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In late September and early October, we surveyed 20 Kohls locations and asked about the business activity level, inventories and best selling items. The survey asked the following questions.

 

 

1. How well is business today at your store?

2. Do you have excess inventory of any product or brand that will go on discount soon?

3. Do you think the weak housing market and economy are hurting business at your store?

4. What is the top selling brand of women’s clothing at your store?

 

• 37% of respondents described business at their store as “above average”. 63% saw business as “average”. 10% saw business as ”below average”.

• 90% of respondents cited having some excess inventory, although the bulk of these cited summer and seasonal items.

• 74% of respondents do believe that the economy and weak housing market are negatively impacting sales at their store. 11% said that the housing market and weak economy are not hurting sales. 15% were unsure of the impact of the broader economy or housing market.

• Sonoma and Apartment 9 were seen as the top selling women’s brand by 25% of respondents each.

 

Conclusion of Channel Check: Sales trend look mildly positive at Kohls. Excess inventory results are high by historical standards across our retail surveys. Concern over the economy and weak housing market are higher than expected. Top selling brands such as Apartment 9 are consistently near the top of Kohls sales of women’s apparel.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

In late September and early October, we surveyed 23 Harley dealerships about sales trends, stocking and pricing for Harley motorcycles in the U.S. The survey asked the following questions.

 

 

1. What is the best selling motorcylce right now?

2. Are you sold out of any models currently?

3. How is business compared to this time last year?

4. Has business picked up in the past month?

 

 

 

• 26% of respondents said that either the Street Glide or Electra Glide was the best selling model. 17% said that the Sportster was the best selling line.

• Over 70% of respondents said they were not sold out of any models. The remainder cited 2009 Sportsters specifically, but said they had stock of 2010 Sportster models. The Street Glide was cited as being sold out at one dealer while another cited the FLHR Road King.

• 57% of respondents said that business was the same as a year ago. 26% said business was better than last year. 17% said business was worse than last year.

• 43% of respondents stated that business was improving in the past month, while 57% said that business had not improved. Cash for clunkers was cited as a negative drawing business away in July and August. Anectdotally, one dealer reported being closed for a week on a temporary basis in September.

 

 

Conclusion of Channel Check: Harley dealers appear to be reporting stable business conditions across the board with some signs of improvement offset by a general report of flat sales compared to last year and to the previous few months.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

 

In late September and early October, we surveyed 19 Verizon wireless locations and asked about the best selling devices for key applications (like music and e-mail). The survey asked the following questions.

 

 

1. What is the best selling mobile phone right now?

2. What is the best device to get for e-mail?

3. What is the best device to get for music?

4. Has there been an increase in the number of people buying new phones or upgrading their accounts in the past month?

 

 

• 53% of respondents said that a Blackberry device was the best selling device at their location. 16% cited an LG model while another 16% cited a Samsung model. HTC and Motorola phones were cited as well.

• 68% respondents cited Blackberry models when asked which device was the best for e-mail. LG again scored a number two spot with 16% of respondents.

• LG was the top brand recommended for music with over 35% of respondents recommending an LG model as tops of music. Samsung was second with over 25% of respondents citing it as a the best model/brand for music.

• 79% of respondents reported that they are seeing increased new account openings or upgrades from customers in the past month. 21% of respondents say they are not seeing an increase in these categories.

Conclusion of Channel Check: New accounts and upgrades of existing plans appear to be picking up at Verizon stores in September and October. Research In Motion’s Balckberry line of mobile devices appears to be the best selling at Verizon. Samsung and LG look strong in the music focused segments and also run distant number 2 and 3 respectively in the e-mail and best selling categories. Verizon looks focused on hardware ASP’s as all three of these top vendors offer a wide range of mid-priced to lower priced devices to Verizon’s customer base.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

 

Earlier this month we surveyed several Lululemon Athletica locations across the US to gauge trends in performance. We asked the following questions:

 

1. How much does the average customer spend per visit?

2. What % of customers are repeat customers?

3. What is the top selling item right now?

4. Do you have trouble keeping the most popular items in stock?

 

 

• 77% of respondents said the average customer spend between $50 and $150 dollars. We believe the average purchase is right around $100 per customer. 12% said customers spend less than $50 on average, while 8% said they spend over $150 per visit.

   

• 31% of respondents report that around ¼ of all customers are repeat customers. The remaining 69% report that half or more of customers are repeat buyers of Lululemon clothing.

   

• Tank tops and shirts for women are the best selling item according to 23% of respondents. 19% report that pants are the top selling item.

