University, the State University of New York and the University of Southern Mississippi.
Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/37721.html
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
The RIAA needs to get on board with new technology. While I appreciate the loss of revenue to so many artists, I also see missed opportunities. Some artists actually encourage downloading of their music - it gets them more exposure, and does help sales.
Rather than sue, why not work with the P2P authors to determine a way to charge for downloaded music? Even if you charge 10 cents each download, it's still a lot more than zero. And the opportunity is unlimited.
I also believe downloading of music would alter the way music is ranked. For many, many years music was ranked by billboard by calling local stores to see what was selling. They never took into account those bar code labels on record labels. When they finally did use bar codes, they were shocked to learn that country music star Garth Brooks was #1 that week. Of course, that couldn't be right, so they decided to wait to see what happened again the second week. Same thing. I guess they finally believed stats.
IMHO, the same is true with downloading. Figure out a way to capitalize on this easy way of distribution and make money, rather than suing.
George
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[3] Children's Place to buy Disney stores
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Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. said Wednesday it will purchase Walt Disney Co.'s chain of North American retail stores and pledged to invest $100 million in them.
Children's Place said the deal allows it to expand into the market for merchandise for newborns to age 10. For Disney, the deal allows the company to unload a business that has consistently been a drag on earnings.
The deal includes 313 stores that sell clothing, toys and other merchandise emblazoned with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, plus a long-term licensing deal in which the stores will pay royalties to Disney beginning on the second anniversary of the closing of the deal.
Children's Place will pay Disney a "working capital adjustment" that will be determined at closing based on the value of the stores' inventory and other factors, a Children's Place spokeswoman said.
In addition, the company plans to invest as much as $100 million in the operations, including $50 million at closing.
Children's Place said it plans to fund the transaction with cash on hand and short-term borrowings and does not expect to take on long-term debt or issue any stock for the deal.
Children's Place expects the deal to boost its earnings in its fiscal 2004, assuming the deal closes in November.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/20/news/midcaps/childrensplace_disney.reut/
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[4] When Consumers Shop for Luxuries, They Prefer Traditional Department Stores
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In retail the worst performing sector over the past ten years has been conventional and national chain department stores. While retail sales, excluding food service and automobiles, have grown 66 percent from 1993 to 2003, department stores revenues have declined .5 percent, down from $88.72 billion in 1993 to $88.23 billion in 2003, according to the Department of Commerce.
Department stores have been caught in the middle with intense competition from discounters for the value shopper and specialty retailers that attract upscale shoppers looking for wider selection within a narrower range of goods.
While department stores struggle to keep prices low and selection broad, many have missed the obvious opportunity that savvy forward-thinking chains like J.C. Penney’s have identified — the luxury market. Last week Penney’s announced the appointment of its second chief executive to come from luxury retailing, Myron Ullman III who succeeds Allen Questrom.
“J.C. Penney’s understands that the secret for the future of department stores is not to try to beat the discounters at the discounting game, but by bringing a new value proposition to the luxury- empowered shoppers, both the truly affluent and the upper-middle market and near-affluent shoppers who crave luxury.
The fact is luxury shoppers, the top 25 percent of households based on income, often choose department stores first as a place to shop.
Department stores are rated as one of the top three shopping choices in 11 out of 14 different luxury product categories. And they are number one in purchases of luxury home decorating fabrics, window and wall coverings; kitchenware, cookware and housewares; linens and bedding; tabletop, dinnerware and flatware; clothes and apparel; fashion accessories; and fragrances and beauty.
Luxury shoppers, those most affluent shoppers with the most money to spend, prefer to shop at department stores. Department stores’ success will depend on how closely they satisfy the needs, desires and passions of the luxury consumer.
For more information about Unity Marketing’s consumer insight research on the luxury market, http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/luxury/
Pam Danziger
President, Unity Marketing
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
IMHO, the traditional department store has gone by the wayside. Low cost chains like WalMart drives down price, which makes it impossible for stores like Macys, Sears and JC Penney to survive. Luxury sounds interesting, especially since upper end stores like Neimann Marcus and Nordstrom's are doing much better.
George
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