• Search the Site
• 
  

• Categories

  • Apple (14)
  • Cell Phones (11)
  • Financial (4)
  • General Site News (3)
  • MP3 Players (11)
  • Networking (2)
  • PC's (2)
  • Renewable Energy Stuff (1)
  • Retail (12)
  • Satellite Radio (2)
  • Search (1)
  • Uncategorized (5)
  • Video Games (11)
  • WiMax (3)

• Archives

  • July 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • March 2007
  • January 2007
  • November 2006
  • October 2006

• Subscribe

  Entries RSS
  Comments RSS

The Nintendo Wii continues to be scarce in the US. Following up on a survey done in January, we polled Best Buy, EB Games, Gamestop, Target and Walmart in the US and Canada in February. Of these stores, 68% did not have the Wii in stock. The average wait was almost 2 ½ weeks to obtain the game console. The one store which had a significantly higher percentage of Wii’s in stock was EB Games. At that store a customer had a 50% chance of finding one in stock.

In our survey over the first two weeks of February of broad line electronics retailers we found that the Apple iPod continues to lead the market for MP3 players. The Apple iPod was seen as the “best” MP3 player by 75% of our respondents (up from 71% in our December survey) while Microsoft Zune player was seen as “best” by the remaining 25% (up from 11% in our December survey). Interestingly Creative Zen, Sandisk and other vendors were shut out in this category. We asked about the cheapest MP3 players in the market as well in our survey and found the Best Buy brand Insignia player cited as the “cheapest” by 25% of our respondents (note that roughly 50% of our survey responses were from Best Buy stores) and 21% cited the Sandisk Sansa line of MP3 players. Brands such as Nextar, Creative, Isonic and iLo were also mentioned as being the “cheapest”. We also asked respondents to tell us if they viewed a stand alone MP3 player or a combination music phone to be the better device. 50% of respondents stated that a music phone is the better device while 39% said that a stand alone MP3 player was better. This is a shift from our December survey where more respondents preferred the MP3 players to a music phone by a margin of 49% to 42%. Storage capacity and sound quality were the primary elements cited by MP3 player supporters while convenience and the 2:1 benefits of the music phone were mentioned by those preferring the music phones.

Kohl’s Corp., the US department store chain, is having a reasonable year so far in spite of an overall sluggish retail sector. We interviewed 30 stores across the nation and asked how business was, whether there was any excess inventory, is the weak economy and housing market jinxing business and which women’s fashion line sells best? Of the 30 respondents, five or 16.6% described business as very strong. Twelve or 40% found it above average and 13 or 43.3% found business average. Ten respondents or 33.3% reported having no excess inventory while four respondents or 13.3% reported having some, namely in winter clothing which is typically discounted in spring. The majority of those polled, 13 or 43.3%, weren’t sure whether the housing market and weak economy were effecting business but seven respondents or 23.3% saw either some impact now or potential future impact. Only ten or 33.3 % said the markets had no bearing on sales at all. Women’s apparel sales ran the gamete from Apt. 9, the dress casual line ranking as the best seller with five respondents or 16.6%. Croft & Barrow, the outerwear and sleepwear line tied with Sonoma, the lifestyle line with four respondents or 13.3% while Vera Wang, Levis and Daisy Fuentes, which makes accessories, swimwear and casual wear brought in three responses or 10%. Chaps, the career and slinky evening wear line ranked bottom with two respondents or 6.6%.

Chipotle Grill is a hot topic these days with a massive valuation and a market segment in between casual dining and fast food.  How is the chain doing and what are customers looking to get there? We surveyed 30 stores to take a look.

Our most recent survey of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants shows that a whopping 80% of respondents indicated that customers choose Chipotle because of the menu, compared with 9% because the food is organic and 11% who cited both the menu and the organic food as the reason. The star of the menu that keeps them coming in is the Burrito, chosen 57% of the time; varieties ordered included chicken (41%), steak (29%), barbacoa (12%) and carnitas (6%). The Burrito Bowl was the second most frequently ordered item (26%) followed by Fajita Burritos (14%) and Tacos (3%). The average check size for a party of two is $23.83. More respondents (74%) indicate that the restaurants are crowded at lunch time than reported that dinner had the bigger crowds (26%). Compared to a year ago, 43% of sites reported that the restaurant is busier, 46% say it is the same and 6% say it is less busy. Restaurants less than a year old made up 26% of the responses with older restaurants representing 74%.

We have just concluded an early video game survey of game stores in the U.S. The Nintendo Wii was seen as the top console by over 50% of our respondents. This high response rate is impressive given the widespread shortages of Wii’s this Christmas. The Xbox from Microsoft was reported as being the top selling console by 31% of respondents and 10% saw the Sony PS3 as the top seller.  Our survey bodes well for sales of Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox consoles given that Sony reported this morning that it had sold 1.2 million PS3’s from late November through December.  We would expect unit sales to be 3x for Microsoft and 5x for Nintendo in the same period.  Time will tell how predictive our survey is.