   

• 77% of respondents say that they have no trouble keeping top selling items in stock. 15% report that they do have some challenges in keeping popular items in stock. While a small number, this small stock-out problem seems positive in the current retail environment.

 

 

Conclusion of the Channel Checkers: Lululemon appears to be maintaining strong store fundamentals including solid average tickets for each customer and strong repeat buyer business. Top items are not in short supply but our report does suggest some tightness for top items may be beginning to appear suggesting demand may be improving for Lululemon clothing.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

Earlier this month we surveyed several Dominos restaurants around the US to gauge trends in performance. We asked the following questions:

1. What is the most popular pizza deal right now?

2. Are you busier, the same or less busy than last month?

3. Who is your primary competition?

 35% of the respondents replied the American Legends as the most popular deal right now. 35% of respondents replied the Three Medium Pizzas for five dollars each as the most popular deal right now. 30% of the respondents replied other(5 off when ordering off-line and individual Pizza types)

 68% of respondents replied business has been the same compared to last month. 16% of the respondents replied business has been busier then last month. 16% of the respondents replied business is slower this month compared to last month.

 45% of the respondents replied Pizza Hut as the primary competition to Dominos. 23% of respondents replied Papa John’s as the main competition to Dominos. 32% of respondents replied non chain Pizzerias as the main competition.

Conclusion of the Channel Checkers: For Dominos business appears to be the flat to down in August as we view responses “same” for business level as being slightly negative. The most popular deal at Dominos currently is the American Legends and Three Medium Pizza’s for five dollar deal. The main competitor to Dominos is Pizza Hut.

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

Earlier this month we surveyed several Papa Johns restaurants around the US to gauge trends in performance. We asked the following questions:

1. What is the most popular pizza deal right now?

2. Are you busier, the same or less busy than last month?

3. Who is your primary competition?

 53% of the respondents replied the three medium pizza’s for seven dollars each as the most

popular deal right now. 13% of respondents replied the one large with three toppings as the

most popular deal right now. 34% of the respondents replied other(2 mediums & wings,

Individual Pizza’s buy one get one free and 2 for 2)

 60% of respondents replied business has been the same compared to last month. 40% of the

respondents replied business has been busier then last month.

 30% of the respondents replied Pizza Hut as the primary competition to Papa Johns. 40% of

respondents replied Dominos as the main competition to Papa Johns. 32% of respondents

replied non chain Pizzerias as the main competition.

Conclusion of the Channel Checkers: For Papa Johns business appears to be the same in early August as in July. Dominos remains the top perceived competitor to Papa Johns. The most popular deal at Papa Johns is the Three for Seven dollars each.

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

During the past few weeks, we asked 14 AT&T locations across the country to gauge trends in the sales of cell phones. We asked the following questions.

1. What is the best selling phone model right now?

2. What is the best device to get for e-mail?

3. What is the best music device?

4. Has there been an increase in the number of people opening new accounts or buying the iPhone in the past 3 weeks?

• The Apple iPhone was seen as the best selling phone with 64% of the respondents reporting so. The new Apple iPhone was reported as the best by 21% of the respondents. This suggests the great amount of popularity the iPhone has.

• The Apple iPhone was also seen as the best device to receive email as reported by 39% of the locations. The Blackberry was close behind with 32% of the respondents reporting that it was better than the iPhone. The Blackberry is a phone for business so this is a little surprising that the iPhone is considered to be better in terms of receiving emails.

• 86% of the respondents reported that the iPhone is a better phone for music than the other phones. Only 2 respondents reported something different. One said the Sony phone was better and the other stated the AT&T Quickfire was the best.

• An increase in the number of people opening new accounts or buying the iPhone in the past three weeks was seen by 79% of the respondents. 14% AT&T locations saw no growth.

Conclusion of Channel Check: In these AT&T locations, the Apple iPhone is very popular. The top two selling phones in these stores are both iPhone’s, with the new one model still behind the older one. Even when the survey turned to the email question, the business phone, the Blackberry, was shown to be slightly behind the iPhone. Of course, in the music question, nearly all the respondents said the versatile iPhone was best. The results suggest that there is an increase in the number of new accounts or purchases of the iPhone. The most popular phone in the market looks to be gaining even more sales in the recent times. All in all the iPhone looks to continue its strong trend of success and looks to be having more sales with AT&T also opening more accounts.

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

In July we have asked 29 different Abercrombie and Fitch locations several questions in order to gauge sales trends. Here are the questions that we asked.

