00:00I go to the last line in your notes and you say the biggest mistake is talking about the consumer
00:06as one group and certainly I'm sure we've all been guilty of that but talk us through you know
00:11the different nuances that you're seeing in the quote-unquote consumer right now. Well you know
00:17it's a weird environment to say the least and I think we're all having a difficult time happy not
00:24happy worried worried worried so what I see and actually I like what I see I think more and more
00:33product is the thing nice product good quality well made and fairly priced and I think the consumers
00:45when they shop sale they show up but I don't think there's a loyalty in the sense for sale
00:53and they I think they're saying is it worth it should I buy it etc so I think the shop
01:00is again
01:01this is I speak to my friends who run companies in in the business but what we're seeing and this
01:08is
01:09and I'm delighted is product is the issue in terms of business and I think it's product in every
01:18category category and quality and not just being on sale I think sale has taken over the industry
01:26too often friend of mine said yesterday she bought a bunch of things at one of the well-known brands
01:33and she said promise me it will not go on sale tomorrow right which you know and then the woman
01:41said
01:41the salesperson said well if it goes on sale you're entitled to the credit well that's a nice way to
01:48shop
01:48right I think people have to trust the the retailers or any business they do business with
01:56and trust is a big thing I think they have to feel for us an emotional connection to a brand
02:04and not just as a
02:05commodity business but I think people are really worried a lot and I think the biggest marketing
02:12word now is affordability but they're willing to pay for quality and integrity of merchandise
02:20well Mickey you mentioned the fact that you you talk to leaders of these companies are they seeing a push
02:26towards in-person shopping are people instead preferring to buy goods online when they are potentially
02:31sale hunting you know the truth is like we run two sales a year and I check to see the
02:39customers
02:40who buy sale are usually not our right well they're not our regular price customers there's a great amount
02:48of professional shoppers out there who know that everything eventually will go on sale and I find
02:56sale is I don't trust sales because there's a high markup you put it down on sale it goes back
03:03up I think
03:04that hurts the trust and loyalty of a customer and so I think you know we're really only an online
03:12business
03:13we have two shops in Manhattan and one in Martha's Vineyard so but so we we're we're online but our
03:21retail
03:21two shops are quite well doing well well Mickey I I hear what you're saying you know when it comes
03:28to promotion to promotions you know we could be entering a two promotional environment but you
03:34have to imagine that for a lot of retailers uh when they take a look at sort of the sense
03:38on the street
03:39that they feel like that's the only lever that they have to pull when they're sort of competing with
03:44pocketbooks for all of these other expenses that we know are going higher right now and I wonder you
03:50does it have to be mutually exclusive discounts and sort of building trust and loyalty well not
03:57necessarily but I've always believed that that the loyalty should be every day to your best customers
04:06and if you look at you know it's interesting the other day we had a discussion two great companies
04:13TJ Maxx and Costco you will not see the pricing jumping up and down they put out the right price
04:23at the right cost and that's what they make and they're two great big companies as you know a long
04:30-term
04:31great companies but I think that it's a banner of raising prices to then afford to be able to show
04:41it's a good sale instead of day in day out pricing you know I watch the news shows all the
04:49time and every
04:50ad they have is take 50% off here who believes that yeah you know you can't make money taking
04:5650% off for 60
04:58or get it free so but that's my own personal opinions and I've always followed that in my experience
05:07honesty trustworthy fair pricing nice goods and no multiple sales except a couple of times a year
05:17well Mickey you mentioned the fact that you have some brick and mortar stores but are also
05:22predominantly online I'm just interested in how you think about the evolution of kind of the shopping
05:26experience because I talked to some founders and CEOs at some of these companies and they talk about
05:32oh we are implementing AI so when you come in the store we know who you are we know what
05:35you want
05:36to buy is that the future of shopping or is the future of shopping going on chat GPT I don't
05:42think
05:42I think talent creativity uh and vision is not going to be taken over by AI now I have fights
05:52with my
05:52friends about that but I never heard AI we look use AI forecasting it's great replacing certain jobs it's
06:00good but it won't replace vision and it won't pick best colors and it won't design clothes which everyone
06:08argues with but our business is a touch and feel business AI I think and again I'm not a technician
06:16or technologist but I think AI is not going to solve all the problems it will cost us America jobs
06:23where
06:24it can be replaceable by AI but I'm a big believer in the design style and integrity of product will
06:34be driven
06:35by people who have vision are creative and and they'll also have a great team of AI people and everything
06:44else
06:45calls
06:45you
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