shouldn't a company that deals with overstocks need to achieve an above average gross margin? it makes no sense to me how they can ever expect to be profitable with such low margins
"it makes no sense to me how they can ever expect to be profitable with such low margins" You can survive with low margins based on turnover, not sure how you would quantify that (except for dollars) in a business such as ostk as opposed to grocer or WMT where it can be monitored via product (sales of the SAME items weekly). Or low margins in retail is subsidized from making money on your receivables (credit card).
yes, turnover certainly is how you can make a business with low margins work. wal-mart is certainly the king of this business model. for '06 Walmart ran at a 24% margin. The problem for overstock is that they don't have a great deal of turnover. Their customers don't stop by every two weeks to pick up a few things. Because of this they're going to need a lot better margins down the road.
I happen to share something in common with the CEO. My name is brendan Patrick Byrne. Ha ha. So, I tend to root for this company, stock and CEO. However, he does need to make the company profitable. The illegal shorting has hurt the stock price and has made financing expensive or at very least financing options are limited.
I just don't see how this company can make it. Their massive marketing campaign didn't work. The only thing left is for a big change in their strategy. Overstock is essentially the same as all of the "outlet malls" that were big 15 years ago. I think everybody knows what has happened to that industry.
The basic problem: This is a flawed business plan...... No amount of bravado, delusional links to cover-ups, FBI, CIA, SEC, "shorts", longs, or any other silliness from the company will save it in the end.... But, Byrne can make some appearances as a "victim".... Notice how his father hit the road....... I really feel sorry for the guy...... SteveD
This is not an Overstock problem selectively. It is all our problem. What is there not to understand about the five families operating on Wall St? I love to buy from Overstock, but I have no idea if they'll ever make a profit. Patrick may be the worst CEO ever. I don't know. But you don't either. What we do know is we collectively have a problem, and he stood up to it, at the risk of his life. That should be enough to grant him a hall pass.
how long can overstock go on before it eventually goes under? I don't see them lasting another 4 years before they run out of cash. I think the business plan was to market heavily to attract attention and take low margins to get the sales. That obviously didn't work. As far as the "campaign" that's fine, but I don't see how it's going to help turn a profit.
I don't have anything really related to the thread here, I just noticed you mentioned Elgindy. Elgindy was my boss at one time, he hired me as a stockbroker back in 1991 at Thomas James Associates. This was before his Anthony Pacific days. Thomas James was a penny stock boiler room and Elgindy was a top producer there and he was supposed to mentor me, but he was too busy with compliance problems. He drove a gold colored Corvette with a personalized plate that said "STOKGOD". That's what I like about this board, the depth of discussion - there's nothing you can't find here. I plugged "elgindy" into the search feature and got 2 pages of results.