1. Has this location been open for more than one year?

2. Which of the following ‘Key Looks’(Women’s) categories is the most popular this spring?

3. Which of the following Women’s products people have been buying the most of?

4. Are there enough of the most popular item in-stock right now?

5. Will it be hard to get more of the most popular product if they need to get more for the holiday season?

6. Is business increasing / decreasing / flat since last month?

• All of the respondents said that the location was open for more than a year.

• Knit Tanks, Lexi, and Dresses were all stated to be the top ‘Key Looks’ by 10% of the respondents.

• 28% of the respondents reported that the Emma Low Rise Boot Jean was the top selling women’s product, while 24% of the respondents said that the Margaret top was the top selling women product.

• All of the respondents reported that there is enough of the most popular item in stock now.

• 17% of the respondents reported that there would be difficulty getting the most popular product if they needed it during the holiday season. 83% said that there would be no difficulty getting the items during the holiday season.

• 45% of the respondents reported that business is increasing since last month, with 31% reporting no change in business in the last month, and 24% of the respondents reporting a loss in business the last month.

Conclusion of Channel Check: The survey suggests that there was not a large increase in sales during the last month. There also does not seem to be a dominant new women’s product or a dominant women’s ‘Key Look’ out right now. The stocks of their most popular items are full, furthering the point that there is not a large craze for a clothing item at this point. However, during the holiday season, there could be difficulty getting the most popular product if they needed it. Overall Abercrombie looks to be seeing a small increase in business, with no new items driving sales by itself.

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

In July, we asked fifteen computer sales locations (Mostly Wal-Mart and Best Buy) to approximate sales trends in Dell computers. The survey asked the following questions.

1. What is the best selling brand and model desktop?

2. Which model series does that brand belong to?

3. What brand of microprocessors does that desktop use?

4. What is the name of this microprocessor in the desktop?

5. What is the speed of the microprocessor?

 

 

• Dell was seen as the best selling brand by 44% of the respondents, with 33% of the respondents reporting that HP was the top selling brand.

• The model series that the brand belonged to was said to be Inspiron by 33% of the respondents, also Pavillion was seen to be the top model series by 33% of the respondents too.

• Intel was seen to be the top brand for speed and performance by 53% of the respondents, while 40% of the respondents said AMD was the top brand.

• The Intel Core 2 Duo was seen as the top microprocessor in terms of speed and performance by 20% of the respondents. The AMD Phenom, AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium Dual Core were all seen as the best microprocessor by 13% of the respondents respectively.

• The microprocessor speeds were said to be 3 GHz or more by 27% of the respondents and 2.4-2.6 GHz by 47% of the respondents. 27% also said that the speeds of the microprocessors were less than 2.3 GHz.

 

Conclusion of Channel Check: For a time, Dell used to be the largest computer providing company in the world. In 2008, it was the second largest behind HP. Now however, it was seen at the top by 44% of the respondents with HP right behind with 33%. Inspiron was tied with Pavillion for the model series that the brand belonged to. When the questions asked about speed and performance, the best brand was Intel at 60%. 40% reported with AMD chips, which is interesting considering that Dell used to have an Intel only policy, until Alienware was acquired. The speeds were mostly in the 2.4-2.6 GHz range. Overall, Dell still seems to be doing very well in sales beating out HP in our survey.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

 

This month we surveyed Target stores around the US to gauge trends in performance. We asked the following questions:

 

1. On a Scale of 1-5(1 being the worst and 5 being the best) how well would you say business is at your store?

2. Do you have excess inventory of any particular product or brand the will go on discount soon?

3. Do you believe that the weak housing and economy is hurting business at your store?

4. What is the top selling brand of women’s clothes right now?

 

•   43% of respondents replied business was below average. 47% of respondents replied business was average. 42% of respondents replied business was above average. 8% of respondents replied business was very strong.
•   44% of respondents replied they have excess inventory and it will go on sale. 44% of respondents replied they have no excess inventory.
•   53% of respondents replied the weak housing market and economy is not affecting business. 28% of respondents replied the weak housing market and economy is affecting business.
•   39% of respondents replied that Merona is the most popular women’s clothing brand right now. 33% of respondents replied that Mossimo is the most popular women’s clothing brand right now. 6% of respondents replied that Lucky Brand Collection is the most popular women’s clothing brand right now.

 

Conclusion of the Channel Checkers: For Target business is doing great right now. Most targets are doing average or above average right now in sales. Target has some excess inventory but should not affect business to much. Target is not being hurt as much as other retailers by the weak housing market and economy. The most popular women’s clothing right now is Merona with Mossimo very close behind. Target is doing well right now during this weak economy.

 

For access to the underlying survey or for more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 or jason@thechannelcheckers.com

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