The top game was Guitar Hero III from Activision which was rated as the top selling game by 28% of our respondents. 21% of respondents viewed Halo 3 as the top game despite the widespread problem of scratched discs for Halo 3.  15% of respondents saw Mario Brothers Galaxy as the top game while 10% each viewed Call to Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III competitor Rock Band as the top games.

Halo 3 is seen as the best game for the Xbox console specifically by 41% of respondents. 12% see Call to Duty 4 and Guitar Hero 3 as the best games for this console platform.  The most anticipated new game according to our survey is Super Smash Brothers for the Wii.  21% of respondents cited this game as the most anticipated while no other title garnered meaningful support.

One negative from our survey is we believe that Assasin’s Creed and The Orange Box have not been as successful as hoped as our respondents rarely cite either game in any of our response categories despite substantial hype about the games before their releases.

We completed a survey of a broad range of retail outlets that sell Steve Madden boots and shoes during December. We found that the trend for boots was up due to the winter season was almost unanimous among respondents.

We found that 60% of respondents reported that Steve Madden brand boots were selling better than competing brands. 63% of respondents reported that Steve Madden shoes outsell competing brands. 10% of respondents said that Steven Madden brand boots were selling less well than competitors while 21% of respondents stated that Steve Madden shoes sold less well than competing brands. It appears that Steve Madden boots and shoes are viewed consistently by retail store employees with the exception that the competition for sales appears tougher for Steve Madden brand shoes than for its boot line.

Xpress Trade

optionsXpress has migrated its Xpresstrade futures customers to the optionsXpress platform. Channel checks suggest that Xpresstrade customers in general are not enamored with the change or their new optionsXpress futures platform. This will have a slight negative impact on open accounts, balances, trading volume, etc. going forward. These changes are in TCC’s November estimates for optionsXpress November DARTS.

November DART Estimate

The Channel Checkers is estimating a 1.4% sequential increase in DARTS for November 2007 compared to October 2007 and a 53.3% year-over-year increase November 2007 over November 2006.

The 1.4% increase is significantly less than the September 2007 to October 2007 26% sequential increase.

November 2006 DARTS………..28,700

October 2007 DARTS…………..43,400

November CC Estimate…………44,000

Sequential Increase: +1.4%

Year-over-year increase: +53.3%

Past estimates of The Channel Checkers’ have varied in accuracy from -0.2% to + 4.7%.

CC Estimate Reported Error

August …………35,710…………35,800………….-0.2%

September……. 37,127………….35,400………….+4.7%

October…………43,400 ……….. 44,600………….+2.7%

November ……..44,000…………..(Metrics Released PMO 12/12/2007)

optionsXpress is expected to release November Metrics pre-market on December 12, 2007.

The November DART estimate for optionsXpress is currently available from The Channel Checkers directly by calling Casey at 415.359.9153 or e-mailing casey@thechannelcheckers.com.

We have recently conducted a survey on Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S. which are owned collectively under the banner of Sears Holdings (SHLD).

We asked about store activity in this survey and 20% of respondents reported that stores were “less busy”. 20% negative response to questions in our survey is reason for concern given that traditionally store employees tend to be more positive or optimistic about retail store activity.

In addition to our temperature check on store activity we asked if the Sears and Kmart locations would be having PRE-CHRISTMAS sales and the answer across the board was yes. We also asked if there was excess inventory of items and the answer to this according to over 70% of respondents was “yes, excess inventory”.

The top selling items at Sears and Kmart locations were flat screen TV’s (25%), video games and video game consoles (20%) and Craftsman tools (10%).  We did not see any strong showing for sales of clothing items or for consumer durables like washers and dryers.  We believe that the heavy dose of electronics being sold at Sears could produce lower profit margins as we believe Sears is selling these items below the leading electronics retailers to help bring in business for these items.

There is a new Channel Checkers property, CCers.tv.  Head over and check it out, we’re using data from The Channel Checkers to create an original content video site.  If you want to see the latest quick updates check out www.ccers.tv.

Clearwire, the leading Wi-max broadband internet data and voice provider appears to be targeting new expansion into New Jersey according to our channel checks with Glasboro and Jersey City specific locales we have heard about where service would be turned on by mid-2008. New Jersey and other high density states make sense for offerings of high speed data and VoIPservices.

We also believe that Clearwire is now active in the Dallas market where there are a substantial number of local Wi-Max and pre-Wi-Max wireless data and voice providers.

Many investors appear concerned about expansion plans and growth for Clearwire since the end of its agreement with Sprint Nextel and the loss of funding and resources from Sprint. We believe that Clearwire appears to be continuing its expansion across the U.S.and believe that Clearwire will have access to the capital it needs to continue to grow its business.

← Previous Page — Next Page →